We met in Colorado in 1995. Paul was a Chef and Angela a bartender. Soon thereafter, we took a spontaneous four month cycling tour across New Zealand. We lived in a pup tent, cycled all day, ate ramen noodles and drank a “bit” of beer. It was during this cycling adventure that we formulated our plan to open a restaurant; which we did! We opened Paul’s Creekside Grill in 1997 up in Colorado ski country and began our legacy of serving damn good food. This high country menu featured freshwater seafood, wild game, and American classics with a “mountain flair.”
We sold Paul’s Creekside in 2003 to escape the cold Colorado winters. In search of warmer weather and a laidback lifestyle, we landed in Kona with an old pickup truck, a few boxes of books and photo albums. We didn’t know anyone! Our vision was to build a community around our shared love for good food and wine.
In November of 2004, our dream became a reality with the opening of Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill in Kona. Almost 12 years to the day, November of 2016, we opened our second Jackie Rey’s in the historic Kaikodo Building in downtown Hilo.
