Known for its Island twist on elotes — a popular Mexican street food featuring corn on the cob with butter, mayo and toppings — Corn Onoz Hawaiʻi began as a “simple family idea” in 2020, according to owners Brandon and Joanna Bagayas.
“During a trip to California, our kids noticed people eating elotes and wanted to try it,” Brandon Bagayas says. “After returning home, one evening during dinner, our kids decided they wanted to try making elotes themselves.”
“That moment sparked the beginning of Corn Onoz Hawaiʻi,” Joanna Bagayas adds.
What started as a fun family experiment for the Bagayas family turned into months of trial and error, as they worked to perfect the flavors they envisioned for their elotes. After several months of testing different combinations and ingredients, the Corn Onoz Hawaiʻi menu took shape.
“We finally created flavors that we were proud to share with others,” Joanna says.
The business’s name implies its specialty products — corn — while ‘onoz’ is inspired by the local word “ono,” according to Joanna.
“The ‘Z’ represents the first initial of our children’s names; ‘Hawaiʻi’ reflects where we are from and where our business is proudly based,” she says.
Prior to opening its Pearl City storefront, Corn Onoz Hawaiʻi participated in various night markets and events across the island. Some of their regular events include Village Night Market, What the Truck?! market on first and third Fridays at Waikele Shopping Center, and annual events like Waikīkī Hoolaulea, Waikīkī Spam Jam, and the Made in Hawaiʻi Festival. The business will continue to participate in island-wide events; customers can stay updated with its schedule by following the biz on social media.
“Many customers who tried our corn would often ask if we had a store they could visit,” Brandon says. “We even had tourists return to our booth, asking where they could find us again before leaving Hawaiʻi. Because of that support, we knew we wanted to open a permanent location where customers could stop by anytime to enjoy our elotes.”
Corn Onoz Hawaiʻi celebrated the grand opening of its store this past Sunday, March 8. Prior to its opening — it’s in the same plaza as Button Up Café — the space had been vacant for more than a year and was previously Karen’s Mini Mart, according to Joanna.
“Although we secured this location earlier, it took about a year before we were able to officially open our doors,” she says. “Our goal has always been to create a place where people can easily stop in and enjoy freshly made elotes without having to travel long distances.”
“It’s (the store) nothing big; nothing crazy,” Brandon adds. “Hopefully in the future, we get a bigger space and bigger menu, but as far as right now, we needed a home base.”
The business’s current menu features corn on the cob ($9 each), corn in a cup (mini $7, regular $9) and elote nachos (mini $7.50, regular $10.50). Ten flavors are available — cheese, cheese garlic, cheese bacon, Cheetos, Takis, furikake crunch, Chipotle crunch, Korean cheese, cheese nachos and ube. Cheese bacon is Joanna’s favorite, while Brandon is partial to Chipotle crunch.
“What makes our elotes unique is the base,” he explains. “Most of our bases are made from scratch, giving each flavor its own signature taste.
“I love my spiciness (for the Chipotle crunch) and she (Joanna) loves bacon,” he adds. “Our newest flavor is the Korean mayo; we got some new flavors in the works.”
Cheese garlic — featuring a fresh garlic base coated with cheese and topped with cilantro flakes — Chipotle crunch (specialty Chipotle base topped with cheddar chips, sweetened mayo and cilantro flakes) and Cheetos are the top three bestsellers. The latter is made with crushed Hot Cheetos, mayo and cilantro flakes, resulting in a bold and crunchy flavor.
“While these items are popular at our pop-ups and markets, our storefront allows us to expand the menu with additional items that we were not able to offer before,” Joanna says.
Fun fact: If the business isn’t too busy, customers can customize their elotes, according to Brandon.
“We can write on top (of the elotes),” he confirms. “The majority of the ones we write on are the Cheetos, Takis and Chipotle crunch.
“These are my daughter’s favorites — the Takis and Hot Cheetos,” he adds. “She loves those spicy chips; for some reason, kids love it.”
Brandon says their kids were the inspiration behind many of the flavors on the Corn Onoz Hawaiʻi menu.
“They’re creative; they use whatever we have at home (to come up with flavors),” he says. “They’ll try with whatever chips and mayos we have; then we taste it and put our own little twist on it to see how the flavors come out. We do test trials with the family and see what they say.”
Corn Onoz Hawaiʻi also has a loyalty program; customers who love elotes can inquire about it. It’s like a membership program with set discounts, according to Brandon.
“We look forward to serving our community at this location for many years to come and are excited to introduce even more corn-inspired flavors in the future,” he says.
CONTACT
Corn Onoz Hawaii
719 Kamehameha Hwy. Unit A103, Pearl City
Instagram: @corn_onoz_hawaii
Open 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sundays
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
