Kīhei 4th Friday Features Three’s Food Truck!

Three’s food truck is hard to miss cruising around here on Maui, and it rolls up to all sorts of events, from private parties to public events.  The 4th Friday town party in Kīhei is one such event, so we wanted to give you a taste of what it’s like in this video with Chef Travis at our food truck!  Our sister restaurant Fork & Salad also has a great beer garden set up in the outdoor patio during the festivities!

Kīhei’s 4th Friday happens every month (weather permitting) from 6 to 9 p.m. at Azeka Shopping Center Mauka, known as the “heart and soul” of Kīhei. It’s where locals and visitors come to play and enjoy free entertainment, food booths and trucks, art, crafts and local shopping.  There’s also plenty of free parking within a block of the event!

And keep in mind, whether you have a family gathering, work event or wedding, our catering team is here to make it happen.  Check out Three’s Catering to learn more about our food truck and more!

“A Day in the Life” at Three’s Bar & Grill

We open the doors at 8:30 a.m. (or 8 a.m. on weekends) to welcome customers, and the momentum at Three’s doesn’t stop until 10 p.m.!!

There’s breakfast, lunch (and a mix of both until 2 p.m. on weekends!), sushi, happy hour (twice a day), and dinner.  Local musicians jam on our patio every day, and crowds stay entertained in our Surf Lounge with special nighttime events like concerts, comedy and salsa dancing.

So there’s a whole bunch that happens between opening and closing, and we thought it’d be helpful to provide a timeline on a typical day.

Breakfast:  
8:30 a.m.-11 a.m. (Weekdays)
8 a.m.-2 p.m. (Weekends)

Lunch:
11:15 a.m.- 4 p.m.

Raw bar:
11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.

Happy Hour:
3 p.m.-6 p.m.
9 p.m.-10 p.m.

Dinner:
5 p.m.-10 p.m.

But it’s more fun to see it all in motion, so check out our video as manager Lauren Mann gives you the rundown, then come on in and join us anytime!!

The Wisdom Behind Our Wines at Three’s Bar & Grill

Whether you’re a wine connoisseur or simply someone who enjoys drinking it, we think you’ll be happy with our selection, which we like to call “Wailea wine at Kīhei prices.”  You can enjoy some of our wines for less, along with other killer drink and food deals, during happy hour from 3 to 6 and 9 to 10 p.m. daily!

Our beverage director Glenn Morrin (who is also Chef Travis’ dad!!) has been with Three’s from the very start.  He put a lot of time and thought into our wine list, and explains some of the highlights in this video with his son!

 

Showing Off our Tremendous Team at Three’s Bar & Grill

The year was 2010.  Three’s began with a total of 15 or so staff positions…and around 12 of those roles were filled by, well, three dudes who happened to own the joint.  The Christmas party back then was meager, as you’ll hear in our video above, but we did what we could to appreciate our employees.

Fast-forward seven years, and we’ve got around 100 team members between Three’s and sister restaurant Fork & Salad (with more to be added when the Kahului site opens!!), and we close the restaurant for a night to celebrate with them, complete with great food, killer raffle prizes and dancing.

Despite all the growth, those three dudes who started the place are still here, but we put a lot of trust in our capable managers and skilled support staff.  Without their leadership, talent and passion for superior food and customer service, we wouldn’t be anywhere near as successful as we are today.  It takes a team, and we have an incredible one.  At least that’s what WE think as the owners.  But since we’re big on collaboration, listening and respect, we wanted to know what THEY think about being part of Three’s, why they like coming into work, and what they’re most proud of.  Here’s what they shared in this video.

Here’s to the Holidays at Three’s Bar & Grill

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Celebrating the season with loved ones? Join us! Tipping back a few drinks with friends? We got you. Hosting family over the holidays? Pull up a few chairs! Fitting in a work luncheon before the break? Come on in.

Three’s is perfect for any occasion all year long, whether you want to enjoy our dining room, chill in our recently-renovated Surf Lounge, or take in some live music from morning till night on our outdoor patio. Since we’re open for breakfast, lunch, happy hour (twice a day!) and dinner, you can indulge with friends and family anytime!!

What makes Three’s really special is this: there is nearly no limit to your party size!! We can easily accomodate groups of up to 20 just by calling in and making a reservation. For larger groups, we recommend emailing us and connecting with our catering sales manager Sarah Fravel for a more customized dining experience. Plus, our doors are open for all major holidays; we shut down for breakfast and lunch only on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, but open back up to greet holiday diners at 3 p.m.!

Speaking of the holidays, we offer some spectacular specials for Christmas Eve AND Day dinners, like Kona coffee-crusted pork loin with roasted garlic and Parmesan polenta, or try our famous mochiko-marinated seared duck breast with sage bread pudding and cranberry-ginger compote. Either one is an epic deal at $32.95! Not only that, but our ENTIRE regular dinner and sushi/raw bar menu is available all night on December 24 and 25!!

The following week, we offer a great four-course New Year’s Eve prix-fixe menu for just $49!! Menu selections include choice of appetizers: oyster trio, kalua pork quesadilla or coconut shrimp; choice of salad: Caesar or our Kumu Farms organic green salad with passion fruit dressing; and choice of entree: fresh island fish, Hawaiian prime rib, duck breast or pork loin; plus a chef-inspired dessert!!

If you’d rather mark the occasion on the water, you can enjoy our food courtesy of Pacific Whale Foundation, which is offering a special Christmas Day brunch cruise with a great spread of favorites from Three’s Catering, including grilled chicken breast with thyme and Hamakua mushroom cream sauce, our signature coffee-crusted pork loin, coconut-whipped Molokai purple sweet potatoes, Upcountry greens, locally-grown vegetables, assorted desserts and fresh-baked taro, guava and sweet rolls.

Pacific Whale also offers a fantastic Christmas Day dinner on the ocean, which includes our roast turkey, traditional stuffing, baked ham, whipped garlic potatoes, wok-fried brussel sprouts and more!

Then there’s the ever-popular New Year’s Eve cruise with a champagne toast at midnight and amazing views of the fireworks over the ocean, where we’re serving up some cool offerings like root beer-glazed beef short rib sliders, chilled shrimp cocktail, California rolls, spicy tuna rolls, turkey lettuce wraps, vegetarian pot stickers, roasted root vegetables with pesto, fresh fruit, desserts and more! All the cruises also offer complimentary beer, wine and cocktails, unlimited soft drinks, and some of the best whale watching and socializing around!

As for Three’s, just a reminder that we are welcoming customers during regular business hours on Christmas Eve, open at 3 p.m. on Christmas Day (with dinner from 5 to 10 p.m.), and are open as normal on both New Year’s Eve AND Day. So come celebrate with us whenever you please, bring in those nearest and dearest to you and know we’ve got a spot for you all at Three’s! Happy Holidays!!

Showing our Thanks at Three’s!

With the theme being “thanks” this week, we’re in the spirit of appreciation ourselves, and wanted to share some of the ways that Three’s expresses gratitude here on Maui.

1. Thanks to our Customers!

First and foremost, we wouldn’t be in existence without YOU. We hope you feel the love with our two happy hours a day (3-6 and 9-10 p.m.!); a spacious, newly revamped Surf Lounge, cool in-house events such as live music, comedy shows and salsa dancing; a diverse kids’ menu, consistent deals like our 20% kama‘āina discount and Sunday football season specials; and an epic traditional Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, Nov. 23, complete with turkey, sausage stuffing, wild mushroom green bean casserole, honey miso-glazed ham, purple sweet potatoes, housemade cranberry sauce, giblet gravy and pumpkin-haupia pie. The dinner is $32.95, kids 12 and younger receive half-off, and our full menu remains available. Call us at (808) 879-3133 to reserve your spot. We’ll also offer a special Thanksgiving menu on our Pacific Whale Foundation boat trips that day, in case you feel like taking to the water!

2. Thanks to our Community!

We do our best to show how grateful we are for our island home by giving back any chance we get. Three’s and our sister restaurant Fork & Salad have taken part in ongoing promotions like Dine Out for Hospice Maui and RSVP, which benefits multiple nonprofit groups. Through our catering operations, we support fundraisers that include Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Maui Calls, the Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center Wailea Wine & Food event, Grow Some Good’s Taste of School Gardens, Maui Agricultural Festival’s Grand Taste, and University of Hawai‘i Maui College Culinary Program’s Noble Chef. We bring on many culinary students and Job Corps students to join our catering teams and gain valuable on-the-job training. We’re also big believers in supporting local farmers, fishermen, producers and other suppliers whenever possible.  Plus, Three’s has had the Kama‘āina Giveback Program in place for many years, which supports a different local nonprofit each month.

3. Thanks to our Team!

We back-up our staff however we can, taking a hands-on approach with catering crew, and our restaurants in both the front and back of the house. We believe in our capable, experienced managers, celebrate our staff every year with a holiday party, and love giving our chefs the creative freedom to craft dinner and raw bar specials on the regular. We’re also excited to add to our team soon enough with the opening of another Fork & Salad on Maui, which will also support our island economy!

Rolling with the Raw Bar at Three’s Bar & Grill!

Our raw bar is right there to greet you when you first walk in the doors at Three’s, and our talented sushi chefs will welcome you, as they craft around 100 sushi rolls and shuck up to 100 oysters every single day!  Those oysters are flown in fresh from the Pacific Northwest on a daily basis, and we are fortunate to get plenty of fresh fish on the regular from around Hawai‘i and Japan.

Stellar sushi all starts with the rice, which is mixed with rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt.  Our chefs craft three big batches of sushi rice each day, as you’ll see in our video with Chef Travis, featuring raw bar chefs Brady and Al.  We store our rice with kombu (Japanese kelp), then serve the rice at room or body temperature, which is the ideal way to go.

“You want really cold fish, you want the warmth and texture of the rice, and the contrast of that is what makes a real good bite of sushi,” explains Travis.  “So these guys keep their rice in a cooler up on their station, which retains the heat.”

Our sushi menu has a fun mix of custom and traditional offerings.  We feature more than 15 specialty sushi rolls, along with 15 hand rolls and 10 options for nigiri.  We also have fresh uni (sea urchin) brought in daily, and go through about a tray of it a day; that’s how popular this delicacy is!

And it doesn’t end there.  Our sushi chefs craft a special of their own design from the raw bar each night, combining their creativity with what’s been brought in fresh!  Look for the delicious photos on our Instagram and Facebook pages!

Craving sushi for lunch??  Our chefs are there for you!  Three’s raw bar opens every day of the week at 11:30, plus we offer some great sushi deals during our happy hours, from 3 to 6 p.m. and 9 to 10 p.m.!  So roll up to the raw bar and see what all the buzz is about!

 

 

 

Get to Know Chef/Co-Owner Cody Christopher

There are people we work for…and then there are people who inspire us.  Three’s Chef/Co-owner Cody Christopher takes a look back at one such mentor who remains important in his life to this day.  They worked together for six years at a place called River Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas.

“Working at a country club or resort is a very unique thing.  You have everything under one roof:  fine dining, fast casual dining; from small upscale 20-person wine dinners to banquets that feed 700 to 1,000 people.  Poolside, restaurants, room service, bake shop, the list just goes on,” he explains.  “I got lucky working at a place like this, River Oaks Country Club, under Chef Carroll.  I had the chance to work every one of these positions and not just for a couple of days. I worked and mastered them before moving on.”

Cody feels fortunate to have learned from such a leader and has great respect for Chef Charles Carroll, who’s been a chef for more than 30 years, travelled to at least 20 countries and received countless honors, including Culinary Olympic Gold Medalist.  Cody says he admires Chef Carroll for so many reasons, he could practically write his own book about it!

“He takes the time not only show you how to do and operate, but why you should do and operate,” he recalls.  “Meaning, if you have a certain goal:  open a five-star restaurant, be on the culinary Olympic team, be a master chef or have a taco stand on the beach, whatever it may be, you must position and surround yourself with the things that will help you achieve your goal.  And the awesome thing about Chef Carroll is when your apprenticeship is done and it’s time to move on, he is so well-connected all over the country, he can help find you a job!”

Cody’s mentor is continuing to influence him AND the culinary world at large.  First of all, Chef Carroll has written three books.

Leadership Lessons from a Chef: Finding Time to Be Great
Tasting Success: Your Guide to Becoming a Professional Chef
The Recipe: A Story of Loss, Love and the Ingredients of Greatness

Secondly, Chef Carroll recently launched a podcast, called The Recipe Podcast, Secrets to a Successful Life.  He’s included Chef Cody in the third podcast, titled “The Chef’s Apprentice.”  Chef Carroll interviews Chef Cody starting around 27-minute mark of the podcast about the story of his success here on Maui.  He tout Cody as a shining example of someone willing to “jump off the cliff” with risking some big business and life decisions, praises him for his persistence along the way, and asks what advice he’d have for other young entrepreneurs.   Listen to the “The Chef’s Apprentice” featuring Cody here, and enjoy the rest of The Recipe Podcast episodes here.

“Focus on your goal; if it’s not helping you achieve your goal, you don’t need it in your life,” Cody advises, as he describes traits that define successful entrepreneurs.  “Persistence; you’re not just going to wake up one day and be the best.  It takes time, winning small battles one day at time with crazy amounts of hard work.  Don’t take yourself too seriously; you have to be able to laugh at yourself. Admit when you’re wrong, ask for help. You’d be surprised how comfortable you can make people with just a smile, giggle or joke.”

Cody says the greatest lesson he’s had as an entrepreneur is learning to evolve, be willing to change and try different things.  Whether you’re a young entrepreneur like he was or a seasoned businessperson, such a large responsibility comes with its share of big benefits to enjoy and daunting obstacles to overcome.

“Best parts would be working for yourself and getting to take on challenges that are passionate to you,” Cody says.  “The biggest challenge is that you are solely responsible for everything. You need to be able to oversee everything.  Now this is a challenge; however, it is also an awesome opportunity every day to bring your staff and company to heights that you know they are capable of.  It’s not always about strengthening your weaknesses, but elevating your strengths.  I’ve learned this from simply working with my two business partners. What I am weak at, they are strong at and what they are weak at, I am strong at.”

Cody says all he learned from Chef Carroll prepped him to team up with his best friends and business partners Chefs Jaron Blosser and Travis Morrin to launch Three’s Catering and Three’s Bar & Grill seven years ago.

“When we started Three’s, I think this is where my background helped:  I knew a little about a lot — at the time though, I thought I knew it all,” he laughs.  “However, my background got me to where I met my two partners. Truth be told, these two guys are some of the most talented and sophisticated Chefs and business operators I’ve ever had the honor to work with. We have all three come from different backgrounds and have grown together to become what we need to be for our businesses.  Lots of blood, sweat and tears but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t want to do anything without these two boneheads by my side!”

As Cody gives props to his business partners and praises his mentor, he’s become a mentor in his own right after so many years, and helps lead the charge forward as Three’s and Fork & Salad continue to grow to epic new heights!

The “Best” Thing about Three’s Catering!

We’ve had the privilege of catering around 800 of events over the past seven years or so!  And we always feel honored to receive such great feedback on Three’s Catering services, with comments like these…

“From the first meeting to the day of the event, we knew that you were professional, knowledgeable, and capable in every aspect. Three’s Catering did a fantastic job. From the food to the service, you guys rocked! “

“What really impressed us, aside from the delicious food, was the incredible staff. All of the staff were beyond great, always there to help our day in any way. Our friends and family continued to talk about the nice bartender and all the staff we had at our wedding.”

“The team was amazing on the day of the wedding – amazing service, making sure everything was perfect for the us, that all our guests were happy with the food and drink service and made the most amazing buffet meal – our guests said it was the best wedding food they have had!”

So, we’re always happy to know what our clients think. But you might wonder what runs through the minds of our co-owners, who are often working alongside their staff on the front lines of the catering operations!

With so many years under their belts, here’s what each one said is the BEST thing about being in the catering business.

Chef Travis: “It’s how we started, the three of us. It helped shape our identity as a company.”

Chef Jaron: “You get to travel across the island and have a new office every event, usually near the ocean. That, and you get to be a part of someone’s special day.”

Chef Cody: “I get to work with my best friends!! And cook!!”

One such event that will bring the team together in a big way is the Garden Party benefiting Maui Academy of Performing Arts (MAPA) on Sunday, October 1.

We’ll be joining dozens of other restaurants for the Chefs Festival between 1 and 5 p.m. that day, giving guests a taste of some of our finest fare. And it’s not just Three’s taking part; Fork & Salad’s catering crew will be on-scene as well!

Achieving excellence in catering takes some serious skill and organization. But here are three other critical catering traits, according to our chefs/owners:

1.  Diversity, to meet the guests’ needs and customize menus.
2.  Adaptability, to face and overcome challenges in every scenario possible.
3.  Consistency, to maintain top-notch food and service all the time.

We’re proud to cater each and every event we’re involved with, and hope you’ll check out our food booths at the MAPA Garden Party! We thank our guests who allow us to do what we do best as part of their special day, so everyone can enjoy the moments that matter.

Score Great Deals at Three’s During Football Season!

Your birthday?  Christmas?  Halloween?  Nope.  If your favorite time of the year is NOT marked by an occasion, but by a team of huge dudes dominating the football field, then we hear you at Three’s!  FOOTBALL SEASON is starting, and we’re offering really quite amazing deals on food and drinks, each Sunday starting September 10th, when the long-awaited action begins.

Come get comfortable in our spacious and shiny Surf Lounge and see football on one of Maui’s biggest T.V. screens while enjoying all kinds of killer $6 brunch items, which Chef Travis explains in our video.  We’re also featuring deeply-discounted mimosas and Bloody Marys, along with specials on select beer, shots and well drinks.  And while you’re hanging out, our talented bartenders can also mix you up any other creative cocktail from our bar menu while you watch the game from any number of screens around our beautiful new wooden bar.

These brunch specials start at 8 a.m.  They last all the way until 2 p.m., and are available in our Surf Lounge only, every Sunday during football season.  Then, why not make a day of it and stay for our award-winning happy hours and pūpūs?!  Join us anytime, and just know, if you have football fever and want to feed the need, we are HERE to help!!