Search "Kohala Village Hub" and you will still find people raving about pot roast, mason jars of lemon water, and slack key nights with John Keawe playing to a packed lanai. Those reviews are real. They just describe a building that isn't there anymore.
The HUB PUB, the restaurant that anchored the Kohala Village HUB property on Hawi Road for years, burned down on a Wednesday night in March 2019. Hawaii Fire Department crews found the front building fully involved, flames coming through the roof, according to West Hawaii Today's coverage at the time. FEED Hawaii's program office was in that same building. The fire took that too.
That was seven years ago. If you've moved to Hawi more recently, or you're just now getting oriented to North Kohala, you'd have no reason to know any of this happened. But if you ask around town, you'll still hear "grab lunch at the Hub" from people who haven't been inside in a while. This post is for anyone trying to figure out what's actually happening on that property today, because the answer isn't a restaurant, and the property everyone calls "the Hub" is actually doing something more interesting than reopening a kitchen.
What's Still Standing
The Kohala Village HUB at 55-514 Hawi Road is still very much active. It's just organized differently than the restaurant-and-inn combo a lot of people remember.
The Kohala Village Inn, the plantation-style lodging on the property, is still operating and still the thing most visitors book. FEED Hawaii, the community nonprofit that's called the HUB home since 2014, is still running its programs out of the property. Its stated mission is to nurture people through food, arts, culture, and ecology, and its current listing shows it still offering enrichment classes for all ages.
The event spaces are still there too. The Barn, a semi-enclosed space with tables, a food service area, and ADA-compliant restrooms, gets booked for weddings, reunions, and concerts. The Hale, with its hardwood floors and mirrored walls, hosts hula, yoga, and dance classes. If you've wondered why you keep hearing about gatherings "at the Hub" even though there's no restaurant serving them, that's why. The property never stopped being a community venue. It just stopped being a place you'd walk in and order dinner.
What isn't there is a kitchen. The Inn's own current guest information points visitors toward Gill's Lanai and Mi Ranchito for meals nearby, not to an in-house restaurant. That's a small detail, but it tells you the property made a choice after the fire: rebuild the Inn and the community mission, and let dining happen elsewhere in town.
The Saturday Market Everyone Already Knows
If there's one piece of the HUB that survived intact in the public's mind, it's the Saturday market. The Hawi Farmers Market sets up at the HUB entrance, right across from the big banyan tree, Saturdays from roughly 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. It's a small market by island standards, but it draws producers from across North Kohala selling produce, baked goods, artisan bread, honey, and crafts.
This part hasn't changed and doesn't need explaining. Most people in Hawi already know where to find it and what to expect. The confusion starts with the thing that sounds almost identical but isn't the same organization at all.
The Food Hub Isn't the Same as the Farmers Market
Here's the part that actually trips people up: Kohala Food Hub and the Kohala Village HUB share a name, share a broad mission around local food, and even share an institutional connection. But they are not the same operation, they don't run on the same schedule, and they're not even at the same address.
Kohala Food Hub started in 2019 under a program called HIP Agriculture and has since grown into its own nonprofit, now operating as an entity under FEED Hawaii. It runs an online marketplace, not a walk-up market. Customers shop Friday through Monday, and orders go out for pickup or home delivery on Wednesdays across North Kohala, Waikoloa, Kawaihae, Mauna Kea Resort, and Mauna Lani, with a separate Thursday pickup for Waimea and Honokaa. Its physical pickup location in Hawi is at 55-230 Hoea Road, a different street address from the HUB entrance where the Saturday market happens.
The scale is bigger than most people assume. What started with a dozen producers now works with more than 150 farmers, backyard growers, and food makers across the island, moving from about $30,000 in revenue in 2019 to roughly $920,000 in 2024. It's also the first food hub in Hawaii authorized to process SNAP and EBT online, and it offers DA BUX, which gives SNAP recipients half off local produce.
So if you've ever seen "Kohala Food Hub" mentioned somewhere and assumed it was just another name for the Saturday market at the HUB, you weren't alone. But if you're trying to actually use one or the other, the difference matters:
| Hawi Farmers Market | Kohala Food Hub | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Walk-up outdoor market | Online order, pickup or delivery |
| When | Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. | Order Friday–Monday; distribution Wednesday |
| Where | HUB entrance, 55-514 Hawi Road | Pickup at 55-230 Hoea Road, plus delivery routes |
| Payment help | Standard vendor transactions | SNAP/EBT accepted online, DA BUX 50% match |
| Run by | Independent vendors at the HUB | Nonprofit under FEED Hawaii |
Neither one replaced the other. They just solve different problems. The Saturday market is for browsing and picking up what looks good that morning. The Food Hub is for people who want a standing weekly order without leaving the house, or who need SNAP benefits to stretch further on fresh food, which matters in a district where the nearest full grocery store is a real drive from either Hawi or Kapaau.
Why This Is Worth Knowing If You Live Here
None of this changes anything about buying or selling property in North Kohala, and that's sort of the point. This is the kind of local wiring that doesn't show up in a listing description or a relocation guide, but it's exactly the thing that makes a place feel like yours instead of a place you're still figuring out.
If you've lived in Hawi a while, you already know the HUB isn't a restaurant. What you might not have clocked is that the Food Hub's delivery system reaches well past North Kohala into Waikoloa and the Kohala Coast resorts, which makes it a genuinely useful option if you split time between town and the coast, or if you're helping a parent or neighbor who doesn't want to drive into Hawi every week.
If you're newer here, the practical takeaway is simple. Saturday morning, walk to the HUB entrance for the market. Any other day, if you want fresh, local food delivered or ready for pickup, the Food Hub's online marketplace is worth setting up an account for, especially if SNAP or DA BUX applies to your household.
And if you're the kind of person who still tells visitors to grab lunch at the Hub, it might be time to update the recommendation. Send them to Gill's Lanai or Mi Ranchito instead, and let them know the HUB itself is worth a stop for the Saturday market, the Barn if there's an event on, or a FEED Hawaii class if the timing lines up. The restaurant is gone. The rest of what made the property matter to this community never left.
North Kohala is full of these small distinctions that only make sense once you've lived here a minute, and figuring them out is part of what makes a place feel settled. If you're weighing a move to Hawi, thinking about land here, or just want to talk through what a property in this district actually involves day to day, Noelani Spencer grew up in Waimea and works this coast for a living. Reach out anytime you want to talk story or get a free home valuation.
