Sooper Secret’s à la Carte Izakaya Pop-Up With Bar Maze Sold Out in Minutes. More May Follow

Ricky Goings isn’t promising, but à la carte fast food from two James Beard Award semifinalists would be hard to resist.

May 21, 2025

Mari Taketa,

Maze Mondays have been a thing since last fall. The one-night collaboration dinners pair Bar Maze chef Ki Chung and his crew with local guest chefs, with tickets often selling out in minutes. The first, with The Pig & the Lady’s Kristene Moon, sold out in 20 minutes. Last month’s, with Hyun Kim of O’Kim’s Korean Kitchen, filled up in an hour. And next Monday’s izakaya-style dinner with Sooper Secret Izakaya’s Ricky Goings sold out in 30 minutes.

What makes this upcoming one different is that Goings doesn’t have a restaurant or regular gig. Sooper Secret is a James Beard Award-nominated pop-up whose dishes feel like a quirky kaiseki and whose prix-fixe menus (which also sell out) cost $185. At Maze Monday, for the first time, Goings is offering his food à la carte—alongside Michelin-starred Chung, who’s leaning into his Korean heritage for the May 26 event with a lobster tteokbokki and kimbap.

Sooper Secret Izakaya’s Goings. Photo: Olivier Koning

If you couldn’t snag a ticket, Goings is already talking about following up with something similar. “It’s really cool how we come from two completely different backgrounds, but when me and him start to think of ideas, it just clicks,” he says. “I don’t think it’s gonna be prix fixe. If we’re gonna break away from our norm, then we should break away from our norm, you know? We might do a fast food pop-up next. Nothing set in stone yet.”

The two culinary luminaries are polar opposites. Chung filled his resume with two- and three-Michelin starred restaurants (The French Laundry, Manresa, Benu, The Fat Duck, Jean-Georges) before he rose to chef de cuisine at Michelin-starred Aubergine in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. His demeanor is as polished as Goings’ is off-the-wall. The Sooper Secret chef started out at izakayas in Japan and worked at He‘eia Kea Pier General Store and Deli, Sushi ii, Pai Honolulu and Butcher & Bird. Both are James Beard Award semifinalists.

Bar Maze’s Chung and Justin Park. Photo: Olivier Koning

Chung says he and his partners, Justin Park and Tom Park (no relation) of Bar Leather Apron, started Maze Mondays as “a good way for the team to see a different style of working and someone else’s philosophy of food. A lot of cooks on the Mainland, they go around staging at different restaurants just to learn. This is my way of doing that for my chefs, but instead, other chefs come to work with us.”

Sooper Secret Izakaya’s foie gras peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Photo: Olivier Koning

At Hana Kitchens in Downtown, Goings’ pop-ups max out at 14 diners because he works solo, cooking and plating everything himself. The prix-fixe changes every time but always includes his signature foie gras peanut butter and jelly sandwich (“It’s Nutter Butter cookie butter and strawberry jam with little bit of umeboshi and a big piece of foie gras torchon in the middle. Kind of like an Uncrustable,” he says) and uni waffles.

He’s also been flying to Chefs & Table, a restaurant supply store in Kona that hosts dinners with off-island chefs at its demo kitchen. He popped up there with Chung in March and his former boss, Butcher & Bird’s Chuck Wakeman, in April, and says he and Wakeman will team up again this summer.

Maze Mondays will continue on the last Monday of most months, Chung says. Ticket sales for the two seatings go live at 7 a.m. a week or two before each event. Watch Bar Maze’s Instagram for updates.

@barmaze, @hanakitchens, @chefsandtable