Kaimuki, the neighborhood you are walking through, is one of Honolulu's most beloved and characterful, a place where the immigrant working-class history of territorial Hawaii meets a thoroughly contemporary food and arts scene. Kaimuki developed in the early twentieth century as a streetcar suburb, built on the gentle slopes above Waikiki and accessible via the Kaimuki line of Honolulu's electric streetcar system. The neighborhood attracted the families of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Portuguese plantation workers who had completed their labor contracts and sought new lives in the city.
Each community brought its food traditions, its religious practices, and its distinct cultural identity — and over generations these identities blended into what local people call 'local culture,' something genuinely distinct from any of its ingredients. The Japanese American families who lived in Kaimuki during the Second World War faced particular anguish: their sons served with extraordinary valor in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Europe while their parents lived under martial law in Hawaii, their loyalty constantly questioned. Today, Waialae Avenue, Kaimuki's commercial spine, has become one of Honolulu's most exciting dining destinations, recognized nationally for the quality and diversity of its restaurants — a tangible expression of that immigrant culinary inheritance.