Restauranteur Ted Davenport has spent three decades in Hawai‘i's food scene. His latest endeavor brings a coffee brand founded in Hawai‘i to Honolulu's Kaimukī neighborhood.
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawai‘i's newest location at 3502-C Wai‘alae Ave. opens March 13.
It's been a long time coming, Davenport told Aloha State Daily.
"We thought we'd open last May," he said after commenting on the lengthy permitting process.
Davenport will operate the store in partnership with Galu and Diane Tagovailoa, parents of NFL quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
"His parents are really good friends of mine and they wanted to have a business in Hawai‘i, so we kind of put this together," he said.
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawai‘i was founded on Hawai‘i Island in 1989, "with a goal of sharing American-grown, premium Hawaiian coffee from Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Maui, Molokai, Kona and Ka‘u with coffee lovers everywhere," its website notes. There are nearly 40 franchise locations across the U.S., with 63 shops in various stages of development.
According to its website, there's currently one other location in Hawai‘i — at 3636 Lower Honoapi‘ilani Road in West Maui.
The new Kaimukī shop spans 1,234 square feet and is expected to create 14 to 16 new jobs, a recent announcement noted.
Davenport is a former firefighter who, in 1988, was looking for a way to supplement his income when he "got into the Subway franchise business" and ultimately partnered with Subway to develop the brand in Hawai‘i, he told ASD. He left the fire department in the early 2000s and focused on developing brands. He also brought Ruby Tuesdays to the Islands and helped develop and open a number of other eateries.
When asked how he got involved with Bad Ass Coffee, Davenport says that Subway had sold; the company was going to buy him out but he wanted to "continue on doing something." He had been looking at coffee opportunities since his daughter went to college in Oregon and he saw the coffee concepts that were available in the Oregon and Washington area.
"I was trying to see what different concepts were out there and I visited different coffee concepts," he says. "What I liked about Bad Ass is they give you pure product. And when I say that, if you order an iced coffee or iced latte, the ice is made out of coffee. If you order our Frappuccinos ... it comes out of a tailor-made machine, which is cream and coffee, then we add the flavors. We don't use ice."
Ice is only used in energy drinks and smoothies, he noted.
Reaching this point "feels real good," Davenport told ASD. "It was a long process and to get there, you just have to have the patience and understand that [not] everything's going to happen in a moment. But I enjoy developing. I enjoy giving a product to the customer that they're going to really enjoy and come back and tell somebody about it. That gives me the thrill of doing what I keep on doing."
Davenport plans to open three locations in total.
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawai‘i — Honolulu will be open from 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday; from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
"I want people to come in and try our product and give us a feedback on what they think and [if] they see something we can improve or do," Davenport says. "We'd love to hear feedback from the public and our customers. It always helps us to be able to grow the brand and give them what they want."
Interested in your own franchise? Find more information here. Franchisees can expect to invest between $526,100 to $992,400, the announcement notes.
Meaning behind the name
According to the company's site, for generations, donkeys of Kona "could be heard bellowing as they carried precious loads of coffee beans down the steep mountains of the Big Island." The people of Kona name these animals the "'bad ass ones' because of their reliably strong but stubborn nature in carrying their precious cargo."
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
