Late in July, Chubbies Burgers posted a short video on Instagram with the caption "Coconut wireless is coming... should we enter the chat?" Three days later, the confirmation: the burger operation founded on Oʻahu in 2016 is coming back to Kakaʻako, landing somewhere inside SALT at Our Kakaʻako. No address yet. No opening date. Just the block.
If you've lived in Kakaʻako for more than a few years, that vagueness is the interesting part. Everyone treats a restaurant opening as new information. Half the time in this neighborhood, it's an old name finding its way back to a familiar street.
The Truck That Parked Here Before The Block Had A Name
Chubbies started as a food truck in 2016, working a parking lot near Jamba Juice at 960 Auahi Street. SALT at Our Kakaʻako, the retail complex now anchoring the other end of that same street, didn't have its public grand opening until June 2017, timed deliberately to coincide with the Hōkūleʻa's return from its voyage around the world. So for its first year of business, Chubbies was already parked on Auahi Street before the block most people now associate with Kakaʻako dining had even opened its doors.
The truck ran for about five years before the business grew into a sit-down restaurant in Kaimukī, at 1145C 12th Avenue. That location closed for good on February 1 of this year. Owner Jeff Nedry didn't step away from Kaimukī entirely: a sister concept called Boarded Up by Chubbies Burgers opened soon after in the former Hokkaidō Ramen space, a few doors from where the original storefront had been. So the count right now is two active Nedry-owned kitchens in one neighborhood, plus a third on the way back to the block where the whole thing began.
That's not really a story about one burger joint. It's a pattern you'll notice again if you pay attention to who owns what in this neighborhood: the same handful of local operators keep circulating through a small set of addresses, closing one door and opening another two blocks over, rather than a wave of outside brands parachuting in and out.
Two Doors Down, A Name That Actually Is New
Not everything churning through Kakaʻako right now is a returning face. In February, Rollin' Rolls Cafe opened at 502 Keawe Street, Suite D, next to Mad Pie and behind Down to Earth Kakaʻako, in the space that used to hold Hibachi Honolulu. Owner Tam Tran built the menu around Vietnamese spring and summer rolls, banh mi, and Vietnamese coffee, and named the shop for the idea that "roll" doubles as "on the go."
Set the two openings side by side and you get a more honest read on how this neighborhood actually replenishes its restaurant lineup. The buildings turn over constantly. Hibachi Honolulu is gone; Rollin' Rolls is there now. But the operators filling those buildings are a mix of genuinely new small businesses and long-running local names re-entering a footprint they already know. A short table makes the pattern easier to see:
| Address | Who Was There | Who's There (Or Coming) Now |
|---|---|---|
| 960 Auahi St. lot | Chubbies Burgers food truck (2016) | Built out as part of Ward Village |
| 691 Auahi St. (SALT) | Moku Kitchen, 9Bar, Village Bottle Shop among the original 2017 tenants | Chubbies Burgers announced, address TBD |
| 502 Keawe St., Ste. D | Hibachi Honolulu | Rollin' Rolls Cafe (opened Feb. 2026) |
Neither column is more "authentic" than the other. But if you're trying to read the neighborhood's actual rhythm instead of just its headlines, the distinction matters: some of what looks like fresh energy is actually a familiar name finding its way back to familiar ground.
What's Actually Digging Up The Sidewalks Right Now
If you've rerouted your walk to the farmers market lately, there's a reason beyond road mood. Construction tied to Hawaiian Electric infrastructure upgrades began in March 2026 around Increment II of the Our Kakaʻako master plan, which covers blocks C, D, G, H, and I. Some existing buildings are being partially demolished to make room for underground utility work. The affected corridors include:
- Ala Moana Boulevard
- Koula Street
- Auahi Street
- Cooke Street
- Coral Street
Work runs weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., with occasional evening or weekend activity as the project progresses. It's the kind of disruption that's easy to write off as generic development noise, except it's tied to a specific set of blocks that are about to see real density arrive. Kaliʻu, a 285-unit tower from ProsPac Holdings, is under construction directly across Coral Street from SALT, with completion projected for 2028. Kahuina, an 861-unit project from Stanford Carr Development on Block C, is expected to break ground this year. Waiakoa, a project from Koa Partners and Castle & Cooke Hawaiʻi bringing roughly a thousand more homes to Block D, is targeted for 2027.
None of that changes what you can get for lunch this month. But it explains why the ground beneath the neighborhood's food scene keeps shifting even as the food scene itself feels stable: more housing is coming to the same nine blocks, and the retail turnover you're seeing at street level is partly a preview of the appetite that's about to show up next door.
The One Saturday That Doesn't Change
Whatever else is being dug up or reopened, the Kakaʻako Farmers Market has held its Saturday rhythm at Ala Moana Boulevard and Ward Avenue since 2013. It runs 8 a.m. to noon, rain or shine, and now draws more than 140 vendors across both sides of the street. JoJa's Smash Burgers is one of the lines that forms before the market technically opens, built around a double-patty ribeye and beef chuck blend topped with a truffle sauce. Ōmao Man has been blending green smoothies at the market since 2013, the same year it started. Vermilli, a locally designed apparel brand, sells swimwear and dresses out of the craft rows.
The market is worth naming specifically because it's the one fixture in this story that isn't circulating through addresses or waiting on permits. Restaurants close and reopen under new names. Construction fencing moves from one block to the next. The Saturday market has occupied the same corner for over a decade, which makes it a useful anchor if you're trying to orient yourself to how fast the rest of the neighborhood is actually changing versus how fast it feels like it's changing.
Reading The Block Instead Of The Headline
The easy version of a Kakaʻako update is a list: this closed, that opened, here's what's coming. The more useful version asks what the list is actually telling you. Right now, it's telling you that the neighborhood's food scene runs on a smaller, more familiar cast than the constant churn suggests, that a fair amount of current construction disruption is tied directly to housing that will land on these same blocks within the next two to three years, and that the Saturday market remains the steadiest read on the neighborhood you'll find, precisely because it hasn't needed to reinvent itself.
If you're the kind of resident who tracks this stuff for the pleasure of knowing your neighborhood well, keep an eye on SALT's Instagram for the Chubbies address. If you're the kind of resident who's been quietly wondering what all this density and turnover has done to what your Kakaʻako condo is actually worth, that's a different conversation, and it's one Hokua Hawaii Realty is glad to have. Request a free home valuation whenever you're ready to find out.
