Issue Position: On-Farm Restaurants in Agricultural/Rural Areas

Issue Position

When one thinks of value-added products for a farm one of the most obvious ones is to cook up those farm products and serve them as a meal.

Even egg toast and coffee could turn a 50 cent ingredient cost into a $5.00 to $10.00 meal a multiplier of 10 to 20 times.

There are of course costs associated with preparing and serving but the potential for an on-farm restaurant seems obvious.

What is the reality of such enterprises?

A restaurant is not something that can be approved as a use on agricultural land at this point as far as I can tell.

One logical place for having such an enterprise would be as part of a Bed and Breakfast operation, so I went to a local B and B Kalaekilohana B & B which I had heard had been given a license to serve more than one meal a day and actually serve a hot breakfast rather than the "continental" breakfast of pastry and fruit and probably coffee and juice that is currently allowed. Another is a B & B in Honoka'a called Wainuhea ( http://www.waianuhea.com/ ). I visited Kalaehikohana and spoke with Kilohana one of the proprietors. He said that they had already designed their B & B with a commercial kitchen with the idea of having special events. Their B & B initially was permitted to serve only a "continental breakfast" but they were able to upgrade to a "lodge" designation, which allowed them to serve a hot breakfast as well as other hot meals. That involved in addition to the commercial kitchen that they already had, adding a grease trap and septic system. They were almost required to install a very expensive hood but managed to not have that required. The additional expense over what would be required for a "continental breakfast" was certainly in the 10's of thousands. At Wainuhea the only hot meal that is served according to their website is breakfast. What I was able to find out informally is that many B and B's do serve a hot breakfast or allow their guests to prepare a hot breakfast in their kitchen even though that is illegal.

Some situations where having the ability to have a farm based restaurant that I could envision -- and there are undoubtedly many more would be:

A campground with a central eating facility: Many of us from back East are aware of the hundreds of summer camps for kids that provide just such a venue often on lakes in agricultural areas. Overnight campgrounds are not even allowed here on agricultural land. The only ones I know of are county, state or federal campgrounds. Would it not make sense to allow a few tent sites, tent platforms, or even camping cabins such as the A-frames at Hapuna on agricultural land? These could be served by a small snack shop/restaurant on site and the food produced on that farm could be served at that snack shop/restaurant

Vacation rental/ Farm stays with a central eating facility: It is very difficult to get permits for additional rental farm dwellings and my impression is that they have to be designated "work-force housing" "family-housing" or "manager's housing" rather than vacation rental units even though that is what they become. Again there is a lot that is done illegally and one suspects that because these uses are illegal that the income may or may not be reported and it is highly unlikely that TAT tax is being paid.

IF these vacation rental were allowed on agricultural land then it would make sense to have a central eating facility for these units. One summer in New Hampshire I worked on such an enterprise. There were about 70 large cottages strung out along the shore of Squam Lake (Where "On Golden Pond" was filmed). These cottages housed families, mostly from the South that came up and rented them ususally for the entire summer. The rent included meals in either of two large dining halls that served three meals per day and prepared lunches for hiking etc.. There were other of these "family" camps but of course most camps back East were for children and teenagers.

Simply a small farm based restaurant that would provide a gathering place where people could come and share a meal with their farmer and non-farmer neighbors. It could even function as a co-op where a different family prepared the meal each day for a communal meal. There are one or more of these farm-based restaurants but they have not been able to get permits are therefore operating illegally.

An RV park with a central snack shop/restaurant: RV parks dot the mainland. There must be over ten-thousand and these range from small to huge. Some are associated with motels which then have associated restaurants so that there is a restaurant provided for the RV campers if desired. If farms were allowed to have a few hook-up sites for RV's this could be a booming business particularly on the Big Island with its size and varied terrain. If there were enough hook-ups on a farm there could be an eating facility. If a group of farms each had a few RV sites, perhaps only one of the farms would have the eating facility.

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