On Tuesday, there will be a new place to get your pizza and you’ll have it in your hands in just a few minutes. Anahola Cafe is right off the highway in Anahola Marketplace, which makes it an easy stop
On Tuesday, there will be a new place to get your pizza and you’ll have it in your hands in just a few minutes. Anahola Cafe is right off the highway in Anahola Marketplace, which makes it an easy stop for bypassers.
The cafe closed its doors in December to add a new pizza oven, and now it’s gleaming in the corner of their certified kitchen. It zaps full pizzas with 600 degrees of heat and in three-and-a-half minutes — which can produce about 35 pizzas in an hour.
They might need that speed if the turnout for their pizza practice night last week is any indication of how the public feels about the new addition to the cafe. That night, kitchen staff members were polishing up the skills they’d learned from an Alaskan pizza professional Robin Danner, executive director of the homestead community development corporation, brought in to teach them the trade.
“We were learning how to make it and I just decided to post something to Facebook letting everybody know, hey, free pizza,” Danner said. “Everyone was excited.”
In no time, they had about 50 community members gathered in their new outdoor seating space, which they affectionately have coined “The Anahola Lounge.” That space has been added since December as well, and will be debuting a jam stage for local bands.
“It will be a practice stage, open to any bands that want to practice,” Danner said.
While witnessing some original island music-making, diners can take advantage of the cafe’s original menu, with saimin and local favorites, or dive into one of the café’s new 10-inch pizzas, with traditional toppings.
“We’ll be adding special pizzas, like the Anahola Supreme, which is basically your meat lovers’ pizza, once we’ve got everything down,” Danner said.
The plan is for Anahola Cafe to be a place to grab a slice after a beach day with no need to kick the sand off your feet before sitting down. Basically, Danner said the cafe is aiming to be “the best in backyard dining.”
Anahola Cafe is operated by the homestead community develop corporation, which is the nonprofit arm of the Anahola Hawaiian Homestead Association.
Their goal is to be a training center for the food and beverage industry, Danner said. Once they open on Tuesday, the cafe’s operators will be bringing on 12 young people who want to learn how to work in the industry. The cafe’s certified kitchen is also open for area vendors.
“We bring in interns who learn how to work in the restaurant industry, but for those that are eating here, it’s no different than any other restaurant,” Danner said.
The cafe hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., with pizzas served hot and fresh from 4 p.m. until closing.
