March 2024: Our Top 3 Most Popular Food Stories
More from Paris Baguette and the neighborly story behind Onda Pasta & Provisions.
No. 3: Here’s What You Bought: Top 10 Best Sellers at Paris Baguette
Photo: James Nakamura
Published March 1, 2024
Our Feb. 21 sneak peek at Hawai‘i’s first Paris Baguette is our most-read post of 2024—probably for the same reason the Downtown location of the South Korean global bakery-café broke the chain’s North American sales record on day one. So it was a no-brainer for us to follow up with this inside look at what those who braved the lines were buying.
But those were early days. Here are the Top 3 best-sellers after Paris Baguette’s first five weeks in Honolulu: Ham & Cheese Croissant, Strawberry Lemon Cream Croissant and Fruit Bites (raspberry, mixed berry, strawberry).
No. 2: Onda Pasta & Provisions Store Opens Saturday in Kaimukī
Photo: Mari Taketa
Published March 15, 2024
Part of our push for leaning into local small businesses is because they’re fragile and endangered. Against the tide of globalization, they keep alive a sense of Hawai‘i as a place of neighborhoods and neighborliness.
So a story that started out as a tip that Onda Pasta was opening its first storefront turned deeper and more heartwarming when we learned who was behind it: Matt Resich and Danny Ka‘aiali‘i, who between them own three neighborhood eateries. Resich, in fact, owns Brick Fire Tavern next door to Onda Pasta & Provisions in Kaimukī.
And Ka‘aiali‘i and business partner Jonny Vasquez, who offered the after-hours use of Encore Saloon’s kitchen to help Raiz Tortilleria get off the ground, offered the whole Chinatown space to Bao Tran, Jake Saito and Jennifer Akiyoshi when they closed Encore Saloon, giving the young trio a permanent home for their first restaurant, Giovedi.
No. 1: 10 New & Coming Eateries on O‘ahu: March 2024
Photo: Andrea Lee
Published March 27, 2024
Honestly, if we’d had the time, this could have been 12 or 15 New & Coming Eateries. The best takeaway from our pared-down list of 10? Five are expansions of locally owned food businesses, and two more are resurrections in new locations of eateries that had shuttered.
