Koa Table Cafe, Birch Bay’s newest coffee shop and restaurant, isn’t just a spot for a tasty espresso or classic Hawaiian staple food, it’s a family affair years in the making.
Co-owner Kaleo Day said that growing up a Native Hawaiian on the Big Island, he didn’t realize how popular the cuisine was on the mainland. After moving to Shoreline and making his way to Birch Bay, he finally found the opportunity to open his own restaurant after cooking professionally since 2018.
He partnered with his wife Melissa O’Brine, who managed her mother’s bakery in Ferndale – Barb’s Pies and Pastries – and had previous barista experience. Once a plan to take over the unused commercial space on prime real estate along Birch Bay Drive came into place, they partnered with daughter Nuria Day and her fiancée Dom Godinez as co-owners who could help with day-to-day operations.
“We have an entrepreneurial spirit,” O’Brine said. “We knew we wanted to open a restaurant or coffee shop, and it just came together kind of crazily.”
Nuria and her father have shared a connection over cooking for as long as she can remember, saying the cafe is a dream come true.
“It’s been a childhood dream of mine and my dad’s to open a restaurant together,” Nuria said. “It started with the cafe because this is the opportunity we had.”
Nuria said she’s been cooking alongside her dad since she was a little kid, and remembers her first cooking lesson from Kaleo: how to cook an egg. That relationship has only grown since, Nuria said.
“When we would cook for our church together, I was his little sous chef,” Nuria said. “It’s always been our thing. We’ve got a really good relationship and I really enjoy cooking, and he’s really good at it.”
Kaleo said he loves cooking classics on the menu like spam musubi, Loco Moco burgers and chicken teriyaki, and said he’s especially proud of his pasta dishes, specifically the bacon chicken alfredo pasta.
The cafe officially opened January 12, but held a soft opening during the Birch Bay Polar Bear Plunge, which brought thousands of frigid thrill-seekers to attempt to break a Guinness World Record on January 1. It was a great opportunity for Koa Table Cafe to introduce itself to the community – and hand out a few hundred cups of free coffee in the process.
Kaleo said the cafe has received most of its business from guests and employees at the WorldMark resort, where Koa Table Cafe shares a building. Kaleo sells timeshares for WorldMark, and he and Melissa live in the resort six months out of the year.
“While other places are battened down or preparing for no customers, Valentine’s Day weekend we’re at capacity here in both the resorts,” Kaleo said. “So we know to prepare for that, and that’s helped us a lot.”
The unique coffee blend and standout Hawaiian staples – “poverty food” as Kaleo lovingly called it – is what keeps customers returning, Kaleo said.
Koa Table Cafe boasts a special Kona coffee blend of Hammerhead Northwest Espresso beans and 10% Kona beans flown in from Hawaii. Kaleo said the blend makes for a delicious combo, and also merits a name change for a few of the classic cups of joe. For example, the Velvet Elvis at Koa Table is referred to as “The King’s Kona.”
“The whole theme of the cafe is Hawaii meets the Pacific Northwest, and so the coffee is a perfect blend of that,” Kaleo said.
Koa Table Cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week at 7826 Birch Bay Drive.
