"This is not something I ever saw for myself, but I am so grateful to share my own menu and homemade foods with people." Faii Metawee said that to Big Island Now this summer, a few weeks after she and her husband opened Blooms Café at the corner of Hualālai and Kinoʻole streets.
Her café is one of three food businesses that opened on or moved to Kinoʻole Street between late June and late September 2026. A milk-bread bakery opened upstairs at 1216 Kinoole. A 30-year-old cookie maker moved to 374 Kinoʻole. Blooms sits on the corner in between. Each one keeps very different hours. One of them sold out within an hour of opening on the morning a reporter visited, and another stays open into the late afternoon. On this street, the time you go decides what you get.
Three Kinoʻole Street Stops and How Their Hours Differ
Here are the basics as reported this summer and fall.
| Stop | Address | Opened or moved | Reported hours | What it's known for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Korokoro Cafe | 2nd floor, WR Chun Hale, 1216 Kinoole St. | Opening reported Sept. 15, 2026 | Opens 6 a.m.; regular days not yet published | Hokkaido-style milk bread, Kaʻū blend coffee |
| Blooms Café | 215 Hualani St., at Hualālai and Kinoʻole | June 22, 2026 | 7 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon–Fri; 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Sat–Sun | Homemade foods and drinks, orchids for sale |
| Big Island Delights | 374 Kinoʻole St. | Space blessed Sept. 21, 2026 | Not yet reported | Cookies and confections made with Hawaiʻi-grown macadamia nuts |
Two cells in that table are blank, and the blanks matter. Korokoro's 6 a.m. opening comes from one newspaper visit, and nobody has published its weekly schedule yet. Big Island Delights hasn't announced retail hours at the new space. Check both before you plan a morning around them. Blooms is the one stop whose hours have been printed, and it has already lengthened them once.
Korokoro Sets the Order Because It Sells Out First
The first stop is the one with the shortest window. In the Hawaii Tribune-Herald's "Let's Talk Food" column on Sept. 15, Celeste Pule said that on the morning of the columnist's visit, people were lined up before she opened at 6 a.m. and everything had sold out by 7 a.m. That was one morning, early in the café's life, so it may not happen every day. Still, it was a single hour from opening to empty cases, on the second floor of WR Chun Hale.
The bakery is a family business. Celeste and her husband, Robert Pule, have gone back to Hokkaido many times for its pastries and milk products, and their goal was to bring those flavors to Hilo. Their daughter Jordan studied culinary arts at Leeward Community College and worked for Roy's while she was on Oʻahu. Their daughter Moani helps in the retail store.
The bread uses the yudane method. A small amount of flour and water is cooked into a roux before it goes into the dough, and that gives the crumb a soft, springy texture that the column compares to mochi. The menu printed in the column has savory and sweet options:
- Savory: Hokkaido Pan with potato, sweet corn and bacon; Kare Pan filled with house-made Japanese curry; Sausage Pan with arabiki sausage and cheese; Bacon Pan with black pepper
- Sweet: Koro Cream with Hokkaido whipped cream; Custard Pan; Matcha Dream Pan; Golden Koro, the shop's take on melon pan
- Loaves and drinks: shokupan, honey toast, Kaʻū blend coffee, a yuzu sparkler, Momo Cloud, and melon and peach soda floats
A framed story inside the café explains the name. Korokoro means "round," like the shima-enaga, a small round bird found only in Hokkaido that's also called the "snow fairy."
A shokupan loaf will last the rest of the week. A kare pan won't make it past the car ride. Since the cases emptied within the first hour on the reported morning, Korokoro is the stop to make first, before the rest of the street opens.
Blooms Picks Up When Korokoro Closes
Blooms opens at 7 a.m. on weekdays, about when Korokoro's cases were empty on the reported morning, and stays open until 5 p.m. On weekends it runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Metawee and Caleb Houck added those hours after their first month based on customer feedback. They post specials and schedule changes on the Blooms Café Instagram page.
The café started out somewhere else. Metawee began by selling 20 sticky rice patties on Facebook Marketplace. Then she set up a small café inside one of Houck's greenhouses at Jungle Mist Orchids in Panaʻewa. When that space got too small, they started looking for a storefront at the end of April. They found 215 Hualani St., where Oasis Skateboards had been for years until it moved out in January. The room had held a skateboard ramp for a decade.
Houck said it was her mango sticky rice that convinced him she should sell her cooking. The orchids came along from the greenhouse. Plants from Jungle Mist are set around the room and are for sale, including a slipper orchid that Big Island Now photographed for its story.
On this street, Blooms is the stop with the most open hours. If you miss Korokoro, it's still open. If you want to sit down instead of eating in the car, it has tables and comfortable chairs. And if you need a gift that isn't food, you can buy an orchid with your coffee.
Big Island Delights Is the Stop for Gifts and Boxes
The third business on the street has been around the longest. Big Island Delights was founded in 1996 by Jeff and Carla Takamine and makes cookies and confections with 100% Hawaiʻi-grown macadamia nuts. Over the years it has added local teas, gift baskets and other Hawaiʻi-made products.
In September, Big Island Now reported that the company had moved from 762 Kanoelehua Ave. to 374 Kinoʻole St., where its bakery and retail store now share one building. Family members and staff held a traditional blessing for the new space on Monday, Sept. 21. "This new home means so much to our family," Christin Takamine said in the company's announcement. She said the space was meant to honor what her parents built and give the next generation a chance to carry it forward.
The move changes the route more than any opening does. Big Island Delights used to be on Kanoelehua, in a different part of town. Now it's on the same street as the milk bread and the orchids. Cookies and gift baskets keep well, unlike the pastries from Korokoro, so this is the stop to make last.
Two Shorter Windows Off Kinoʻole
Two other recent openings, one from late summer and one from September, aren't on Kinoʻole, but they're worth adding to the week if you plan ahead.
Da'Ohana Corner Cafe is run by Hawaiʻi Community College's culinary program at 1175 Manono St., Building 382. It opened Sept. 9 and is open only Tuesday through Thursday, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The menu changes but has included salads, wraps, burgers, bentos, musubis and drinks, made with produce and herbs from the college's agriculture program. Call (808) 934-2591 to hear what's on the menu that day. On the same days, the college's I Ola No Ke Kino serves hot lunch specials from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. or until they sell out, and its number is (808) 934-2559.
Bull Shed Hilo opened July 29, 2026, at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel. It's the first location outside Kauaʻi for a restaurant that has served Kapaʻa for more than five decades. Breakfast starts at 6:30 a.m. every day and runs until 10 a.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. on weekends. Dinner is nightly from 5 to 9 p.m., and there's a prime rib and crab buffet on Friday and Saturday nights. Executive Chef Ryan Brannigan, who has led kitchens at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa and The Royal Hawaiian, runs the menu. The hotel's dining page says the menu will include a few dishes served only in Hilo. For anyone looking for a sit-down breakfast at 6:30, it's the earliest option of the openings covered here.
A Weekday Route Using the Reported Hours
On a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, all of these hours fit into one morning:
- About 6 a.m., Korokoro Cafe, 1216 Kinoole St. Go up to the second floor of WR Chun Hale for milk bread before the cases empty.
- After 7 a.m., Blooms Café, Hualālai and Kinoʻole. Get coffee and something homemade, and an orchid if you want one.
- 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Da'Ohana Corner Cafe, 1175 Manono St. Call ahead to find out what the culinary students are making.
- Last stop, Big Island Delights, 374 Kinoʻole St. Buy cookies or a gift basket once its retail hours are posted.
On a weekend, Da'Ohana is closed and Blooms doesn't open until 9. Bull Shed's 6:30 breakfast at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel is the earliest confirmed option among these openings for a Saturday or Sunday.
At Wai Pacific, we keep track of Hilo openings like these because they're part of how the town actually works day to day. If you'd like to talk about what Kinoʻole Street's new businesses mean for your corner of Hilo, give us a call. Start Your Island Real Estate Experience.
