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Sirwilfred's Hawaiian Coffee
The idea for the business began with Bill’s love of cigars. He claims he’s been smoking them since a young age. Bill often spent his summers with his Uncle Jack, fishing in the Missouri- Ozarks. “He taught me how to fish, smoke, and drink scotch whiskey”, Bill says. The owners of Sir Wilfred’s, Bill and Cathy Burton, took their first Hawaiian vacation in March of 1976. The Burton’s were living in Las Vegas at the time. On the way out of town, Bill stopped by his usual tobacco shop to pick up two boxes of Royal Jamaicans, twice his weekly supply of stogies. The shopkeeper wanted to know where Bill was going with those extra cigars. The shopkeeper told Bill, “Oh, Maui needs a good tobacco shop. Check it out”. During their vacation to Maui, the Burtons fell in love with the island.
When the couple returned home, Bill quit his job as a Las Vegas crap dealer and talked Cathy into leaving Sears, after five years there. On July 17, 1976, the Burton’s arrived on Maui with a container of household goods, merchandise, and two dogs. Maui Mall was just the beginning, and the lease was signed in June 1976. While waiting for the Maui Mall store to be constructed, Bill rented a small storefront on Lahainaluna Road, to try his hand at retail business.
On January 9, 1977, the first store opened in the Maui Mall. The name of their new store was Sir Wilfred’s, inspired by the character “Sir Wilfred” in Agathie Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution”. The character drank cognac and smoked cigars. Another secret is that Bill’s real name is Wilfred (third generation). The store had Maui’s first walk-in cigar humidor, tobacco, pipes, and accessories. Not being able to survive, selling only tobacco, pipes, cigars and accessories, they decided to add coffee and tea. Later that year, Kona dark roast coffee was introduced to Maui, with Sir Wilfred’s offering it as fresh ground or whole bean coffee. The dark roast Kona coffee was shipped from Ted Clark, who ran Superior Coffee in Honolulu. Bill once received a call from his supplier, apologizing for the over-cooked coffee he’d sent. The coffee was still well liked by customers and has been the most popular roast for many years. Business grew by word of mouth and soon a bigger store was needed. The original 500 square foot store was enlarged, when Bill pushed a wall back and took over another area of the mall, making the store 1,000 square feet. The island’s first espresso machine and coffee bar were added in 1979. Many islanders had never seen an espresso machine before. By that time, Sir Wilfred’s was known as the “hip place for locals to go to” says Bill. Many celebrities stopped by, such as George Harrison, Alice Cooper, John Davidson, Timothy Leary, and Harrison Ford.
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