Fans of the James Beard-nominated Nami Kaze are still mourning the sudden closure of the popular Oʻahu eatery after a three-year run.
Nami Kaze owner and chef Jason Peel recently teamed up with chef Kelvin Ro at Diamond Head Market and Grill on Monsarrat Avenue for a new venture.
HPR spoke with Peel about the hardships of running a restaurant and what led to the closure.
“It was a big decision that we had to make,” Peel said. “We were ending our lease at the time, and we had just expanded. And I think for the business of Nami Kaze, the expansion really hurt us. We weren't ready to expand. We didn't have a good plan for expanding.”
He noted that after the expansion, the restaurant lost its unity.
“It felt like things were being done for the wrong reasons,” he explained. “It just didn't feel like a family. And for me, work has always been like a family, because you're there all the time. So we smile together, we laugh together, and we fight together. And things happen, and sometimes we grow apart. It just didn't feel right.”
With the rising cost of goods and an increasing minimum wage, Peel said he sees the industry changing for small business owners.
“I look at the trend of the restaurants now, and I feel like I was kind of the last one to open a large-scale, full-service restaurant, which might not have been the best idea, but I look at it right now, and especially with the cottage industry program and all that, like there's so many small businesses that are doing not brick-and-mortar — there are food trucks, pop-ups at farmers markets and, good God, the prices are high there," he said.
"That's what it takes to make it. That's what it takes to get up, prep everything, pack it all, put it in, and that's what you have to do. You don't have any overhead. So, you know, there's more labor involved, but it looks like that's where it's trending."
Peel is currently collaborating with Ro to bring a new nostalgia to Diamond Head Market and Grill.
“Right now, we're really rebuilding the foundation of all of the operating procedures, the handbook itself, just to make sure everybody's on the same page, and we'll be accountable for what we do in the future,” Peel said.
This story aired on The Conversation on Jan. 23, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
