Ed Kenney and Dave Caldiero have been on a roll, building on their Town success with the opening of Kaimuki Superette in 2014, Mud Hen Water last year and, last month, Mahina & Sun’s.

The new restaurant is inside the Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club, which is turning out to be Honolulu’s latest hot spot for beautiful people. In keeping with the stylish, vintage- and surf-inspired vibe of the hotel, Mahina & Sun’s captures the cozy indoor-outdoor ambience of Hawaii homes, accented by retro print fabric headboards by Tori Richard, lamps by local artist Mark Chai and shaka wallpaper by Andrew Mau.

Front and center is the bar, the heart of any gathering space, where you can enjoy cocktails of botanical gin, lavender bitters, yellow chartreuse and Ko Hana rum.

A visitor to our islands might be seduced by this picture postcard of Hawaii realized in 3-D, but belying this glossy image of paradise is a true snapshot of contemporary and forward- looking Hawaii cuisine — which is not touristy luau fare.

Since Town opened in 2005, the thread running through Kenney and Caldiero’s efforts has been the philosophy, “Local first, organic whenever possible, with aloha always.” It’s become a cliche now that everyone talks sustainability, but at that time it was a breath of fresh air.

Back then the Hawaii Regional Cuisine movement had reached its apex. In skilled hands the Pacific-Western fusion cuisine turned up some revelatory combinations, but formulas trickled down to a point where less skilled hands were throwing 25 to 30 disparate ingredients into a skillet or onto a plate, hoping for some kind of magical alchemy, only to come up with many a hot mess.

By reintroducing the idea of simplicity and the integrity of a handful of choice ingredients, Town altered the culinary landscape in Hawaii, paving the way for a new generation of chefs focused on simple, casual, local and sustainable.

I have to applaud Kenney and Caldiero’s long-standing commitment. By now the current movement is about a decade old, and a degree of fatigue has set in, sending diners running to New American cuisine and the comfort and mindlessness of fried chicken, burgers and fries. But what looks like the same-old on Mahina & Sun’s menu of Hawaii-sourced salads and seafood is something much more audacious, taking the “local first” mantra to an extreme. Where many would see limitation, the chefs see only possibility in balancing human needs with planetary health.

Most of us are happy to parachute in and augment our thoroughly Western diets with the occasional sustainable dish or meal, but Mahina & Sun’s makes a convincing case that this food can be a permanent lifestyle choice, looking backward to move forward.

Even though most of the ingredients would be familiar to the kanaka maoli, preparation and flavor profiles meet our 21st-century expectations. So much so that many of my meat-loving friends surprised me by continually reaching for a plate of delicious local veggies ($24) — Go Farm polenta surrounded by the hairy roots, stems and shoots of carrots, turnips and asparagus, tossed only with a light vinaigrette and sea salt. I even learned to love ulu (breadfruit), which I couldn’t give away fast enough when I had a tree.

An order of Sweet Land Farm chevre beignets ($9), served with beet ketchup and arugula, is one of the “snacks” that whets the appetite for more, perhaps a trio of Pacific Saltwater oysters ($14) raised in Kualoa Ranch’s Moli‘i Fishponds. The first commercially viable, homegrown oysters raised here in 30 years, these have a clean and mild briny flavor. Only a dash of chili pepper water is used, to allow diners to experience their true flavor. Slices of calamansi on the side add the spark of citrus.

I also love the rich texture of kahala crudo ($16), sprinkled with toasted inamona and purslane, with a touch of preserved lemon and a sauce of brown butter vinaigrette, of which not a single drop went to waste.

A grilled hee (octopus) and watercress salad ($18) was another favorite, though it can be awkward slicing into the tentacle when sharing.

Only the most local among us should order the paiai and akule ($15) combo. I’m fine with the pounded taro; the fishy fish, not so much, but the restaurant follows the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide to sustainable catch and is doing its part to raise awareness of alternatives to overfished species.

The menu includes a Kuahiwi Ranch burger ($18), plus pan-roasted half chicken ($27), rigatoni topped with Hawaiian wild boar ragu ($17) and flatbread-style Naked Pig pizza ($17) featuring Naked Cow fromage blanc, uncured bacon, Maui onion and arugula. But seafood dominates, and my favorite was the monchong ($28). Broadbill swordfish, a dry fish to begin with, was dry even when finished with a smoky bacon broth, but I did enjoy the savoy cabbage that accompanied it.

To get the full experience, try Mahina’s Family Feast, with a whole mochiko-fried deep-sea snapper as its dramatic centerpiece, accompanied by ponzu, cilantro and curry aioli sauces.

For $35 per person, you also get three Kualoa oysters for each person, and sides of roasted root salad with ogo, inamona and crisp baby opae, a pohole fern salad with tomatoes, buttered ulu with chili pepper water aioli, house pickles, hapa rice and dessert. It adds up when you figure in the cost of the market-price fish, recently $60.

Former Soul Patrol restaurateur Sean Priester is executive chef, but for now Kenney and Caldiero are overseeing their “baby” before heading back to Kaimuki to plot future moves.