Something’s brewing — Honolulu Coffee Co.'s newest location is celebrating its grand opening on Monday, July 21 at 8 a.m. The business’s new Mo‘ili‘ili location is in the former space of Kōkua Market.
Honolulu Coffee’s flagship store and Experience Center closed last October, and used to be located on Kapi‘olani Boulevard. Chick-Fil-A will soon fill its old spot.
The grand opening festivities will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony, exclusive first-day menu specials, behind-the-scenes bakery demonstrations and giveaways for the first 25 customers.
The new café and bakery is spearheaded by director of culinary operations Brian Sung, who is a classically trained pastry chef and graduate of Le Cordon Bleu.
The bakery will offer an expanded menu of housemade pastries, breads and café specialties that are designed to pair with Honolulu Coffee Co.’s signature drinks. We’re told the beverage menu is the same; you can still find customer favorites like the Hawaiian latte (coconut and macadamia nut syrup with espresso and milk), local latte (made with Lāʻie vanilla and macnut honey), and ube latte.
Be on the lookout for seasonal offerings, including the haupia cold brew, strawberry matcha and yuzu palmer.
The bakery’s expanded menu highlights a variety of specialty croissants; all pastries are made from scratch. Sweet options include the chocolate brownie, ube Chantilly and cereal milk croissants. Savory options abound in the form of ham and cheese, hot dog and kimchi Spam croissants. The latter features a Spam-studded pinwheel topped with a spicy kimchi kewpie glaze; the hot dog croissant includes a savory Redondo hot dog inside and is topped with honey mustard sauce.
If you want something especially photogenic, go for the ube croissant, which features a luscious, homemade ube filling and comes topped with shredded coconut.
The cafe also features heartier entrées. If you’re in the mood for something breakfasty, choose from options like a burrito with Portuguese sausage ($14.50), quiche Lorraine ($13.75), avocado toast ($16.50), pancake stack ($14.95) and loco moco ($15.95).
The avocado toast ($16.50) features housemade sourdough topped with avocado, pickled tomatoes, cucumber, onions and arugula, and is topped with a lilikoʻi dressing. The loco moco ($15.95), meanwhile, highlights a seasoned beef patty over a bed of white rice. It’s topped with an egg and the café’s signature coffee-infused demi-glace and serve with crispy fried onions.
There are also various acai bowl renditions, ranging from a classic with strawberries, blueberries, bananas and granola ($16.50) to The Hawaiian ($17), which comes with organic superfruits, granola, bananas, almond butter, macadamia nuts and coconut flakes. There’s even a build-your-own acai bowl option (starting from $12) with toppings like cacao nibs, chia seeds, macadamia nuts and more.
If you want more of a lunch entrée, go for the three-cheese grilled cheese ($16.95) — made with cheddar, gruyere and provolone cheeses — muffaletta sandwich ($16.95) with ham, salami and olive salad, or omurice ($17.50). I’m especially excited about the latter — not many cafes have omurice on the menu — which features a fluffy omelet filled with kalua pork and housemade fried rice and smothered with coffee-infused demi-glace and green onions.
The seating for this location is mostly outdoors, making it more conducive for takeout. There’s a free parking lot in the back of the building; the entrance is on Kahuna Lane.
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CONTACT
Honolulu Coffee Co.
2643 S. King St., Honolulu
808-202-2562
Honolulucoffee.com
Instagram: @honolulucoffee
Open daily, 6 a.m.-4 p.m.
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
