man finds space

In 2013, a guy named Ryan from New Jersey transplanted himself to the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Honestly, he just came to visit some friends for Christmas and check out Hawai'i on his way to Australia for a ‘walkabout’. Well, that trip to Australia never went down, and Ryan ended up buying a used Volkswagen, finding a rental home, and moved his stuff (just a large backpack really) from his friends’ guest room to his own place down the street, in the rough & rootsy Puna district.

Although this perhaps seems like a drastic move, once he settled his modest belongings into his new digs, he felt more settled and sure than ever before.

After a couple years free-flowing around the Island, immersing himself into the hippy-esque or ‘new age’ Puna social scene, while taking a more peripheral if admiring stance to the native Hawaiian culture, Ryan found his sense of belonging in the more diverse urban profile of the quaint & quirky Hilo. Here he felt more piped in to the potential of where his talents could be of service.

With the advice and influence of his enthusiastically supportive friends, Ryan set out to start a venture that would embody his passions for design, healthy lifestyle, and hosting. See, at that time he had been working as a graphic designer and branding artist for about a decade, simultaneously using social media platforms to share recipes and information about raw and plant-based lifestyle, as well as leading retreats where health and creativity were the focus. So when his visionary confidants suggested that they could see Ryan running his own venue that could involve all of these passions, a sense of clarity flooded in and Ryan set his mind on doing just that.

With relatively rapid and fantastic manifestation (the kind that comes with that sort of undeniable ‘ah-ha’ realization), Ryan found his space, smack-dab in the center of downtown Hilo. And it is in this space that Ryan has been experimenting with events and projects and dishes and collaborations. The project has had several iterations and has taken so many forms, and through its array of monickers and configurations, it remains versatile and true to its nickname, ‘the Space’.