Lunch at Fresh Cafe

On Sunday after the Honolulu Academy of Arts, we were starved! We thought we would eat at the cafe in the Honolulu Academy of Arts, but they aren't open on Sunday. We decided to drive down Ward Avenue and visit "Fresh Cafe". Fresh Cafe is a new cafe located in Kakaako at 831 Queen Street. It's nestled between dozens of industrial shops as Kakaako's businesses comprise moslty of businesses like auto body shops, auto mechanic shops, car dealerships, machine shops, etc. It's a nice oasis in the midst of all these shops. The location is quite nostalgic for me as I spent several of my automotive racing industry years working on another corner lot in Kakaako. The shop was called Speedtek and it was in a blue building on the corner of Halekauwila and Keawe Streets. This was back in the early-mid 90's. Quite some time ago. Anyway, I recall having such limited options for lunch those days. It was either Queen's BBQ, Tsukenjo's, Kakaako Kitchen, Kiawe Cafe or that other Korean BBQ place. Almost daily I remember opting for the barbecue chicken plate from Queen's BBQ because almost everything is sold out at Tsukenjo's by the time we had lunch and the only thing left is roast pork. Tsukenjo's roast pork plate is fine, but I can't be eating that every day! Now the community has a new option! Fresh Cafe has opened up and provides a unique setting for the area. I can sit there, relax and have an iced coffee out on the deck area without realizing I'm in the middle of one of Honolulu's most industrious neighborhoods. It also happens to be operated by friends of my friends that have a little automotive garage space next door! What a convenient place to visit and catch up with the car tuning world. Unfortunately for me, my current diet restrictions limit my meals that I eat from restaurants to very plain salads without any dressings. Because of that, I can't really say much for the great food options now. I was able to order a spinach salad with bacon and garlic. I requested no dressing (normally comes with a homemade creamy house dressing) and got a little olive oil on the side. I'm already used to eating my salads plain so it was great for me. Kelli ordered the turkey pesto melt sandwich on a spinach bagel. She paired it with a tomato soup. It was too filling for her to finish, but she enjoyed it. She also had an iced tea to go with lunch. It has fresh blueberries and a cube of watermelon in the tea for some visual appeal and a slight essence of flavor. Fresh Cafe was also featured on KHON2's Morning Show. Here is a link to that. The set up of this cafe is ironically very similar to what I've wanted to set up for the past 10 years. It's the goal I'm working towards and the reason why I actually became a Realtor. It continues to be a goal of mine and some day it will become a reality. One spot with all my passions (or few of the top) combined.