New: Tucker and Bevvy: picnic food

With its white wood siding, blackboard menu and inviting food displays, Tucker and Bevvy looks like a cute little cafe plucked from an Australian beach town.

It sort of is. Owners Tony and Cecily Ho Sargent spent the last 17 years in a beachside suburb of Sydney running three food businesses: With the Grain Sandwiches, a takeaway sandwich spot, Malibu Grill and Honolulu Grill. They returned home (Cecily is originally from Honolulu) and found a perfect place for their picnic food concept, on the edge of Waikiki, facing the zoo, which makes it accessible to both tourists and locals.

Indeed, we bumped into friends there, who had stopped by for a quick lunch after a gallery visit at the Chanel Waikiki boutique. They took the last pastrami reuben, which they deemed excellent.

Smoked ahi wrap, veggie stack panini, kale salad, potato salad, quinoa tabbouleh

Tucker and Bevvy, Aussie slang for food and drink, offers food for an instant picnic: more than a dozen sandwiches, from grab-and-go ones such as turkey cranberry and a smoked ahi wrap to hot ones such as ham and gruyere or a veggie stack panini with eggplant, sweet potato, peppers and provolone. The menu has a healthy bent: salads like sesame chicken with beets and almonds, quinoa tabbouleh, kale salad mixed with kombu and tahini (if you've ever thought kale more like seaweed than a vegetable, this salad will confirm that). A juicer on site means fresh juices and fruit smoothies, too. 

"Our focus is on fresh and healthy food, which is really the trend in your average Aussie cafe," Cecily says.

Dessert, though, is irresistible. In addition to OnoPops and individual servings of La Gelateria gelato, Tucker and Bevvy offers fresh-baked toffee cookies and cornbread that's crumbly but sweet and tastes almost of fresh corn.

The couple plans to expand the Tucker and Bevvy picnic food concept in Waikiki, and open up a brunch concept as well. 

Sandwiches $6 to $8.50
Tucker and Bevvy, 2586 Kalakaua, 922-0099