Angela Ruiz is often asked, “Why ‘Hungry Coyote’?” She explains the meaning behind the name of her new Hawaiian-Mexican restaurant. “Netzahualcoyolt’, which translates to ‘Hungry Coyote’, hence the naming of the restaurant,” explains Angela, before revealing the name’s deeper historical significance. “In particular, Nezahualcoyotl, was a great king and noble leader of the Aztec Empire. Known as the Poet King, he filled his court with philosophers, engineers, artists, and musicians; established the rule of law, scholarship, and artistry; designed some of the most famous Aztec achievements, and led his people through a golden age of peace and prosperity.”

“It is in this spirit,” Angela continues, “one that embraces human potential, the importance of community, and the celebration of a vibrant culture that we bring you Hungry Coyote.” Proud smiles all around, and mouth-watering scents wafting from the kitchen = a typical day in the Hungry Coyote world.

The large Ruiz ‘ohana, while spread far and wide, stays tight-knit through timeless connections like love, heritage, and... the love of food, of course! Angela is the proud parent of four adult children (all married), foster son Cliffton (17), and four grandchildren between the ages of 3 and 12. Her adult children and grandchildren live on the mainland and abroad in places like Las Vegas, San Diego, Seattle, and Italy. Cliffton attends Lahainaluna and works at Safeway. Rounding out the local Ruiz ‘ohana in Wahikuli are Angela’s mother Colleen, a retired ICU Nurse from UCLA, and two sweet rescue cats.

Angela wants to expand the brand and open another restaurant with the goal of becoming a Maui household name. “We want to become a place where communities can come meet, eat, and enjoy each other’s company,” she says excitedly. Their emphasis is always on service and helping others: “We have incorporated a training program empowering those in need of job skills, who have no experience and watch them grow and flourish with endless possibilities, whether within our organization or moving them on to the dream job of their choosing,” she shares. We train teens ages 14+ for their first-time job expereince and offer resume services, skills building, incentives and team-building opportunities to empower local teens, especially disadvantaged and special needs youth!

Angela invites you to pop down for a visit Tuesday - Saturday from 5 pm to 8 pm. Reservations are not required. We are BYOB and kama’aina... if you can say kama’aina!” she jokes.

Away from the restaurant side of her life, Angela has a background in public service as a director of a District Attorney Crime Victims’ Unit. “I’ve spent my whole life dealing with domestic violence, child abuse, assaults, elder abuse, and homicide cases,” she explains quietly, “...my past positions included grant writing and creating empowerment programs for women and children, establishing Camp Hope in Northern California for children exposed to abuse and fundraising to aid families in need.”

She now uses her experience and human skills to help children start their careers and turn around difficult childhood situations. “I’ve taken these transferrable skills and we now empower Westside families by recruiting teens ages 15+ from our local shelter for paid restaurant intern positions,” she says with obvious joy. “We start teens off learning sanitation and move through each area of the restaurant to include preparation cooking, pastry creation, and back of the house duties, with the goal of promoting them to front-of-house learning: food running, bussing, set-up, serving, cash register utilization and end of the night report running.”

And that’s not all either, the business helps them move on if the restaurant industry is not for them.“Once they have completed this training, we assist with resume building and placement in long-term positions of their choosing. We have had 3 successful graduates in the few months that we have been open and are currently training one young man, who wants to become a stockbroker!”

Angela is happy to share a few final words about their restaurant, their mission, purpose, and style of food. It’s her passion. “Our mission is to serve our community by offering health-conscious, homemade gourmet Mexican comfort food,” she explains warmly, “inspired by tradition and created with local flavor: it’s authentic and unique.” The restaurant stands out from the crowd in her eyes (and ours, too). “We believe that our authentic recipes, lovingly brought from thousands of miles away and infused with locally sourced products create a niche unlike any other,” she adds. If the local patrons have anything to add to this opinion, it’s that the talented kitchen crew is constantly improving and creating new ideas and flavors - and they’re loving it.
“We are family-run and family-operated, and we’re dedicated to serving others! ‘Non Nobis Solum Nati Sumus’ (‘Not for alone ourselves we are born’), is our motto.”

From the crew of Hungry Coyote, we look forward to meeting and serving you soon! Mahalo.”