WAIMEA — Happy Mangos is about healthy living. “…Healthy hale, in Waimea,” the jingle chimes over the local radio airwaves. Located at the foot of the Waimea Bridge on Ala Wai Road, Happy Mangos Healthy Hale is a dream come
WAIMEA — Happy Mangos is about healthy living.
“…Healthy hale, in Waimea,” the jingle chimes over the local radio airwaves.
Located at the foot of the Waimea Bridge on Ala Wai Road, Happy Mangos Healthy Hale is a dream come true for Kellie Pleas, the healthy living food shop’s owner.
“Happy Mangos Healthy Hale is the first health food store and cafe to open on the Westside,” said Janet Goding in a release. “Happy Mangos offers both a cafe and grocery store that focuses on healthy living.”
Pleas, a graduate of Kaua‘i High School, developed a love of exercise and healthy living during her career as a golf professional at the various golf clubs here.
During that time, she always found time to prepare healthy meals for her active family. That family took the forefront when she retired from the golf course, and her energies took her into the realm of fitness programs based on the Westside.
That took her into the pool where she taught water aerobics for Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i in Waimea, land aerobics for Enhance Fitness Senior Services in Kekaha, and embarked on her own program, Lifestyle Challenge, in which she led a group of Westside residents on an eight-week regimen of fitness and healthy eating.
The opening of Happy Mangos just followed in the progression, Pleas offering samplings of different menus during gatherings at the Aston Plantation Cottages for several months.
Hot coffee and the Happy Mangos’ breakfast frittata fits the bill on a drive to work, or up the hill to Koke‘e, complimenting an assortment of fresh, homemade pastries including the Vegetarian Society award-winning “No Need Eat Breakfast Muffin” made of organic carrots, apples, raisins, and other ingredients (all healthy).
Lunch appetites can be whetted with a vegetarian chili served over brown rice, or a nitrate-free turkey sandwicgh made on locally-made wheat bread.
Keala’s Gluten Free Brownies, or a smoothie from locally-grown banana fill the snack cravings.
In addition to satisfying the appetite, grocery items from white rice gluten free flour, organic spaghetti sauces, olive bar soaps, to non-toxic water-based nail polish beckon from their shelves.
Goding said when plans for opening the store were being worked on, the shop was to be called Mangos in honor of the mango tree which is prolific on the Westside.
“Its healthy fruit, strong wood, sustainability, and deep roots all exemplify Kellie’s goal of establishing a healthy living option grounded in the Westside community,” Goding said.
The planning process was interrupted when Kellie’s mother-in-law, Happy Pleas-Preble, passed away.
But that pause saw the name Happy Mangos evolve — in honor of Kellie’s dream, and her mother-in-law.
Happy Mangos is open Mondays through Fridays from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The store is closed on Sunday.
Visit happymangos.com for a full listing of its take out menu, or call 338-0055 for more information.
