Frolic Has a New Look
Like dining scenes and people, we’ve evolved through different chapters. (Read: We’ve outgrown our all-caps phase.)
Graphic: James Nakamura
If you’re reading this, you’ve already noticed that we’ve updated our logo. Why? Just as dining scenes and people evolve through chapters in their ongoing stories, Frolic has evolved, too.
It’s hard to believe how much. We got our start in 2008—a year after the first iPhone came out, when Facebook and Twitter were new and Instagram and TikTok had yet to launch. As Metromix Honolulu, a widget on the homepage of The Honolulu Advertiser, our scrappy team of freelancers covered everything that made life in our city fun. The newspaper folded two years later, but we didn’t—we resurrected, on our own dime and our own time, as Nonstop Honolulu. Nightlife, music, red-carpet premieres: We were there. And food?
We brought you into Honolulu’s first food truck rallies. Gave you bowl-by-bowl breakdowns of new shave ice from Asia. Tracked Chinatown’s transformation into a hotspot of trendy new restaurants. It was exciting, and you caught the excitement, engaging with us as Honolulu’s burgeoning food scene became a destination for foodies.
In 2014, when our audience had grown beyond Hawai‘i, locally owned aio Media Group acquired us. We rebranded as Frolic and, responding to what you loved most, switched our entire coverage to food and dining. That’s how we came under the wing of the oldest continuously publishing periodical west of the Mississippi, created by charter from King Kalākaua in 1888.
As I wrote in 2019, joining HONOLULU Magazine felt like we’d finally scored a seat at the grownups’ table. Frolic had become a food authority and media brand. That’s continued: Our audience is global now, primarily in Hawai‘i and the West Coast, but reaching every continent. We’re at 101k followers on Instagram. And our core team is still behind it all, joined by newer members who share our passions.
Our new logo? A bit more elegant—we’ve outgrown our all-caps phase. More sophisticated. Timeless. Still in our signature red. And yes, it’s who we are now.
Mari Taketa is the dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine and editor of Frolic Hawai‘i.
