Five years ago, Rise & Grind Coffee opened its coffee trailer at the Kakaʻako farmers market. Business owner Leah Garwood remembers starting out with a small coffee menu.
Since then, the business has expanded — customers can find the trailer at the Kailua farmers market (at Castle Hospital) on Sundays now, and the biz opened its first brick and mortar three years ago on Oneawa Street. It’s in the former space of 22 Kailua, which moved to a different location (at 326 Kuulei Road).
“We have created a warm and welcoming environment for locals and visitors to spend their days working and relaxing,” business owner Leah Garwood says.
The coffee bar just expanded further to include more dining space. Rise & Grind Coffee Bar celebrated the grand opening of its new “diner” space on March 28.
“The space used to be occupied by Aloha Sweet Remedies, a fresh pressed juice shop,” Garwood says. “We expanded our kitchen to the new side and added additional seating.
“Rise & Grind Coffee Bar is the whole business name,” she adds. “We’ve just been referring to this space as the diner because it gives off diner vibes.”
With a bigger kitchen, the coffee bar is able to expand its food offerings. The food menu now includes more breakfast and lunch options; smoothies will be added soon, too, according to Garwood. She says that before the expansion, the coffee bar featured pastries and bagel sandwiches, but on a smaller scale.
“We now offer a variety of breakfast sandwiches, burritos and bowls, as well as paninis and wraps for lunch,” she says. “Keiki options are available as well.”
The love child bagel sandwich ($13) and breakfast bowl ($15) are popular breakfast options. The bagel sandwich features egg, bacon, turkey, cheddar, pesto and a spicy aioli. The breakfast bowl is a filling combo of potatoes, kale, mushrooms, peppers, an over-easy egg and the eatery’s housemade green goddess dressing.
Those craving lunch entrees can choose from dishes like the Italian sandwich ($17) — a panini stuffed with salami, pepperoni, prosciutto, Havarti, sundried tomato, banana peppers and housemade Italian dressing — a chicken wrap ($15) and adult grilled cheese ($13). Lunch entrees usually come with a side of chips or salad.
The café’s housemade pastries ($6 each) continue to be popular. Options range from lemon blueberry muffins to lemon poppyseed rolls and earl grey blueberry scones.
“We make all of our pastries in house, not to mention a wide variety of housemade coffee syrups,” Garwood confirms.
She encourages customers to try the coffee bar’s featured spring flavors, which include Hawaiian (coconut, mac nut and vanilla), wildflower (hibiscus, lavender and vanilla), chocolate chip banana bread and lavender honey lattes ($6.75, additional $1.50 for housemade syrup).
“My favorite drink right now is the banana bread latte,” she says. “The blueberry donut latte is made with blueberry and organic maple syrup. Both of these are housemade syrups and there’s a cold foam on top.
“Everybody loves these flavors, so we will probably have them for a bit; at least for another month or two,” Garwood adds.
Garwood says that the coffee bar will eventually expand its menu and hours.
“We are a small husband-and-wife business,” she says. “Our goal is to create a safe and welcoming place for everyone to enjoy. We love coffee and Kailua, and are doing our best to continue to come up with new, exciting flavors and menu items. We’ll eventually keep the diner side open later and do more lunch throughout the day. We wanted to start doing evening things — now that we have the space, we have a lot of opportunities to do stuff.”
CONTACT
Rise & Grind Coffee Bar
22 Oneawa St., Kailua
Instagram: @rise.and.grind.coffee
Open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
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Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
