Dean & Deluca Hawaii: Cuzen, culture and market demands

Dean & Deluca Hawaii: Cuzen, culture and market demands

Back to blog

Dean & Deluca Hawaii is a gathering place where CEO Yohei Takahashi’s experimentation and steady work has become art: a cornucopia of dishes from around the world, a dance between market demands and slow culture-building, hospitality for both new guests and loyal locals. While this location focuses on local Hawaiian ingredients, Cuzen Matcha has been a perfect complement to this “sumptuous celebration of food.”

CEO Yohei Takahashi, a long-time partner of Cuzen Matcha, has used the Matcha Maker since Cuzen Matcha's earliest days. Mr. Takahashi shared his story with Cuzen.

Dean & Deluca Hawaii
CEO: Yohei Takahashi
Location: Oahu, Hawaii
Website and Instagram

Contents

  1. A high school dream built slow and steady
  2. Cuzen Matcha: a natural fit that stood apart
  3. The niche between what feels right and what the market demands
  4. Centering love for locals and considering the next phase

1. A high school dream built slow and steady

After careers in fashion retail, food industry, and original equipment manufacturing, I ended up in graduate school in the US. That led me through a string of unrelated industries and locations: automotive in the Midwest, life sciences sales in Northern California. Before I knew it, I found myself slowly making my way back around to Japan. 

But my Dean & Deluca dream started in high school, when a childhood friend took me to the New York location. I remember thinking, “This is incredible.” When I moved to New York, that same friend and I held onto a dream that the two of us would work on a Dean & Deluca project together.

My wife was working as a photographer in Hawaii, and when the timing felt right, I started looking for investors and took the leap into starting a business. We opened Dean & Delcua Hawaii at the Ritz-Carlton in 2016, and at the Royal Hawaiian Center in 2017.

Luck played a part, but I’m also someone who works steadily toward one thing once I've decided on it. With big decisions, I generally follow my instinct. When I reach a point where I can't imagine any option but one, that's how I know it's time.

In those moments, I rarely hesitate. If you don't act the moment an opportunity appears, it passes you by. That's why I've always tried to stay ready, paying attention so I don't miss it when it comes.

  • Dean + Deluca Hawaii CEO Yohei Takahashi

2. Cuzen Matcha: a natural fit that stood apart

We came across Cuzen Matcha in 2022 at a time when matcha hadn't caught on in Hawaii yet. Starbucks was about the only place serving a matcha-type drink. 

Making Cuzen Matcha closely matched our own beverage process. Pulling a shot of matcha the way you'd pull a shot of espresso fit naturally with how we were already making our lattes, and it made for a process customers could watch and enjoy.

The timing also lined up with a push we were making toward sourcing ingredients by origin. Knowing the matcha was authentic, coming straight from Japan, and that each shot would be freshly-ground, made the decision an easy one.

Around 2024, the matcha boom reached Hawaii too, and now you can find matcha nearly everywhere. Through that shift, I think we've managed to hold a distinct place for ourselves. With Cuzen, we stand apart from the performance-style matcha whisked by hand that most people associate with the drink.

  • Cuzen Matcha CEO Eijrio Tsukada and Dean + Deluca Hawaii CEO Yohei Takahashi in front of the storefront.

3. The niche between what feels right and what the market demands

I started our third location in Kaka’ako by setting up at a nearby farmers' market. I wanted to find out how well the neighbors knew the Dean & Deluca name. The answer surprised me. "What's Dean & Deluca?" they asked, even though we were right around the corner. Still, we kept showing up, building name recognition little by little ahead of our opening.

The other goal was learning what people in that area actually wanted. I have my own sense of what tastes good and what doesn't, but that doesn't always match what people in Hawaii actually want. There's always a gap between what I think and what the market is asking for at the moment. If the goal is quick results, you build what the market already wants. If you're willing to take more time, you can build a culture piece by piece. I'm still working through that tension, even now.

Dean & Deluca has always had many sides to it. Because matcha isn't the only thing we do, we can afford to take risks with it. We can propose what matcha culture could look like and get a little ahead of where trends are headed. If that doesn't work out, it's not the end of the world. Hawaii isn't as trend sensitive as New York or San Francisco, and that gives us room to take those kinds of risks.

So, we try to build things that meet the market where it is now, while also testing ideas that might catch on a year from now. Some of those ideas won't land, and that's fine. I enjoy the process of testing a hypothesis and seeing what happens, and I want to keep doing that.

  • The Matcha Maker Pro black sits on the counter at Dean + Deluca Hawaii.
  • A Dean + Deluca Hawaii barista serves a Cuzen matcha latte next to the Matcha Maker Pro.

4. Centering love for locals and considering the next phase

Now that we've reached three locations, I'm looking toward building more with Hawaii's local community rather than tourists. Locals in Hawaii tend to stay loyal once they're won over, and that loyalty is something we want to build on as we plan a fourth location.

I have a sense of the next two stages beyond that. I'd like to grow our B2B side further, and if the opportunity comes, I'm open to expanding to other islands, the mainland or even a different business model altogether. Which opportunity comes first might change the order so, I want to stay ready so I can take hold of whichever one arrives. Once I decide on something, I don't tend to look back with regret. 

I want to keep using everything Dean & Deluca is, in all its different forms, to keep proposing something new. That's the mindset I want to keep moving forward with, one step at a time.

  • A Cuzen Matcha latte drink and Cuzen Matcha Maker at Dean + Deluca Hawaii

The full interview part one with Yohei Takahashi is available in Japanese on the Cuzen Matcha podcast, Go Greener, which features stories from the restaurants, bars and producers from Japan to the United States, connected through matcha. You can find episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcast.

Read more

Related products