Fun fact: Waialua-based Mele Mele Bakery might be known for its coffee, but the business started as a matcha café, according to owner Song Ebbesen. The business opened in October 2023 and was originally located by The Smoking Boar & The Coconut, also in Waialua.
Ebbesen, who used to work at Mana + Pua (formerly in Haleiwa but now located in Kakaako), recalls how she was offered the space.
“It kind of happened by accident,” Ebbesen says. “I got talked into doing it by my family and friends; I started it with no money at all. Then, through some mutual friends, I stumbled across the silos (the spaces by the Old Waialua Sugar Mill where the bakery is currently located), which used to be just dirt and an empty space. I thought it would be a cool area, just to see all the businesses coming in around it.
“One of my biggest passions is coffee, which I wasn’t able to do at the old location,” she adds. “That was a huge push for me to move out and grow a little bit. We started building this place out, moved in last October and reopened as the Mele Mele you know now. The silos is a collective; there’s a bunch of young businesses — a ceramics studio, tattoo studio and a yoga studio — that popped up and moved in around the same time we did. We collaborate together.”
Mele means “song” in Hawaiian, according to Ebbesen, who also notes that the word also signifies the color yellow.
“My name is Song, and everyone calls me Song Song, and I liked the ring of it,” she says. “Yellow is also my favorite color, so that fit.”
Back to the coffee — Ebbesen remembers training as a barista about 10 years ago. What was supposed to be a temporary position turned into a passion.
“I started to really love the art of making coffee,” she says. “It’s become a big passion of mind to find really good coffee shops and cool, new people who are creative and passionate about the different flavors. Everyone is focused on Hawaiian or Kona coffee; I like the more Scandinavian-style or lighter roasts, and getting the flavors out of the actual beans and trying new things. One of the biggest things about having pastries is pairing it with a good latte or cappuccino.”
The business currently gets its beans from Three Ships Coffee, a roaster located in Virginia Beach, but Ebbesen plans to eventually bring in roasters from all over the world.
“Three Ships Coffee is kind of small, but they have really cool stuff, and I thought it would be fun to bring something new that no one has tried before,” she says. “We also make all of our syrups in house.”
Although Mele Mele Bakery offers coffee, its tea menu is still in high demand. The strawberry matcha ($7.75) — matcha latte and strawberry puree — is still the signature beverage, but the pink drink ($7.50) — matcha latte and rose hibiscus — and hojicha latte ($7) are also customer favorites.
“By far, the strawberry matcha is the most popular thing on our menu,” Ebbesen says. “We get a high-quality uji matcha from Japan from a company called Yamasan.”
Pastries, ranging from bacon cheddar rosemary scones and blueberry basil goat cheese scones to blueberry lavender muffins and brown butter sea salt chocolate chip cookies, are made in house every morning.
“My personal favorite are the buns, and they sell out pretty much every day,” Ebbesen says. “We do cinnamon buns, orange cardamom buns, and I’ve been bringing back an old favorite, which is our berries and cream bun. We’ve had these pastries at the former location, but we boosted them up a little bit and refined what we do on a daily basis.”
Customers with a sweet tooth will love the cinnamon bun. It’s soft and gooey, with lots of cinnamon in every bite.
Craving something heartier? Go for the bacon, egg & cheddah sandwich ($12) — two eggs over medium, bacon, cheddar, honey butter and Sriracha mayo — or the breakfast banh mi ($15). The latter includes two eggs over medium, bacon, pickled daikon and carrots, cucumber, cilantro and Sriracha mayo on a baguette. All sandwiches are made with the business’s housemade breads.
“On weekdays, we solely do the bacon, egg and cheddar, which is the most ordered thing,” Ebbesen says. “We do the breakfast banh mi and chicken banh mi on weekends; those are served on our housemade baguettes.”
Also, do yourself a favor and snag one of those brown butter chocolate chip cookies to-go. They’re irresistibly soft and chewy, with the right amount of sea salt to balance the sweetness.
Ebbesen also does custom cakes for birthdays, weddings and other special occasions. Her cakes are known for their local flavors and floral designs, and inquiries can be submitted through the business’s website.
“Occasionally, I put cakes at the bar in the café,” she says. “I haven’t gotten to the point where I can do them daily, but hopefully soon.”
The grand opening is still in the works — within the next month or so, according to Ebbesen — and it will be a collaborative event among the businesses in the area.
“We soft opened, but it wasn’t very soft,” she says. “We’ll have live music and hopefully bring awareness to the other businesses around us.
“I’m just looking forward to growing and being able to do things on a bigger scale,” she adds. “There’s lots of events we want to host and more pastries we want to be able to do. It went from zero to 100 real fast, which I’m super grateful for.”
CONTACT
Mele Mele Bakery
67-106 Kealohanui St., Waialua
melmelebakery.com
Instagram: @melemelebakery
Hours: Open daily, 7 a.m.-3 p.m.
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
