Chef Jason Peel Revitalizes Longtime Neighborhood Fave Diamond Head Market & Grill

After he closed Nami Kaze last fall, Jason Peel’s intended break—to rest, regroup and reconnect with family and friends—didn’t last long. Within days, the chef and restaurateur resurfaced across town at Kelvin Ro’s Diamond Head Market & Grill with Scott and Shaun Motoda from his core team at Nami Kaze.

Fluffy omelets, roast pork hash, ‘ahi and eggs: Peel’s first task was to bring back a popular breakfast service that had been on pause. While it’s only on weekends for now, breakfast is the first item on a menu of projects Peel is tackling. “It’s huge. It’s a bakery, it’s a market and a grill. And we’re adding on two, three other projects to it,” Peel says. “We’re trying to make sure it’s sustainable for a long time.”

What else is coming? Catering, for one, and pop-up dinners Peel hopes to trial on the market’s rooftop starting in March. Then there’s the farm—5 acres in East O‘ahu that Ro began leasing about four years ago. Peel will help develop its crops, farm tours and other programs, especially educational ones for students.

Diamond Head Market & Grill, launched by Ro in 2002, brought a bistro sensibility to plate lunch and grab and go. His blueberry cream cheese scones, kalbi and balsamic-tinged portobello sandwiches are still bestsellers today.

A generation later, Peel’s Nami Kaze rose to national fame as a modern local izakaya that celebrated Hawai‘i farms and food producers. Soon, Peel says, the style he built at Nami Kaze will start to appear on the slopes of Diamond Head. “I’m coming into their house. I want to take my shoes off and be polite. At the same time, I have my own ideas that I want to share,” he says. “I like our potential.”

3158 Monsarrat Ave., Kapahulu, (808) 732-0077, diamondheadmarket.com, @diamondheadmarketandgrill

Mari Taketa is the dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine and editor of Frolic Hawai‘i.