King's Restaurant is an island institution that has been serving up local comfort food for 40 years now. Phil Schmidt started it all when he recruited a group of young men who worked with him in the restaurant business in Honolulu, to help him open a new restaurant at the Gibson's Department Store complex.  He recalled, "I had an opportunity to come out here, and decided, I decided that I was going to do it and I went to these guys and said, 'You want to come?' They were young and maybe a little dumb at the time, and thinking, 'Sure, why not? It's an adventure!' And it was an adventure. It was. the early years were interesting," Schmidt said.

In fact, as luck would have it, just a year after King's opened, Guam was devastated by Supertyphoon Pamela.  But that wasn't even the biggest challenge of those early days. Schmidt says it was hiring local staff, saying, "We would go and hire a kid, you want to be a busboy, could I wash dishes, cause nobody would see him if he washed dishes. But to work out here and have to pick up plates, it wasn't part of the culture. It was a little bit, I don't want to say degrading, but it wasn't something they were used to doing. But over time that was important because without that local face coming to the table and saying good morning, would you like some more coffee, the locals would have never really fully accept us."

Serving the locals was the foundation of King's business strategy, and what has sustained it for the past four decades. One of the most successful innovations is when the restaurant decided to go 24 hours.  Schmidt says that's when things really took off, literally and figuratively.

He said, "Then all of a sudden 2am! The bars closed, and then we went from empty to packed.  You never knew, you know you got people out there, you never knew what was going to happen."

King's was originally supposed to be a Smitty's Pancake House, but Schmidt says his partners disagreed about expanding to Guam. So he partnered instead with Bob Taira, the founder of Kings Hawaiian Sweet Bread, and named the restaurant after him. But after more than a decade in Guam, Schmidt sold the business to one of the guys who first came out here with him, current owner Dave Alcorn.

"I just look at it now, and I'm really proud of David and his wife, and their group and the management," Schmidt beamed. "I mean, they've managed to build an empire, a small empire on the island. So, I'm proud of what they did, and I'm glad I gave them a base to start from. I mean it's kind of like you put a rock on a river and walk across, and they just kept walking."

Alcorn said, "I think our ability to adapt, being an independent operator has made us the long-term brand that we are, right now. And then along the way, you know, we've had other franchises that have taught us industry technology that we probably wouldn't have learned as an independent operator. And we've adapted those technologies into our independent kings operation."

The expansion includes franchise restaurants such as Chuck E. Cheese and Ruby Tuesday, and a food service contracting business. But Alcorn says they still trace all their success back to the original King's, telling KUAM News, "This has always been the cornerstone of the Guam presence. I think this brand has right. That's what's remarkable about the 40-year history, the four decades that we've been here is you know if you count them there's probably been 17 different businesses that this brand has touched or been involved with because It was the central core of what they did."

And no conversation about King's can end without talking about the food.  Alcorn says there's one dish in particular that has stood out for him, saying, "I think everybody has it on their menu on Guam now, but a Hawaii guy that Phil hired, a chef actually, that came out in the late 70's and put together fried rice ala mode, and the dish that we know today with the Portuguese sausage and the eggs, so that's been a staple."

So after four decades with King's, in which he was fired twice, and hired back twice, Alcorn says as they celebrate their 40th anniversary the future still looks bright. "Surprising enough the last two years the brand has really, really done well. again and we're really pleased with it so I think the future is another store, some innovation changes, and then it's probably time to pass the baton off to my kids, right?" he said.