'Awa Hou Kava Lounge

'Awa Hou occupies Suite D101 at 2700 South King Street in Mōʻiliʻili, in the space Glazer's Coffee held for years, and it is built around a plant that Hawaiʻi has been drinking for centuries. 'Awa is the Hawaiian name for what most of the Pacific calls kava, and the state formally recognised it as a safe traditional food in 2025 — part of a broader restoration of Native Hawaiian food culture. Owner Rami Kayali frames the business around two goals, building community and sharing 'awa, and the room is fitted out accordingly: a living wall of nearly 700 native plants supplied by the Hui Kū Maoli Ola nursery greets you at the door, lauhala mats line the counter sides, and Progress Pride, Hawaiian and Palestinian flags hang in the space. There are books and games, free wifi and parking, a student discount, and a rolling programme of pop-ups and community workshops.

The drinking is genuinely specific rather than generic. Fresh 'awa comes from farmers on Moku o Keawe — Hawaiʻi Island — and Molokaʻi, and is hand-pressed in house rather than reconstituted from powder; guests choose waka, the lateral root, which runs headier and more energising, or lewena, the stump, which sits heavier in the body, or a blend of the two. Dry kava from across the South Pacific rounds out the list, served with water or coconut water, with ginger syrup available to cut the flavour. Kayali is cheerfully blunt about that flavour, describing it to Honolulu Magazine as like "licking a potato" or drinking "pencil-shavings tea." A happy hour from 1pm to 4pm puts an eight-ounce 'apu — a coconut cup — at $5, with regular servings running $7.50 to $8.50, and Sky Kombucha is on tap for anyone who does not want kava at all. The honest caveat matters here: kava contains no alcohol and none is served, but it is psychoactive and taken for a relaxing, mildly euphoric effect, so it is not a neutral substitute in the way a zero-proof spritz is, and some people in recovery avoid it deliberately. Hours run 1pm to 10pm Sunday through Thursday and 1pm to 11pm on Friday and Saturday.