Dean & DeLuca’s first Hawaii location is a two-story market, cafe and wine bar at the base of the Ritz-Carlton Residences Waikiki Beach, at 383 Kalaimoku St., that will open to the public on Wednesday.
The first floor features a coffee bar and cafe that will offer coffees and other hot or cold drinks with pastries and additional baked goods, as well as ready-to-eat and heat-and-eat foods that can be purchased for grab-and-go consumption, or by the pound.
Hawaiian sodas, the company’s take on Italian sodas, will be offered in tropical flavors including lilikoi, according to Luke Blubaugh, the general manager.
The first floor also has a gourmet market with Dean & DeLuca-branded food items and snacks such as coated almonds in a range of flavors. Also featured are a variety of chocolate bars, such as salted dark chocolate, and logo items including canvas and insulated tote bags, refillable water bottles and more.
The second-floor wine lounge will offer wines by the glass and shareable plates such as charcuterie, cheese or bruschetta platters made using a range of imported, domestic and made-in-Hawaii products.
Specialty meats and some 35 cheeses also may be purchased by the pound. The cheese offerings will expand as more selections arrive from local purveyors, said Johan Svensson, executive chef for Dean & DeLuca. Svensson also is executive chef for BLT Market on the building’s eighth floor.
Dean & DeLuca’s first-floor patio offers outdoor seating for 40, while the second-floor lounge can seat as many as 20 people. Nearly two dozen local employees have been hired to run the shop.
Dean & DeLuca will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The first hour of parking in the building is complimentary with a minimum purchase of $30, and costs $4 for each half-hour thereafter.
Correction: Dean & DeLuca’s cafe and wine bar at the Ritz-Carlton Residences Waikiki Beach will open Wednesday. A previous version of this story said the opening would be on Tuesday.