CLUB RODEO: The history of the building that today houses Casanova Italian Restaurant and Deli exemplifies the transformation of Makawao in the 20th Century. In its early days, this was the Tam Chow Store, owned by one of the Chinese immigrants who set up shop in the small Upcountry town in the 1920s and 30’s. When World War II began, the building was converted to a USO facility, done up in ranch style appropriate to the surrounding area. After the war, Makawao followed the rest of the island into economic depression. In 1952 Helen Tam owner of the Tam Chow Store, sold the building to Salvador ”Sub” Molina, who with his wife, Mary, ran a small liquor store on Baldwin Avenue. It reopened in 1952 as Club Rodeo, a liquor store, bar and nightclub. Its new owner and his family worked hard to make a go of it. They opened a chicken farm on the remises and the Molina kids cleaned eggs every morning before they set off for school. Sub Molina not only ran the business, from bartending to floor mopping, he also played saxophone with his brothers in the popular Molina Brothers Orchestra. Eventually Club Rodeo became an Upcountry institution. Local cowboys used the place to organize the Maui Roping Club, sponsor of the annual Fourth of July Makawao Rodeo. After a grand opening in 1963, the bar became a restaurant and families came to enjoy prime rib and Portuguese bean soup. Molina sold the chickens. One memorable day, an out-of-town cowboy rode his horse through town looking for the annual rodeo, spotted the Club Rodeo sign and rode right up to the steps into the restaurant. Molina simply asked him what the horse wanted to drink. The Molina’s sold Club Rodeo in 1976 and the building went through a succession of changes. In 1978, the owner of Longhi’s restaurant in Lahaina bought it, bringing gourmet food and rock concerts. Later it became a Mexican restaurant, then the Italian Piero’s and then Casanova. Though the crowd has become more yuppie than cowboy and the food now had a Euroean flavor, the old building at Makawao’s main crossroads was still a social center and one could still see the local Portuguese cowboys in their jeans and boots, gathered at the bar.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 05:12:13 +0000
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