Sweet Alert: Agnes’ Portuguese Bake Shop Malassadas Are Back in Kailua
A new truck is serving up the iconic malassadas hot and crispy.
Folks, we’re on a roll of new openings and positive news. Agnes’ Bake Shop has set up a gorgeous malassada truck in the parking lot of Manuheali‘i in Kailua, just down the street from where Agnes’ Portuguese Bake Shop had a storefront for nearly half a century. These freshly fried, crispy, slightly chewy morsels have been absent from the Windward side since Agnes closed in January 2018, so there’s a lot of excitement about this little truck.
The lure of Agnes’ malassadas was so strong that two months after Non deMello, the man at the bakery’s helm for 30 years, closed it due to increased operating costs, bakers Kim Potter and Kawehi Haug of Let them Eat Cupcakes and Hukilau Honolulu tried to revive the bake shop. They worked with deMello to learn the trade secrets and even held malassada pop-ups Downtown at Hukilau to help fundraise their expensive endeavor. Sadly, it didn’t get off the ground. Now Ryan Katsuno owns the rights and recipes to Agnes’ Bake Shop and much as Potter and Haug had planned, reopened Agnes as a malassada truck.
Crispy, chewy and thicker than the others guys’, these are apparently closer to what authentic Portuguese malassadas taste like. They’re also very much like what Kailuans grew up eating, their necks extended to avoid getting sugar on their shirts. You can feel the excitement when people pull up on their beach cruisers with keiki in tow. That’s what I’m living to see these days.
Like I said, we’re on a roll, so let’s keep this kind of news coming!
5 Ho‘olai St., @agnesbakeshop808
