During the typical holiday gift-giving season, a gift of food is a way to share delicious finds or one’s own kitchen talents. This year, the gesture may mean a lot more for those who find themselves in need of a pick-me-up or more serious sustenance.
At 12th Ave Grill, co-owner Denise Luke said she’s been gratified to see a strong spirit of generosity since the pandemic shutdowns and mass unemployment began.
“From Easter we had lots of people buying food for their neighbors, adult children buying for their parents, or parents buying for their children, who are really happy when they pick it up,” Luke said. “It’s a way of letting each other know they’re thinking of them even when they can’t meet in person.”
After shutting down in early August to re-imagine pandemic-era food service, the restaurant reopened half its space as 12th Ave Grill Deli Cafe a week before Thanksgiving. The main dining room is slated to reopen closer to Christmas, with more of a seafood and raw-bar focus. Luke and her husband, Kevin Hanney, are grateful for customers who prodded them to open and pushed them for holiday offerings.
“I didn’t think people had money so I kind of lost my confidence,” she said. “When they want to buy a $100 gift card, I’m kind of surprised, like, ‘You do? OK!’”
In addition to gift cards, the restaurant is offering deli lunch boxes ($25 each with 20-order minimum), popular with companies as a way of easily sharing a company lunch with employees at a time when people are not allowed to gather en masse.
Other treats offered by the restaurant include triple-chocolate cookies with peppermint crumble by new chef Mauro Gramuglia, and limited quantities of a holiday seafood charcuterie board ($49), with items such as ahi prosciutto and other seafoods cured in house.
Here are more ideas to brighten someone else’s holidays, from restaurants and specialty shops:
GIFT BASKETS AND COOKING KITS
There’s no shortage of sweet ideas at A Cake Life, where you can promote family togetherness via Christmas cookie kits complete with colored icings and sprinkles ($35 for six sugar and six gingerbread cookies) or a gingerbread house kit ($45). Finished treats include a 10-inch tall gingerbread cookie tree ($50), as well as smaller giftables of peppermint mocha and pumpkin-caramel cheesecake cake cups ($4 each or five for $18). Call or text 542-0131, or email info@acakelife.com. Payments are via Venmo app only. Pick up at 2320 S. King St.
Dean & Deluca recently reopened both of its Waikiki stores, making them one-stop shopping places for gourmet gifts. The shop at Ritz-Carlton Waikiki Residences focuses on Euro-centric products, while the Royal Hawaiian Center shop specializes in local finds, from creative teas by tea sommelier Brittnee Lau of Treehouse Teas to individually packaged lava cakes by Kahala Pantry to Dean & Deluca- branded pancake mixes in cute aloha-print cloth pouches. The shops also offer celebratory gift sets starting at $60 — combining wine with logo glasses and chocolates.
Gourmet Foods Hawaii is offering paella kits for $56; add a pan for $19.50. Or create your own gift baskets from the company’s roster of products. For home bakers, dough balls produced in a partnership with HI Pie ($7.25 for two, enough for two 9-inch or four 4-inch pies) make holiday baking easier. The Kalihi shop also stocks bulk essentials such as 3-kilogram bags (that’s 6-plus pounds) of E. Guittard 55% chocolate ($35.40) and 1 pound of Beurremont butter ($5.75). At 740 Kopke St.; 841-8071.
To help cope with the stress of the season and a tough year all around, Hideout at The Laylow offers cocktail kits featuring four of its signature mixed drinks. The boozy kits are made with local ingredients made to order for $30. They include a mai tai; The Bully, with aged whiskey, Campari, coffee-infused vermouth and orange bitters; Slay Rosé, a blend of sangria and rosé; and The Lucky Kid, a sweet-spicy mixture of Pau Maui vodka, Ancho Reyes Verde Chile Poblano liqueur, lilikoi and ginger lime tea syrup. The Honolulu Liquor Commission requires that all kits be purchased with a food item. The Laylow hotel is at 2299 Kuhio Ave.; 922-6600.
For the cook in your life, Island Olive Oil offers all the ingredients for a fine Mediterranean meal, from fine olive oils from around the world, to pastas, pestos and balsamic vinegars. Create your own basket, or choose one of their combos. Gift sets range from a blood orange brownie kit ($13.95) and buttery black truffle popcorn kit ($19.95) that use flavored oils, to gourmet gift baskets starting at $65. At Ward Centre (518-6625) and Kailua Town Center (518-6626).
MEALS IN A BOX
When catering work dried up due to the cancellation of events large and small, Chai Chaowasaree of Chef Chai put his organizational skills to work creating boxed meals that last several days. Treat yourself or someone else to a holiday box for two, containing Alaskan king crab legs, jumbo shrimp cocktails, entrees of beef short ribs, miso seabass with lobster reduction, mashed potatoes, desserts and a box of pineapple cookies for Santa. Cost is $130, for pickup at the restaurant, 1009 Kapiolani Blvd., noon to 6 p.m. Dec. 23 to 25. To order call 585-0011 or go to 808ne.ws/chaiholidaybox.
If a traditional Christmas dinner is not your thing, other options include the O’Kim’s Korean Kitchen Feast Box for four or five, featuring chap chae, bulgogi, salad, a pound of kimchi, purple rice and double orders of this month’s specials of mixed seafood, meat and vegetable jun and chicken ginseng soup. Cost is $79.95. O’Kim’s is at 1028 Nuuanu Ave. Call 537-3787.
Roy’s Hawaii Kai and Ko Olina restaurants are offering chef Roy Yamaguchi’s festive Treasure Box, a mouth-watering build-your-own sushi kit to feed two or three. It includes the makings of eight sushi bar favorites, from ahi and hamachi to unagi and king crab, plus tobiko, nori, veggies, pre-molded rice and sauces of ponzu, soy and kabayaki. Cost is $99. Order at royyamaguchi.com.
You could also surprise someone with a box of 12 birria tacos from La Birria food truck in the Sears parking lot at Pearlridge Center. It’s $45 for a dozen regular tacos or $55 for the Hell Fire spicy version.
Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
