Third-Wave Coffee, Family Style
The husband-and-wife duo behind Java Kai in Kapa‘a expand their specialty coffee operation up north.
Text by Lauren McNally
Images by Christian Cook and courtesy of Middle MGMT
Given the hype around Hawai‘i’s famed Kona coffee, you’d think it would be easy to find a quality cup in the islands. That wasn’t always the case, says Sean Garcia, co-owner of Kai Bar Kīlauea, sister shop to Kapa‘a mainstays Java Kai and Kai Bar Coffee Roasters. The path to coffee wasn’t a straight one for him and Xochitl Burchell, his wife and co-owner, but over the past decade, it’s become the pair’s unique contribution to their friends, family, and community in Hawai‘i.
Before Burchell and Garcia were elevating the coffee game on Kaua‘i, they were on the creative grind in Los Angeles, where Burchell worked as a women’s clothing designer and Garcia was in film production. Eager to transplant their growing family out of L.A., they switched gears in the aftermath of the recession and left the city with their toddler in tow to realize their long-time dream of running a coffee shop. “It was something we were both drawn to,” Burchell says. “We always enjoyed the community of it and had visions of what we would do differently from other coffee shops, so when the opportunity arose, we jumped on it.”
Burchell’s mother, Debra Elkins, owned two of them next door to each other on Kaua‘i: Mermaids Cafe, a Kapa‘a institution that she opened in 1999, and Java Kai, a former franchise that at one point included several locations on Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, and in the continental U.S. After running Java Kai for a year and falling for the same small-town charm that inspired Elkins to move to the island two decades earlier, Burchell and Garcia decided to buy the place from her in 2011 and make it their own. “There are quite a few coffee shops on Kaua‘i these days, but when we first started, there were only a couple of them, and nobody was roasting their own coffee,” Garcia says.
“We’re the only state [besides, just recently, California] that can actually grow it, so we just wanted to bring third-wave, specialty coffee to Kaua‘i.”
Coffee has come a long way since the early days of Folgers and Maxwell House—no-nonsense brands that ushered in the first wave of America’s coffee addiction by making it accessible to the masses. From there, a second wave emerged, one mostly defined by the café culture and elaborate espresso drinks at big chains like Peet’s and Starbucks. If first-wave coffee was about the consumer and the second wave was about the coffeehouse, a third wave of coffee connoisseurs are homing in on the coffee itself, demanding attention to craft across the entire life cycle of your morning fix, from the beans to the roast to the brewing method.
“Years ago we had this amazing cup of coffee at a little shop in Seattle that roasted its own coffee,” Garcia says. “We realized that if we wanted that [quality], we’d have to roast the coffee ourselves.” The couple bought a roaster and launched their micro-roastery operation out of the back of Java Kai, opening a new storefront, Kai Bar Coffee Roasters, for customers to order freshly roasted small-batch beans, both local and imported, as well as brewed coffee to go. Kai Bar has since expanded its offerings to meet the demand for Java Kai’s full menu of locally sourced breakfast and lunch items, smoothies, and baked goods, which are made from scratch every morning in house.
When the space next door to Java Kai opened up, Burchell seized the opportunity to fulfill another long-standing ambition—opening a boutique. “I knew I wanted to get back into fashion, but not necessarily design,” she says. “The vision was to incorporate a boutique next door where I could curate an inventory of things I love and things I think my husband or my kids would love.”
The evolving selection at Shipwrecked Kaua‘i is inspired by island living, but it’s not all slippers and beach coverups. Along with the usual suspects—bikinis, breezy resort wear, tropical prints—you’ll also find athleisure and streetwear, high-end silk and leather goods, cozy knits, niche beauty brands, handmade ceramics, and home furnishings sourced throughout the U.S., Australia, and beyond, plus a line of branded merch. (The shop’s “Hanalei is my bae” products are a best seller.)
Though you won’t find Shipwrecked next door to Kai Bar in Kīlauea, Burchell has been in talks to open a second store up north with Garcia’s sister, Morgan, who has worked alongside Burchell at Shipwrecked since moving to Kaua‘i with her fiancée, painter Darcy Bartoletti. Bartoletti is among the many local artists who have shown work or sold prints out of Java Kai, and he’s also spent time as a Java Kai barista and apprentice to Kai Bar’s master roaster, T.J. Beckley.
Between Beckley’s roasting expertise and the shop’s knowledgeable baristas, Kai Bar is clearly doing something right. When Kai Bar’s roasting operations began to outgrow its digs in Kapa‘a, Garcia and Burchell secured a second location on the North Shore and had a new, larger roaster hand built to spec in the Netherlands, with plans to install it in at what is now Kar Bar Kīlauea. While waiting on construction of the shop and surrounding neighborhood center to be completed, they decided to get the new roaster up and running in Kapa‘a instead, where it’s found a permanent home roasting beans for both their North Shore and east side shops. And rather than sticking to just coffee, Kai Bar Kīlauea serves up the same menu and cafe experience that’s earned Java Kai its loyal following down in Kapa‘a.
The name Kai Bar is about to take on a whole new meaning now that the Kīlauea shop has been approved for a liquor license. When Kai Bar eventually extends its hours and adds alcohol to the menu, it will join a new breed of hybrid cafes popping up around the country with the promise of specialty coffee in the morning and beer and wine after dark. But unlike in coffee cities on the continent, here you’re surrounded by raw wilderness and a tight-knit community distinct from anywhere else in the world.
After all, in a place like Kaua‘i, the perfect brew isn’t just about what’s in the cup. “It’s a spot people can come back to and see the same employees year after year,” Burchell says.
