WAILUA — “They got good burgers,” workers from a utility company told Chef Judy Capertina, Tuesday afternoon when she inquired about the work being done outside the Street Burger restaurant on Kuhio Highway in Wailua.
That was welcome news to Capertina’s ears as she announced the opening of Street Burger Kaua‘i to regular hours for the first time since the restaurant shut down in December.
“Street Burger Kaua‘i is open from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays,” Capertina said. “This is for now because of all the construction taking place on Kuhio Highway outside the restaurant. We don’t really know what they’re working on, either the highway or the bridge, but it gets pretty busy when they set up the lights for nighttime work.”
Capertina, owner and operator of Haole Girl Sweets, said she acquired the restaurant after learning it was available after being closed in December.
“Crazy lady,” she said. “Turning 65, and buying a restaurant.”
Following more than three months of work renovating, adjusting, and tweaking, Capertina finally feels the restaurant is ready to serve customers.
One of the first things she did was to change the name to Street Burger Kaua‘i.
“You would never believe it, but there was a guy from Nebraska who was surprised he was talking to someone from Kaua‘i after looking up ‘Street Burger,’” Capertina said. “They have Street Burgers everywhere. This is Street Burgers, Kaua‘i, not Las Vegas, or Honolulu.”
The name reflects the many adjustments and changes to the menu without affecting the quality, and reflecting a more farm-to-table concept in meal preparations.
“We source local,” Capertina said. “Kaua‘i first, and then, if necessary, the rest of Hawai‘i before looking at mainland sources. In this pandemic and all of the problems it created, we need to take care of each other. We even make our own ketchup.”
These locally produced items include meat from Wailua and Koloa, buttermilk from Kilauea, and locally-produced vegetables and fruits, many of the sources providing material for Capertina’s Haole Girls desserts.
The menu adjustments extend to the “Beer Wall” where her sources are Kaua‘i-brewed like the Kaua‘i Island Brewing before bringing in brews from O‘ahu, Maui, and the Big Island. The Beer Wall, you need to be 21 years old to sit at the bar, extends to having wine on tap as well.
Because of Capertina’s pastry experience, Street Burger Kaua‘i bakes fresh, daily, and offers a dessert menu expanded from its previous days.
The full menu of offering from “Firsts” to “Dessert” and everything in between, can be found at Streetburgerkauai.com that only went live a few days ago.
The fire-burning cooker has been replaced with a lava rock grill that has already proven to improve efficiency in getting orders to table, and the crew wear has changed from black to a vibrant red.
“This is a family-friendly place,” Capertina said. “The paintings are from my brother David Palmer from his “Cows Are Us” series, and that waterfall near the beer wall? That’s his gift to me because I did his wedding cake.”
Source: The Garden Island
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