If you’re driving on Lower Honoapiilani Road, chances are, you’ll see the line for Papi’s ʻOhana before you even see the bakery sign.
The business, which recently celebrated its fourth anniversary, is known for its huge, made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls. The reason for the line: customers can’t pre-order these rolls; it’s first-come, first-served only.
For some dedicated customers, that means lining up at 5 a.m., even though the bakery doesn’t officially open around 7 a.m.
What many customers may not know, though, according to Linda Escobar — wife of chef/business owner David Escobar — is that it takes about three days to make the cinnamon rolls.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” she says. “His labor that goes into it — he’s doing mixes and calculations — it has to be perfect.”
“I work seven days a week for us to be open four days a week,” adds chef David Escobar. “Everything’s about timing and waiting.”
Customers can get a whiff of those fresh-baked King David cinnamon rolls ($12) — flaky, buttery cinnamon rolls topped with housemade cream cheese glaze — even before setting foot in the bakery. David explains that pulling the cinnamon rolls out of the oven and glazing them in real-time — not having pre-glazed cinnamon rolls sitting out for customers — is essential to his business model. He recalls an “aha moment” he had while making doughnuts about 15 years ago.
“I would make apple fritters; I would pull them off the fryer and glaze them,” he says. “I would grab one while they were hot, and I would eat one right then and there. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Nobody gets an apple fritter like this right here.’ By the time we’re open, the fritters are sitting; customers are not getting it like how I just ate it.
“I took that concept that I learned 15 years ago and wanted to make this experience for people to have cinnamon rolls fresh — not glazed already and sitting for a while,” he adds. “It’s fresh out of the oven and served to you while it’s hot.”
While David has been a baker for 20 years — he started in a Safeway bakery in California — owning his own bakery wasn’t necessarily part of his plan. The Escobars moved from California to Maui in 2014; David worked at Safeway in Kihei as a baker, then moved to Monkeypod and, later, accepted a position at the Grand Wailea.
“That’s where he met his mentor,” Linda says. “He was a French pastry chef, and he mentored my husband.”
However, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, many employees, including David, were laid off. The Escobars started hosting prayer nights at their home, and David would cook for anyone who attended.
“David’s love language is feeding you,” Linda says. “He would literally cook for everyone on those nights. Pizza, cinnamon rolls, cheesecakes — everything you could think of, he was making it.”
During that time, the Escobars faced a personal loss — David’s father, known as “Papi,” died from Covid-19. In January 2021, while still being laid off, David remembers doing a 21-day fast and then caught Covid-19 himself.
“I was just going to quarantine myself and stay away from my family; I didn’t want to get everybody sick,” David says. “During that time, the Lord was ministering to me, saying he was going to use my baking gifts for ministry.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” he adds. “After I quarantined and got better, I started baking for (our church) youth group. I always baking for leadership groups and home groups, thinking that was what the Lord wanted me to do. But no, it was more than that. It’s what we’re doing now — it’s to bake under Him and to serve God’s people.”
David had already been making cinnamon rolls for about eight years. He says the French pastry chef had taught him how to make cinnamon rolls, but he added his own twist. He had the chance to perfect his cinnamon rolls during the Covid-19 pandemic, since he was doing a lot of home baking.
“I was baking like crazy; I’d bake for my neighbors, who loved the cinnamon rolls,” David says. “My chef mentor taught me a different way of making it; it wasn’t traditional. A lot of my pastries are European inspired. I learned that the more you do it, you start creating your own deal.”
As businesses started opening back up during the pandemic aftermath, the idea of starting his own business was already on David’s heart. He knew it was time to start “stepping out in faith." He started buying equipment for a future bakery, even though he didn’t have an official space yet.
"I would put all the equipment in my front yard,” David says, noting that his family was living in Kihei. “My whole yard looked crazy. I was just collecting items, by faith, believing I would open up this business.”
At that time, David remembers looking at a facility in Kihei that was closer to their home and convenient to get to. But one day, as he was looking at Facebook Marketplace, he saw an ad about equipment for sale from a restaurant that was closing down.
“I messaged the contact and said I would love to come see the equipment that was for sale,” he recalls. “I drove to Lahaina, which was on the other side of where I was living at the time. As I got there, I remember seeing the whole facility was completely empty. It looked like it had been empty for a while.
“I tried to go back to Facebook Marketplace, but I couldn’t find the person I was communicating with anymore,” he adds. “I was like, ‘Somebody’s just messing with me.’ I remember calling my mom, telling her about it … but then saying, ‘Maybe the Lord wants me to be here to pray for Lahaina.’ I was literally praying for Lahaina the whole car ride home.”
While he was still trying to work things out with the potential Kihei venue, David talked to another realtor for restaurant rental spaces. He remembers the realtor mentioning larger venues on Front Street, but they were “all big and way out of my budget.”
“I asked, ‘Is there anything you guys have that’s smaller and more in my budget?,’” David says. “He was like, ‘There is one place in Lahaina; they’re asking for a lot, but we can give them an offer and see what they say.’ He told me where it was, it was that same place that I went to — the one that was emptied out completely.
“My first thought was, ‘It would be a long drive for me,’” he adds. “But then I was like, just go and make an offer and see what he says.”
The rest, as they say, is history. The Kihei venue ended up not working out, while the Lahaina spot accepted David’s offer.
“I didn’t even see the inside; I just saw the outside,” David says. “I had a good vibe there; there was something special about that place.
“I really feel like it was the Lord,” he adds. “I went over here just to get some equipment; I didn’t want the spaces on Front Street because they were too expensive. So now, I’m just here, baking away for Jesus.”
David signed the lease for the bakery’s current location in March 2022, and the business opened later that July. Coming up with a business name was a “no brainer” for David, who says it was natural to honor his father.
“My dad had just passed away; why wouldn’t I call it Papi’s?” he says. “He died in 2021, and all this was beginning right after he passed away.”
However, the name “Papi’s” was already taken elsewhere, according to Linda, who says that “Papi’s ʻOhana” was a natural replacement.
“‘Papi’ is ‘dad’ in Spanish — we called my father-in-law that — and ʻohana is family,” she explains. “But it’s also word play — Papi is God, our Father, and ʻohana represents our heavenly father’s family.
“When the Lord gave this to us, he had spoken to my husband, ‘Every person who walks through the doors are my children, whom I love,’” she adds. “I take that with such high responsibility; I make sure that every person has been seen and loved on the way the Lord would want them to be.”
When the business first opened, David remembers the menu was huge. It consisted of sandwiches, fresh breads and more.
“We were doing beignets, bruschetta, and all kinds of different stuff, but the cinnamon rolls just took over — the cinnamon rolls and pizza,” he says. “I was doing it all by myself — I had my nephew, my mom and my wife — but I was there for 20 hours a day sometimes, in the very beginning, during that first year (of business).
“I didn’t realize what the cinnamon rolls were going to be, but that was my favorite thing to do,” he adds. “I cut half of my menu out; I had to.”
Giving customers a high-quality product has always been crucial for the Escobars, who explain the business focuses on excellence, not volume.
“There’s no shortcuts; there’s no rushing the process,” Linda explains, saying that, sometimes, customers comment about their wait times upon entering the bakery. “We open at 7 a.m.-ish until sold out because it’s baking and it’s a science. We make sure it’s all coked in the right way. If the oven takes a drop in temperature, we’re not rushing the process to open the doors. We are representing the Lord, and patience comes along with it.”
When it comes to their line, Papi’s ʻOhana has a system down. Chairs are lined up right outside the bakery for the early risers, who sometimes get there by 4:30 a.m., according to Linda. A staff member comes outside to take coffee orders for those waiting in line, and once customers pay, their orders are brought to them, so they can enjoy beverages while they wait in line.
“We have umbrellas (when it’s hot); when it’s storming, we have ponchos for purchase,” David adds. “That’s part of learning … we just learned as we went along.”
The bakery is currently open from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. (or until sold out) on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (closed on Wednesdays and weekends). Papi’s ʻOhana also serves pizza from 5 to 9 p.m. on the same days as the bakery, plus Saturday evenings. Customers can call the business to place pizza orders starting from 3 p.m. to reserve their preferred pick-up time.
The business features 16-inch thin-crust pizzas topped with housemade red or alfredo sauces, and fresh ingredients, according to David.
“We are using all-local farm veggies; we don’t cut corners on anything,” he says. “We’re trying to bring good-quality pizza into the community.”
Flavors range from pepperoni ($30) and Island veggie ($32) to Westside chicken ($36) — featuring roasted chicken, American bacon, creamy alfredo sauce, mozzarella and housemade garlic aioli sauce — and Papi’s all meat ($35), which includes pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon and American bacon.
Unique flavors include the Bella Bella ($33) — a staff favorite, comprising extra mozzarella, housemade tomato sauce, pepperoni, local oyster mushrooms and a ranch swirl — and the ʻOhana special ($36). The latter includes mozzarella, housemade tomato sauce, pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, fresh jalapenos and Maui Gold pineapples, according to David.
“That one is popular,” he says. “You get sweet and spice with all the meats.”
Papi’s ʻOhana opened in July 2022; by January 2023, the lines of customers started to form. But all that came to a halt with the Lahaina fires in August 2023. The Escobars still lived in Kihei — about 45 minutes from their Lahaina shop — and remember being in “survival mode.”
“Chef just couldn’t sit still,” Linda remembers. “When we’d make our way to Lahaina, the roads were blocked — they wouldn’t let anyone in — but we had God’s favor every single time. Somehow, we were summoned to come through.
“We came through to cook for the community,” she adds. “We had no service; we were doing this all in the dark with propane — thankfully, we had a propane tank.”
For four months — from August to November — Papi’s ʻOhana fed the Lahaina community cinnamon rolls and pizzas for free, David remembers.
“Two days after the fires, we served the community four days a week — the same days we’re open now,” he says, noting that they alternated serving pizzas and cinnamon rolls on each day. “Then, people started coming back, slowly. We did a soft reopening with the bakery, but the pizzas were donation-based. We did donation-based pizzas for almost two years.
“People were affected by the fires; that problem doesn’t just go away,” he adds. “When the tourists would come, it gave them a chance to support, and we were able to bless families that were affected by the fires with free dinner.”
While Papi’s ʻOhana was trying to give back to the community, the community also helped them, David notes, saying that “everybody was donating things,” from money to ingredients.
“We hung in there to try and keep their morale and spirits up,” he says.
“Our generous ʻohana near and far helped us keep the free meals going for so long,” Linda adds.
To this day, Papi’s ʻOhana is known for being more than just a bakery, according to Linda, who says the business offers prayer, fellowship and support to all who visit. For her, the aftermath of the 2023 fires was a full-circle moment.
“What happened from our living room prayer nights during Covid-19 was happening inside our bakery,” she says. “The community was inside of our bakery — hugging, crying, laughing. That’s why Papi’s ʻOhana is so special — the people know it’s a safe place.
“People literally walk in and see how busy we are, but they will ask chef for prayer, and they know he would put down his paint brush (for the glaze),” she adds.
David remembers people asking him how long Papi’s ʻOhana would be giving away free meals following the fires.
“We were giving away food for so long,” he says. “I remember the Lord telling me, ‘Before the fires, you saw the big lines. You saw how I provided for you. Right now is a time where you’re earning Kingdom provisions. After that, when you re-open, you’re going to have double — earthly provision and kingdom provision.ʻ
“It’s pretty much manifested itself,” he says, chuckling. “Now it really is double; it’s crazy now.”
As they enter their fifth year of business, Papi’s ʻOhana already has big plans for 2027. The business is officially expanding toward Napili, according to the Escobars, who say the new space is about four times the size as their current bakery.
The bigger space will make it easier for customers to line up indoors and out of the hot Lahaina sun, according to Linda.
“We have outgrown this little spot,” she says. “We’ll have more space that we need to meet the demand. Right now, chef makes his max (for cinnamon rolls) and that’s it for the day. Sometimes, that’s at 10:30 a.m. We’ll have more space — more ovens, more electricity — so we can be more capable of providing for the demand.
“I feel bad when we sell out,” she adds. “I feel terrible because we do want to serve you.”
Linda notes that the new space is close to The Gazebo Restaurant at Napili Shores — “The Gazebo is in the back, where the beach is; our location is in the front” — but right now, the Escobars haven’t decided if that location will be the business’s new home, or an expansion.
“Everything is still up in the air,” she says, during the time of our interview in early September. “We’re trying to get our foot in the door. For 2027 — our fifth year in business — that’s our exciting news.”
CONTACT
Papi’s ʻOhana
3481 Lower Honoapiilani Road, Lahaina
808-868-2000
papisohana.com
Instagram: @papisohana
Bakery is open 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. (or until sold out) Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; pizzeria hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays to Saturdays
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
