Korean fusion concept KoLab launched its brunch concept in Kakaʻako in late December. Since then, the biz relocated and now is popping up several times a week within Kaimukī’s Aloha Bakehouse & Café.
KoLab business owners Jake Co and Helen Lee met Doug Choi from Aloha Bakehouse & Café through mutual connections.
“Doug had a vacancy and was like, ‘Come work out of here,’” Co says.
The biz is still sticking to its Korean-inspired breakfast concept, but altered its menu before soft opening on Mother’s Day.
“We had to amend our menu based on the availability of the kitchen equipment that we have here,” Co says.
The menu currently features three dishes — fresh poke served with crispy waffle rice ($16.95), egg salad sando ($11.95) and joomuk bap ($14.95).
“We get our fresh poke from Diamond Head Seafood,” Co says. “We thought this would be an interesting and unique concept — the crunchy texture from the rice with the poke.”
The fresh poke comes in the business’s “crack sauce,” according to Co.
“There’s a lot of shallots, garlic and chives, with a little bit of fish sauce and lime juice,” he explains. “It's more like a ceviche.”
Meanwhile, the egg salad sando ($11.95) features a sourdough bread, eggs from Waialua Egg Farm and dill from MAʻO Farms.
“Everything is organic,” says Helen Lee. “It’s dusted with a fine bit of Gochugaru (Korean chili flakes), not the big, bulky flakes.”
The business’s Joomuk bap ($14.95) was inspired by a dish Co and Lee enjoyed during a trip to South Korea.
“That was our first meal off the plane in Korea,” Co remembers. “We ordered this and it was such a simple dish, but it was so filling and umami. We said, ‘We gotta bring this back to Hawaiʻi’ because we couldn’t find anything in Hawaiʻi like it.”
Joomuk bap features rice from Kubota Rice Industry — which features rice from Japan that’s freshly milled in Hawaiʻi — topped with chopped takuan, tobiko and a mountain of shredded nori. Customers are given a glove to mix everything together to form their own rice balls.
“In Korea, the plate was overflowing with nori,” Co says.
KoLab’s Kaimukī pop-up is currently open from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays to Sundays.
CONTACT
KoLab – Kaimukī pop-up
3398 Waiʻalae Ave., Honolulu
Instagram: @xkolab
Open 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays to Sundays
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Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
