Solano County siblings Cherylyn Arcala and Harold Borromeo forged somewhat different paths after graduating from Vallejo High School, but they both became business owners.
Arcala got into the business of selling tropical treats, and Borromeo entered the world of health and fitness. These ended up coalescing with their newest joint venture.
After all, as the saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, purchase a growing lemonade franchise based out of Hawaii and open a location in Vacaville.”
Or something like that.
Arcala and Borromeo recently secured a deal to bring the first Wow Wow Hawaiian Lemonade location to Vacaville. The fast-casual restaurant was founded in Kihei in 2012 and specializes in gourmet lemonade as well as superfoods such as smoothies, açaí bowls, grain bowls and flatbread sandwiches.
“We hope to bring the whole aloha spirit with our lemonade,” Arcala said.
Both Arcala and Borromeo have backgrounds in small business. Arcala had her first child after graduating, and after 18 months of being a stay-at-home mother, decided to return to work where she started a home baking business called Tropical Rain Treats. Following a change in her husband’s schedule and the COVID-19 pandemic, Arcala began focusing solely on her baking business.
“That pretty much took off,” she said. “it kept me pretty busy.”
Meanwhile, Borromeo had been a personal trainer for a corporate gym based out of Redwood City until he ended up exceeding the gym’s monthly quota for the number of clientele he was able to bring in. However, he said a lot of money ended up going back to the gym.
“I thought, ‘What would happen if I took home everything that I’ve earned?’” he said. “That’s basically how my business mindset started spinning.”
Borromeo decided to start his own personal training business in his garage, but after receiving homeowners’ association letters informing him he could not operate out of his garage, he started leasing a brick-and-mortar location out of the Woodcreek Plaza in Fairfield in 2016 and called it Fitletic Fitness.
With both operating small businesses of their own, Arcala and Borromeo began talking about joining together to open a franchise.
“I loved the whole idea of running a business,” he said. “I thought it would be a great idea to learn idea to learn how franchises are run.”
The siblings had become aware of Wow Wow through vacations to Hawaii while the business was still relatively new. They knew it was a huge hit with the locals and tourists alike there, and Arcala learned about franchising opportunities through Instagram.
“As soon as I found out they were franchising, I was like, ‘We gotta hop on this quick,’” she said. “They don’t have that around here, so this is perfect for our community.”
Arcala said it would have taken a lot of work to try to franchise Tropical Rain Treats.
“After seeing what Wow Wow had to offer, they had everything set in place for us,” she said. “I felt this was perfect for us to learn a system that works.”
Wow Wow’s first location was in the Azeka Shopping Center in Kihei on the island of Maui. After two and a half years of refining the business, CEO Tim Weiderhoft said the founder moved to Arizona in 2016 and began franchising the following year with the first new store in Scottsdale. In Sept. 2019, Weiderhoft and his business partners acquired Wow Wow, which now operates 11 locations in Hawaii, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, California and even two locations in Japan.
The company is actively pursing the Northern California market, with locations already open in Livermore and El Dorado Hills and plans for new stores in Roseville, Rocklin, Berkeley, San Ramon and San Jose.
Weiderhoft said the Livermore store, which opened last year, has drawn some of the strongest revenues of any Wow Wow location.
“Culturally, we fit very well with the diversity of Northern California,” he said. “Coming out of San Francisco, there’s a lot of folks that visit and vacation on the islands of Hawaii, so it’s a real natural fit.”
Weiderhoft said Wow Wow is planning to open 14 additional locations in 2022 with another 40 slated for the following 18 months.
Borromeo said he and his sister are still working with a realtor to open the brick-and-mortar location in Vacaville, but they will be giving residents a taste by setting up a booth at summer events and farmers markets throughout the region.
“The goal is to open by this summer, but we have no control over real estate,” he said. “Right now, supply and demand will play a factor in how soon we open.”
However, Arcala said the pop-up will definitely be up and running by the summer. She also wants to reach out to schools and hopefully sell items at sporting events.
The main reason Arcala was drawn to Wow Wow was because of its handcrafted lemonades.
“I just love the vision,” she said. “They try to spread the whole aloha spirit, all positive vibes, all love and good food…It’s just awesome for us to be able to share that with the community.”
“It’s like bringing a taste of Hawaii to Vacaville and Solano County,” Borromeo added.
All of the lemonades are handmade with tropical fruit and freshly squeezed, infusing flavors like ginger pineapple and passion fruit guava. Arcala said all the ingredients will be locally sourced, and she and her brother will work with local farms.
Other items will include toasts and wraps and cold-brewed Kona Coffee.
“You don’t normally find (that) in Solano County,” Arcala said.
Weiderhoft said Wow Wow has been a major proponent of sustainability, even going as far as to eliminate single-use plastics before jurisdictions in Hawaii started doing so. Arcala and Borromeo will be maintaining the company’s eco-friendly mission by serving beverages in cups made out of PLA and plant-based materials rather than plastic. They also will sell reusable mason jars with “Aloha” printed on them, which customers can reuse and bring back to the restaurant.
“They’ll get a discount whenever they come back in with it,” Arcala said.
What has previously been a destination stop for Vacaville residents visiting Hawaii will eventually be found in their own backyard. Weiderhoft said that since Hawaii is a popular vacation spot for Northern Californians, Wow Wow will allow mainland customers to relive that experience at home.
“People who vacation there are usually vacationing there for something special,” he said. “This gives them a great opportunity to remember those special times that they had by connecting with a brand that they may have visited while in the islands.”
Arcala and Borromeo hope to bring the community together through it.
“We just want to build a community around this franchise,” Borromeo said. “We want people to be able to come to us as loyal customers, not just a one-time thing. We want our customers to continue to come and enjoy what we offer.”
For more information on Wow Wow, visit Wowwowhawaiianlemonade.com.
