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Patricia Inman and her late husband, Ron, pose in front of their Waikapu shop, Maui Pasta Co., during the week of its opening in 2015. Ron Inman died last year from cancer and on Sunday the couple’s “dream” business closed on Maui. Patricia Inman will take the business to Arizona after legal battles with landlords and being unable to find a suitable Maui site. • Photo courtesy of Patricia Inman

In her 23 years on Maui, Patricia Inman found love and marriage and realized her dream of opening a company that churned out freshly made pastas and Italian desserts.

But just over a year ago, Inman encountered heartache after heartache. In January 2016, Ron, her husband of over 10 years, was diagnosed with cancer that affected his brain and lungs. He died a month later.

On Sunday, the couple’s dream business, Maui Pasta Co. in Waikapu, closed its doors after a six-month legal struggle with the landlords. Inman looked hard for a kitchen-ready place to transition her Waikapu shop but was unsuccessful.

It’s “been quite a battle,” she said Monday. “It’s been really, really hard for us to find a space comparable to move (to).”

“It’s heartbreak, a small business like this couldn’t make it,” she said.

Maui Pasta Co.’s Keenan Stewart makes fresh ravioli at the shop in Waikapu in April. The company’s last day of official business was Sunday. • The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

If there is a bright spot, it’s that Maui Pasta Co. will live on — in Scottsdale, Ariz. Last year, Inman brought her Maui Pasta pasta to donate as an auction item at a Grief Fundraiser in Scottsdale for her online support group.

“It instantly was a hit, and there was great interest in bringing our Maui Pasta products — and even a second manufacturing location — to the (Arizona) region,” Inman said in her online Facebook farewell letter to customers. But instead of Arizona being a second location, it will be the primary one.

Inman says that she hopes to return her pastas and desserts to Maui and that there are Maui residents who are very interested in making that happen.

There is a possibility of another retail front on the Valley Isle in the future, after she and business partner, Debbie Lynch, are settled in Arizona, she said. Inman, who will pick up roots and leave Maui later this summer, says they would run the business from Arizona.

The Inmans began making their pasta in 2012, as a way to raise money for their daughter, Catherine Carnabuci, to travel to Europe with King Kekaulike High’s Spanish Club. Carnabuci, who graduated as a valedictorian from the Upcountry high school in 2013, is graduating this month with a degree in film from Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Maui Pasta Co.’s Macy Verdito is seen packaging Maui Pasta’s Sundried Tomato Dip in the store in April. Verdito is one of around 10 employees who lost their jobs as the company closed Sunday. • The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Inman, who holds a master’s degree in architecture and took cooking classes while studying in Italy, was able to raise a few thousand dollars for her daughter’s trip by selling pasta from home in Makawao. The drafting and art history professor at the University of Hawaii Maui College began to expand her cooking business from there. (She still teaches at the college and will continue to do so online after her move.)

She took her pasta to farmers markets, then to Pukalani Superette. Foodland took notice and put her food items in its Foodland Kehalani store.

These orders gave the couple the opportunity to lease their own kitchen and to open a retail location, which they did on May 11, 2015, along busy Honoapiilani Highway in the old Waikapu Stop. The location gave them easy access to organic herbs and vegetables from nearby Kumu Farms at Maui Tropical Plantation.

The business was growing, their take-out window gained popularity. They later opened the doors to their factory and sold fresh pasta, sauces, dips, baked goods and desserts.

Other Maui companies sought out their products; they could be found in some ABC Stores, Island Gourmet and Whalers General Stores and in restaurants, such as Leilani’s on the Beach and Kimo’s, Inman said.

Patricia was the chef and Ron, whom she met online, kept the books, made ravioli and delivered goods.

Then, life took a turn for the worse. In January 2016, Ron was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma to the brain and lungs. Tumors pressed on his brain stem, which caused excruciating nonstop headaches, according to the Go Fund Me crowdfunding site, which helped raise money to keep Maui Pasta Co. going when Ron was ill. The site helped the Inmans raise $25,400, according to the post.

A month later, Ron died. His widow put her broken heart into the company, the dream they built together.

“Because Ron and I loved it so much, the kind of way I deal with things, is I work,” she said. “That’s how I got through my grief, is to keep the dream alive for him. I worked 12 hours a day. That’s an understatement.”

Inman said it was hard to go back to their Makawao home; she basically just returned home to sleep.

As she departs Maui, Inman said that she will miss her 10 employees, who have been “my family.” Unfortunately, they will lose their jobs.

Inman also wanted to thank her customers and friends, who helped raise funds for them when Ron was sick, and those who patronized her business.

“I have found my home in Hawaii for 23 years,” Inman wrote in the farewell letter. “My daughter was born and raised here, and she will always call Maui home, as I will. I fell in love with Ron here, and he rests now in our Maui ocean. My heart is broken, again and still.

“Yet, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ron is with me as I make these decisions and this move. We hope, and have the glimmer of opportunity, to bring Maui Pasta back one day within the next few years.”

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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