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FOR THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF PETER@MERRIMANSHAWAII.COM

From the Pacific Business News:https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2020/09/17/pbn-names-blhcareer-achievement-honoree.html

PBN names Peter Merriman as Career
Achievement honoree for annual Business
Leadership Hawaii awards
Sep 17, 2020, 12:30pm HST Updated: Sep 17, 2020, 12:32pm HST

Pacific Business News is excited to announce
chef and restaurateur Peter Merriman as thisyear’s Career Achievement honoree for theannual Business Leadership Hawaii awards.
“I’m glad it’s the career [award] and not thelifetime because I thought hey, how old am I?”
Merriman said with a laugh.
“It’s a real honor,” he added. “It’s aninteresting time to be getting honors — it’s aprecarious moment for any business in
Hawaii, let alone the restaurant business.”
After cooking at resorts across the country
and in Europe, Merriman came to the Islands
in 1983 to work as a cook at the Mauna Lani
Bay Hotel. Within just two years, he wasappointed as executive chef of the hotel’sGallery Restaurant.

ANNA KIM

Peter Merriman

Since the earliest days of his career, Merriman has been dedicated to utilizing
local ingredients and was one of the founding chefs of Hawaii Regional Cuisine.
https://www.bizjournals.com/paciﬁc/news/2020/09/17/pbn-names-blh-career-achievement-honoree.html?s=print

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A movement that has shaped the Islands’ culinary scene, HRC focused on
utilizing Hawaii’s ingredients in partnership with local farmers, ranchers andfishermen.
In 1988, Merriman opened his first restaurant, Merriman’s, in Waimea on Hawaii
Island. Over the years, he has expanded the brand to include four locations
across the state.
Alongside restaurateur Bill Terry, Merriman also founded HandcraftedRestaurants, which is now comprised of multiple concepts: Moku Kitchen inKakaako; The Beach House on Kauai; and Monkeypod Kitchen, with one location
on Oahu and two on Maui.
Amid Covid-19, all four Merriman’s restaurants have reopened, although two ofthem — Kapalua and Honolulu — feature a new, fast-casual concept.
“Considering that it’s just take-out and it’s such a different experience, we areactually doing okay,” he said. “But we’re not even hitting 20% of our former
volume … With the PPP money available, you can break even on that, but wewould be out of business really rapidly if we didn’t change our model.”All three Monkeypod Kitchen locations, as well as Moku Kitchen, remain closed,
but Merriman said they are looking to reopen all of them in the coming weeks.
Those, too, will likely look a little different, possibly with a new concept, andalmost certainly with reduced offerings.
But no matter what changes might come, Merriman is working to evolve withthe times.
“We pride ourselves on our ability to be sensitive to the customers’ desires …We
are trying to take this time when we have [PPP funds] available to develop amodel that might work for us in the shrunken market post-PPP money.”
Christina O'Connor
Reporter
Pacific Business Newshttps://www.bizjournals.com/paciﬁc/news/2020/09/17/pbn-names-blh-career-achievement-honoree.html?s=print

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