Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Taylor Hall Dominick Takis and the other Volcanoe Joe's employees will have to look for new jobs after this week. The bistro possibly closes today.

Volcano Joe's, a popular bistro at the corner of University Avenue and Metcalf Street, will serve its last chicken guacamole sandwich and "niner" pizza this week.

Owner Les Iczkovitz attributed the closure to "the rising cost of doing business," which includes higher real property taxes, the price of fresh foods and higher labor costs.

Iczkovitz, an entrepreneur who started three computer companies before opening Volcano Joe's in December 2003, said that he created the bistro, coffee shop and catering service with a vision of serving fresh, healthy food at affordable prices. However, with college students as his primary customer base, Iczkovitz said that prices would have risen too much if he had tried to cover operating costs.

"We tried to maintain a level of quality that we couldn't charge enough for," he said. "I think we just offered too many things."

Although Iczkovitz expects to permanently close Volcano Joe's doors today as food supplies run out - all remaining menu items will be on sale as long as the neon "OPEN" sign is lit. He still holds the lease to the space from landlord Atherton YMCA until June 2011, according to YMCA Chief Financial Officer Glenn Tsugawa.

According to Tsugawa, Iczkovitz did not pay rent for the space "over the past few months." He hopes to receive the owed rent money during the same period that Iczkovitz looks for a new food service tenant to fill the space.

"Volcano Joe's has been a good tenant," Tsugawa said. "We hope we can help them get over this financial period."

While Iczkovitz would not comment on negotiations for finding another company to take over his lease, Tsugawa said that the most likely tenant is Yogurt Land, a self-serve yogurt bar that is rapidly expanding in California. If Yogurt Land were chosen as the new tenant, its University Avenue location would represent the first in a larger expansion of the franchise throughout Hawai‘i and the rest of the nation.

A Yogurt Land near the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa would not be unprecedented. Within the past year, the company has opened franchises - all offering high quality yogurt at $0.30 an ounce - within one mile of Orange Coast College and California State University, Fullerton.

Continued...

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