Holo Holo Blog

Let’s take a minute to recognize and appreciate the dedicated catering team that keeps our guests well-fed on the water, Rose and Bros!

Rose and Bros is run by a local southside couple, Kai and Shay, who named their company after their three kids, Akira Rose (six years old) and her two brothers, Kanoa (10 years), and Kaua (11 years.) How cute is that?

When we say local, we mean local. Kai and Shay and Rose and the Bros live in Ele’ele and their kitchen is in Hanapepe, so the total commute distance is about a mile or two! And good thing, because they’re typically in the kitchen every morning by 3:30am, in order to drop off the first of four batches of meals for the day at 5:45am.

That’s before Kauai’s infamous rooster population starts cock-a-doodle-dooing!

So begins a long day of brewing, baking, boiling, peeling, slicing, dicing, shredding, marinating, mixing, whisking, straining, sautéing, wrapping, arranging, garnishing, packing, loading, delivering, and of course… dishwashing, sweeping, sanitizing, and shopping. We probably missed a few verbs in there, but you get the idea.

Rose and Bros doesn’t cut corners–even all of their sauces and dressings are mixed by hand, using whole ingredients. It’s labor-intensive, and it costs Holo Holo a little more, but we think it’s worth it to feed our guests the kind of meals we like to eat when we’re out on the water—fresh, colorful, nourishing, and delicious.

If you take one of our morning tours, you’ll be having two meals with us! For breakfast, you can look forward to coffee, tea, some sort of baked goods like muffins, cinnamon rolls, or Danishes, scrambled eggs with veggies & cheese, and assorted fresh fruit. For lunch, we’ve got turkey + cheddar wraps with a yummy sun-dried tomato cream cheese spread, all the fixins’ to make your own vegetarian or vegan wrap or sandwich, an Asian-inspired somen noodle salad, veggie crudité with ranch and hummus, and freshly baked cookies—chocolate chip and oatmeal craisin!

If you’re on one of our dinner tours, we’ll start off with a variety of meats, cheeses, crackers, and fresh veggies with ranch and roasted red pepper hummus. For the main course we’ll serve pineapple, garden greens with lemon/herb vinaigrette, our somen noodle salad (it’s so good!), hapa rice(half white, half brown rice), Teriyaki chicken, and roasted veggies with tofu. Try and save room for dessert–Kauai Coffee Coconut Caramel Crunch Brownies!

Over the years, we’ve refined our menu and for the most part, we stick to it; it’s tried and true! That said, it is our menu as of this writing, today. We like to experiment and upgrade our menu options as we see fit. Plus, there is some seasonal variation. If it’s fall, you might get to try an iconic Hawaiian dessert, Pumpkin Crunch. If it’s avocado season, they might throw in some guac! You just never know what Rose and Bros has up their sleeves. If you want to confirm the current menu offering, please give us a call! 808-335-0815

Speaking of their sleeves, we want to thank Rose and Bros for rolling them up and doing all the dishes. At Holo Holo, we proudly serve our meals on real plates with real cutlery. Doing so prevents so much waste from going into the landfill every day, and honestly, we think food tastes better when it’s not served on a flimsy piece of paper or plastic.

If Rose and Bros was a ship, Kai and Shay would be the co-captains, leading a crew of four. They couldn’t do it without Kristen, Shay’s right-hand woman; Rosa, who mixes all the cookie dough and blends all the dips; Florentina, the turkey wrap wrapper-extraordinaire and who somehow makes perfect rice (every single time); and Florentina’s husband Bernie, who marinates a mean teriyaki chicken and takes the brunt of the dishwashing duties.

Not only is this catering gig highly labor-intensive but it comes with a grueling schedule, as Holo Holo is potentially open for business 364 days a year. If it’s not Christmas, or the occasional training day or company gathering, the only other reason we aren’t running tours is if torrential rains or gale-force winds are forecasted. In other words, the random days off that Rose and Bros ends up getting aren’t exactly nice beach days.

Kai, Shay, Kristen, Rosa, Florentina, and Bernie, we want you to know that we see you, and we appreciate your consistency, reliability, and commitment to quality. Thank you for helping us deliver the most memorable and most delicious boat tour experiences Kauai has to offer!