I’m neither vegetarian nor vegan, but whenever I want to eat a healthful meal, or others seek venue recommendations from me, I realize there aren’t enough restaurants to accommodate those in pursuit of healthful dietary styles or those philosophically opposed to eating meat.
Meat eaters might callously wonder why these diners can’t just go to any restaurant and pick out a salad or other similarly qualified dish, but it’s not that easy. With the multiple ingredients that can go into a relatively simple salad and dressing, ordering for the vegetarian or vegan can turn into a lengthy line item, ingredient-by-ingredient examination.
Even something as seemingly innocent as a fig can come into question because of the pollinating female wasps that burrow their way into certain species where, unable to exit, they die. Their bodies are dissolved by enzymes within the fig before we ever take a bite of them, but for adherents of a veggie diet, the hint of insect essence within the fruit may be too much.
Vegan restaurants signal assurance that none of their ingredients can be called into question, so each new entry to the scene gives reason to cheer. Among them is Floralia, a pizza spot that has set down roots in a parking lot in the industrial area behind Kapiolani Drive-Thru Car Wash after years of being known as the mobile operation What it Dough.
Owner and pizza maker Kip Praissman had grown up on Long Island, New York, and moved to Los Angeles as a young adult to work in the film industry. There, he learned that New York had turned him into a pizza snob.
“In LA, I wasn’t thrilled about the quality of the pizzas, so I started making my own. It became a hobby that evolved to become a passion, and friends and other people started telling me I should open my own pizza shop.”
He was planning to do just that when he met a woman and followed her out to Oahu. Well, you know the story: boy gets girl, boy loses girl, but fell in love with Hawaii and decided to set up shop here instead.
He had an Italian brick pizza oven and trailer shipped in from LA and set up shop on the North Shore near Pipeline. Praissman was set to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant when the pandemic arrived and plans went awry.
That’s how he ended up in a parking lot that he’s turned into a mini oasis with seating for 28, with a Chinese-made electric bus that serves as a kitchen where he produces his Neopolitan-style pizzas. He’ll be adding another 600 feet of enclosed dining space and bar by early 2023.
You’re pretty much on your own with service here. Order when you walk in, grab utensils and help yourself to fruit-infused water before finding seating. For now, the menu is short and sweet, with seven standard plant-based pizzas, a daily pizza special, Caesar salad ($8), garlic knots ($5) and desserts.
In the 800-degree kiawe fire pizza oven, the pizzas cook up quickly to a soft, chewy consistency. Ingredients such as arugula are added after the cooking for a fresh, vibrant touch.
They offer an omnivore-credible margherita ($17) with delicious San Marzano tomato sauce, basil, olive oil and a sprinkling of salt that made me forget the “mozzarella” was vegan. Even so, the pizza must be eaten while hot, after which the cheese consistency becomes more soft than stringy.
My favorites are the flavorful “Da Pesto” ($17) with basil pesto, San Marzano tomato and nut goat cheese, and the “Pesto Royale” ($20) painted with basil pesto and layered with nut goat cheese, vegan “sausage” and marinated peppers.
Praissman said most diners are unaware of Floralia’s plant-based philosophy because they arrive only in search of pizza. Ironically, I think carnivores will be happier with the pesto pizzas than the vegan pepperoni pizza ($18). The mock pepperoni doesn’t have the intense flavor, salt and texture of the real thing. I tried adding mushrooms ($2) and Kalamata olives ($2), and it was the olives that made the pepperoni tolerable. Other options are marinara ($14), cheese ($16) and white ($21) pizzas, to which one can add extra toppings ranging from $1 to $3.
Desserts include housemade cannoli ($6) and cultured cashew cream-based cheesecakes. With busy hands in the kitchen, Praissman says diners may soon see the introduction of pastas and New York-style pizzas.
Floralia
1124 Kona St., Honolulu
Food: ***
Service: N/A
Ambiance: **½
Value: ***½
Call: 808-859-1525
Hours: 4-8 p.m. Fridays-Sundays
Prices: About $40 for two, BYOB
Nadine Kam’s restaurant visits are unannounced and paid for by Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Follow Nadine on Instagram (@nadinekam) or on YouTube (youtube.com/nadinekam).
