Ube crinkle cookies. Blueberry lilikoʻi scones. Honey mac nut buns. These are just some of the pastries you’ll find at recently opened Lele’s Bakery in Kailua-Kona.
The bakery is owned by three friends who wanted to open a spot for their community, according to one of the co-founders, Adriana Rodriguez.
“Oddly enough, none of us started out as bakers,” Rodriguez says. “Our general manager started with us back in September and has learned how to make everything.”
Rodriguez — who owns the café with Erik Lobner and Ky Soltes — says that Lobner still works as a chef as The Club at Hōkūliʻa.
“Myself and Erik are both savory chefs,” she says. “We will (soon) start offering breakfast and lunch.”
The bakery originally started by renting kitchens and delivering wholesale to various coffee shops in Kona. They were invited to be a vendor at farmers markets, and “the response was overwhelming,” according to Rodriguez, who says the team took their time looking for storefront spaces in Kona. The business was originally supposed to open a shop in Captain Cook, but when things didn’t work out, “just when we were about to give up, we found this space,” Rodriguez says.
“It was an old bakery that never really opened their doors,” she says. “I reached out to the landlord and brought pastries by for weeks until they said yes. The building was basically turnkey, so we were really lucky.
“My family flew out from California to help remodel the space, and we were able to open in less than three months,” she adds.
The bakery’s original concept was doing pastries and coffee — something fast that people could grab on their way to work, according to Rodriguez.
“We wanted people to start their day with us,” she says. “Lele means ‘to start, to jump or to burst forth.’ I know everyone thinks Kona is a sleepy town, but trust me, it’s alive and bustling in the early morning hours. There’s so many people commuting from across the island; there’s something magical about it.”
The bakery offers a variety of sweet and savory pastries, ranging from scones ($5) and muffins ($5) to malasadas ($5) and brioche buns ($8). The business’s huge cinnamon rolls, ube crinkle cookies and scones are some of the most popular treats. (I’m partial to its soft, chewy brown butter triple chocolate cookies).
“I love our savory scones; they have jalapeno, bacon, and cheddar, and are drizzled with local honey,” Rodriguez says.
While the bakery is officially open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays to Mondays (closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays), pastries start coming out of the oven at 7 a.m. — and customers are welcome to stop by if they see anything out on display, according to Rodriguez.
“Nothing beats a warm pastry, right?” she says.
As a small neighborhood bakery, Lele’s prides itself on making everything in house from scratch. They buy as many local and organic ingredients as possible, according to Rodriguez, who says the bakery is closed on Tuesdays so they can drive to Waimea to pick up produce from Kekela Farms.
“I source our fruit locally — usually what is ripest — and I make a batch of jam for the week,” she says. “We use that for our brioche morning buns and malasada fillings.”
After the bakery starts its breakfast and lunch menus, it will add on dinner service as well. Follow the biz on Instagram for updates.
“About two years ago, Erik was really sick and we had to shut down operations,” Rodriguez recalls. “I had people all over the Big Island that we didn’t even know, offering to help in any way they could. It was a very humbling experience; we will never forget it. We wanted to open something for all those people — a love letter and ‘thank you’ to our community.”
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CONTACT
Lele’s Bakery
73-5613 Olowalu St. Ste. 5, Kailua-Kona
808-238-5062
Instagram: @_lelesbakery_
Open 8 a.m.-3 p.m. (or until sold out) Thursdays- Mondays
Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
