Pies may be just a start for Ted's

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

SUNSET BEACH — Glenn Nakamura didn't flinch in recalling the last time he got into an argument with his business partner and younger brother, the "Ted" who has made Ted's Bakery famous for its pies.

Eva Nakamura, 82, and her sons Ted (center) and Glenn prepare chocolate haupia pies at Ted's Bakery at Sunset Beach. The bakery's products are now island-wide thanks to the brothers' often divergent philosophies. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Their brotherly, occasionally argumentative partnership has pushed their family's convenience store/bakery/plate lunch window into an operation with $2.5 million in annual sales and 40 employees. In the 18 years since they took over, the brothers also have spread Ted's reputation for high-quality pies across O'ahu.

Glenn, 46, considers himself the money-conscious pragmatist. The doors and panels of the company's four delivery trucks and two vans remain naked of any kind of logo or advertising because Glenn considers it a waste of money.

When bottled-water distributors asked the brothers about carrying their products in their Sunset Beach Store years ago, Glenn told them, "You nuts? People can just go over to the faucet and open it up." (The store now sells bottled water).

Ted, 44, likes to think of himself as a visionary in the mold of their late father, Takemitsu Nakamura, who bought a two-acre parcel in the 1950s when Sunset Beach was mainly cow pastures and a community of surfers.

Ted wants to expand their pie-delivery operation to include his cakes that are now only available in the store. And he wants to add air conditioning to the 1,000-square-foot store and offer gourmet coffee at Starbucks prices.

To get the cake and coffee operations running in the next few months, Ted had to convince his brother to invest $25,000 recently for a cake-icing machine and plans to spend another $3,000 more for a coffee machine.

"That machine cost $3,000!" Glenn said. "You didn't tell me that."

He sipped the 79-cent coffee the store carries and shook his head at Ted's plan to add gourmet flavors.

"I can't imagine why people would pay $3, $4 for a cup of coffee," Glenn said. "I don't care what they put in it."

Ted believes the differences between him and his brother make their business a success. "You have to have a balance," he said. "Can't always have it one way."

Never come to blows

Their 82-year-old mother, Eva Nakamura, wakes up every morning at 4 to be at work by 5. She paused just long enough the other day to say that her only sons have always had the same relationship.

"They never get to blows with each other, though," she said.

Asked to describe their differences, Eva said: "One is fat. One is skinnier."

Asked to be more specific, Eva said Glenn, the elder, is more like her. Stubborn. Tight with a buck.

"This one," she said, looking at Ted, "is more easy going. He spends money like it's water. I'm from the Depression. And he always says, 'Mom, the Depression's been over for years.' "

Takemitsu and Eva opened the Sunset Beach Store in 1956. A black-and-white-framed picture on their first day shows Eva pregnant with Glenn.

They sold bread, soda and candy to the small knot of Sunset Beach residents, surfers and people driving around the island. Over the nine years that followed, Takemitsu and Eva worked the store themselves every day except New Year's, when they took a day off.

Eventually, Glenn said, "They got tired."

In 1965, they leased the store to another family, who expanded to include a restaurant operation that over time became a pizza parlor.

Takemitsu turned to hydroponic farming. Eva took a civilian job with the Army.

Both sons went to Leeward Community College, where Ted enrolled in the culinary program, which led to a job as a baker at the Kahala Hilton. Glenn finished up at the University of Hawai'i and taught science at Kawananakoa Middle School.

In 1985, the 20-year-lease on the store was up and Glenn wanted to quit teaching and reunite the family in running the store.

Ted said Glenn had another motive. "He never liked those kids," Ted said.

"Don't say that," Glenn cut him off. "Don't ever say that. ... Put it this way: I found that teaching's really not my calling."

Quality (or quantity) is key

Glenn took over the store in 1986 and generated $600,000 in sales. Ted left the Hilton and joined the family the following year and added his doughnuts, breads and cakes, which generated another $100,000 a year in revenue.

Each of the 20 pies he made for the store sold out every day. Then in 1990, Jameson's By The Sea in Hale'iwa asked Ted if he could make macadamia nut cream pies for the restaurant. Ted's pies soon started popping up around the North Shore and their popularity spread.

In 1998, Glenn wanted to put into practice the advice that he and Ted heard at a baker's convention in California: "Don't wait for the customers to come to you. You've got to go to them," Glenn said. "That made a lot of sense."

He sent out fliers to downtown businesses before Mother's Day and expected to get perhaps 50 orders. Instead, they received 240 orders, which Glenn, Ted and an employee filled themselves.

"We were shocked," Glenn said. "We were baking pies until 3 o'clock in the morning."

By Thanksgiving 1998, Ted's Bakery went from producing 20 pies per day to an average of 4,000 per week, each selling for $8.75.

Last Thanksgiving, production reached an all-time high of 14,500 pies for that week. Pie sales now make up $1.6 million of the businesses' annual revenue.

The Nakamura brothers don't know what to expect when they start distributing Ted's five different kinds of cakes around the island. They might get orders for 400, Glenn said, or perhaps 1,000.

The only thing they know for certain is that their different approaches have driven their business to success.

Ted opened up a storage shed to show off the high-quality ingredients he says are the key to his pie flavors — such as pallets of Dutch chocolate imported from Holland and pure vanilla extract that costs more than $100 per gallon.

Glenn looked at the same ingredients and saw something much different.

"Every time I get the bills," he said, "I want to scream."