The Curb // Locations

Kailua: 143 Hekili St #120, Kailua // (808) 315-1912
Kaimuki: 3538 Waialae Ave #101, Honolulu
UH Manoa: Paradise Palms and Sinclair Library

Last year, Sumner Ohye took a plane from Honolulu International Airport to San Sebastian, Colombia.  From there he took a two hour bus ride, drove into the mountains using an all-wheel drive vehicle, then hiked to his destination: a small family coffee farm in the middle of nowhere.

The arduous trek was one of his most memorable weeks to recall. He met the farmers who grow and harvest beans used in a coffee he serves, shared in their passion for coffee, and related to the ups and downs of their story. The trip helped him gain a greater appreciation for the work that goes into growing, harvesting, and producing coffee beans. This wasn’t a trip any coffee enthusiast might be able to go on, but an opportunity that stemmed from an ongoing business partnership.

Partnerships and Relationship Building

Sumner’s coffee company, The Curb, partners with several mainland roasters such as Olympia Coffee Roasting Company, Intelligentsia, and Four Barrel Coffee. They also partner with local roasters Rusty’s Hawaiian, and Big Island Coffee Roasters. Who he chooses to partner with is rather simple: “If their coffee tastes good, and the people are awesome, let’s have a conversation.” By establishing a rapport with his business partners, he ensures that every cup he serves is “intentional coffee”. And you kind of get the feeling that everything Sumner does is on purpose. He is intentional with the coffee he brews, the companies he partners with, and the relationships he seeks and develops.

Sumner considers the companies he buys coffee from partners rather than vendors. And he clearly differentiates between the two. “A vendor is in the business of taking money in exchange for something. A partnership is where when one person succeeds, both succeed. They both win.” And Sumner is clearly winning.

As the mastermind behind The Curb, Sumner’s brilliance is evidenced by his coffee company skyrocketing from a step truck bought off eBay in 2009 to multiple brick-and-mortar locations. He serves coffee at UH Manoa, Kaimuki, Kailua, and his newest venue, a pop-up shop at Ka Makana Ali’i in Kapolei. He participated in the Big West Barista’s Championship in 2014, catered to the cast of Hawai’i Five-0, and helped install machines for other local coffee shops such as Bills Waikiki, Juicy Brew, and Aloha Coffee Lab. He and his company have also been featured in Accelerate Magazine, Ka Leo Newspaper, and Pacific Business News. For Sumner, it’s not all business, nor is it all coffee. It’s also about personally connecting with others and enabling them to succeed. If he’s not connecting with farmers and roasters, then he’s doing so with employees and clients.

Tribute to their step truck in their Kailua shop

Building up Better Baristas

Sumner works six days a week wearing similar raggedy clothes every day. He takes Sundays off to watch football. Occasionally, however, he’ll come in on his day off to do one-on-one training with his baristas. He spoke with one earlier this week and saw potential and an eagerness to learn. There is no way Sumner passes up opportunities to train and mentor—even if that means missing the opening play. This week, he and his barista will focus on dialing in espresso.

Even with his minimal bar time these days–maybe a shift or two a week–he remains humble, yet confident he can still “throw down a little bit.” He has nothing to prove, and desiring to see others become better, he invests his time and effort to train when possible. He takes initiative to foster his employees’ skills by helping them become better at their craft.

This way to good coffee

As his company grows, Sumner remains faithful to engender individual and collective success. “It’s more about understanding we’re only as strong as our weakest barista. If I was the worst employee at the bar here, that would be my dream. I like to see new people improve and come up from the bottom.”

Baristas working at his UH campus locations might find their job to be like an extracurricular course. They learn customer service, team building, and how to be efficient. He acknowledges that “at the end of the day it’s just coffee,” but he enjoys seeing others “grow and develop and find their voice”. Some of the best compliments he receives are when students list The Curb on their resume for full-time jobs, and then benefit from mentioning his company.

Getting to Know His Customers

The Curb inside Paradise Palms at UH Manoa

The relationships that matter most to him are not only confined to business partners and employees, but also extend to his customers. He proposes that a good formula for successful customer interaction, and in life, is to “just be attentive, and ask them how things are going to show that you care.” With over 700 transactions a day at his UH location, he admits he might not remember everyone’s name, but he’ll try to build a rapport with customers.

While talking with him, he sees one of his regulars and rattles off her drink order. Iced Americano with milk and a half-packet of light sugar. For him, the best job in the world would entail “just sitting down one-on-one with everyone” and being a “coffee therapist for free.”

Getting to know Sumner, you realize that he genuinely cares about coffee—how it’s grown, roasted, and sold. You also grasp an intentionality in his business relationships with partners, employees, and clients—not simply to augment The Curb’s success, but because he genuinely cares about people. We asked him what he might say if UH Manoa asked him to give the graduation commencement address, and it was nothing short of what you might expect:

Even with all the technology we have now, it’s easier and easier to … poke someone, or tag them, or throwback some memory. Some people you’ll never get a chance to see again. People die. People move away. Pick up the phone. Go have a cup of coffee.

I think…the healthiest thing for us is that personal relationship. Throw your phone in the pocket. Go talk to someone. Be that person that knows people that gets stuff done. Be the connector. Be the maverick. I think [that’s] the biggest thing. Live within your means, and have coffee.

And Sumner is just that: the connector, the maverick. But if you ask him, he’ll probably tell you he’s just the coffee guy at The Curb.