No Hu Hu Da Pizza of Back Then

In July 1943, roughly a hundred and fifty thousand American and British troops landed in Sicily. For two years they fought north through Southern Italy where oregano grows wild, pizza was an ordinary food on neighborhood streets. For most of them it was a first encounter with both, but they would take those tastes back home. Hawaiʻi was the staging ground for the entire Pacific war during those times with millions of Americans passing through Oʻahu between 1941-1945. The peoples taste in pizza was unlike other places, because Hawaiʻi had spent seventy years building something that exists nowhere else. Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Filipino, Korean and Puerto Rican workers had lived side by side in plantation camps for decades, trading food out of lunch pails across languages, and what came out of that exchange was genuinely new. The competition, even back then for convenient food was fierce. 

A man named Fred Rocco would be seen as the first person to put pizza on a Honolulu menu in 1946, even though the amount of dishes in Hawaii was already making people spoiled for choice. He trained at a restaurant called Caruso's in Brooklyn and opened his own restaurants: Filoni's at 736 South Beretania, Rocco's Farm House at McCully and Kalākaua, Rocco's Drive Inn on Ena Road, and Little Joe's Spaghetti House at 1067 Alakea. This guy was able to break through and get people to eat this Italian food on bread against all odds of what people were used to. People who really disliked vegetables would eat them on pizza, same went for those who disliked ham, so there was magic in the toppings for sure. Fast forward twenty years and the first wave of Pizza would have its own dedicated audience of food lovers.

Magoos

The legendary first delivery Pizza was from the establishment Magoo's that was founded by Gilbert Sakaguchi in 1967 (24 franchised locations), Oregon, California, Nevada, Philippines, and Dubai. Sakara Blackwell (Sakaguchi’s daughter) and Kekoa Ornellas brought back part of Hawaii Pizza History by including not only the pizza, but the crisp and juicy oven-roasted chicken and cheesy hot subs. The memories that were made with food are so deeply engraved in the emotions that locals did not strive to be any other pizza, but its own. Magoos really leaned into the VW brand that people saw as the Pizza Delivery Cars.  It would be really cool to bring the VW's with a wood-plate and surfboards for a chic look with delivery like a Classic Woody Wagon vibes. 

"The girls really dug those VW's, you had to be there to believe it. I wonder where all n the commercials would pop up. It would say No Hu hu, call magoo's, when your sunny day is through

everybody call McGoos. The jingle was made by Ron Tish and Doug Feat Peter Coraggios studio." -Uncle Katipo

During this time it was about having what people described as thin-cracker pizza (like saltine crackers), which they mention went well with a cold pack of beer, or cola if you'd please. It was popular to add extra cheese for those who wanted the delicious stretchy cheesy pull of the slice. Oddly enough the idea of having fish, shrimp, and other seafoods were not strange at all for Hawaii Pizza. Folks think back of Shrimp Scampi Pizza and Honey Walnut Shrimp Pizza as experiments from a forgotten tim. Canned fish in oil with extra saltiness like Anchovies with peppers were always a go to, rather then the odd option.

Chico's Pizza Tavern 

As a competitor the Chicken had to be on point and the fries would be Moho Potato fries that made use of the fried chicken batter, something that would only be associated with pizza. Chico's started as a mainland chain out of Portland, Oregon (1965). Frank Nomura and Bob Kiriu in their late 40s had started the franchise location in Kaimuki (1967). It was a 9,000-square-foot pizza parlor that also had broasted (pressure-fried) chicken that was just as much the draw, remembered by regulars as "awesome," alongside the pizza. It was designed to be a "family-type operation with no honky-tonk music" according to its owners. Some of the unique options people ate back then was the Smoked Shellfish Pizza (Oyster, Mussel, Clam) and Tuna Pizza.

College students from the dorms kept the take out tickets full and plentiful for Pizzerias around the 1960s-1970s. You could see the guys who went out to surf all day get some beers late night, hang loose at Kahala Beach Park where they awaited a Magoo's Pizza truck. The surfers really dug the huge slices of Portuguese sausage on the pizza pies, eating away, while looking at the ocean waves out in the distance. It was either that or the Hot Ham and Mushroom that hit the spot, but it was niche for people to order the pineapple with ham, still is.  

"Chico's was some of the best pizza. When it came to them and Magoo's the choice was hard to make. Even worse when Shakey's came into town." -Liberty House Employee