Getting in touch
Somebody's cousin
tells somebody.
Mahalo for thinking of us. We keep the business small on purpose, so here's how booking actually works — cousin to cousin, auntie to auntie, across three or four kitchens before it ever gets to ours.
How it goes
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1
Someone you know knows us.
A family member, a neighbor, somebody whose wedding or baby luau we cooked. That's how our phone number moves — hand to hand, at a funeral, across the bleachers at the Kamehameha game, in somebody's garage over a Coors Light. That's not us being precious; it's just how two people can keep cooking this way.
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2
They make the introduction.
Ask them to pass your gathering details to us directly. The date, how many people, Hilo side or Kona side, what you're celebrating, whether there's an imu pit at the venue. We respond within a few days, usually in the evenings after cooking is done.
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3
We talk story.
Once we've got a sense of your event, Auntie Mele will set a time to sit with you — sometimes in person over coffee, sometimes a long phone call — and work out the menu, the logistics, and the number. This conversation usually runs an hour.
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4
We hold the date.
A small deposit holds the calendar. The balance settles the week of the event. No surprises, no add-ons at the end, no percent-based service fees. What we quote is what you pay.
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5
We show up.
On the day, we arrive at least an hour before service — earlier for imu jobs. Kimo sets up the line. Mele walks the room to meet the family. And then we cook.
Mahalo for reading all the way down.
We know cousin-to-cousin feels slow. It's how Mele's mother did it at the plantation camp, how her mother did it before that, and it's the only way two people can cook this food and still show up to their own grandkids' birthdays.