Hilo Chef Opens Piʻilani Kitchen at Historic Pēpēʻekeo Landmark

Joshua Ketner quit his executive chef position in Hilo to open Piʻilani Kitchen at the former Low Store site in Pēpēʻekeo, bringing locally sourced sandwiches, salads and specialty nachos to the end of the Hāmākua Coast scenic route.

The restaurant's menu is deliberately compact: five hot sandwiches, two cold sandwiches, two salads, kālua pork or birria beef nachos, and kālua pork tacos. Alongside those staples runs a single weekly special that Ketner and his staff design never to repeat.

"We have a base menu with customer favorites on there, then every week we change our special, which can be a sandwich or anything we can dream of," Ketner said. "The caveat is that we never duplicate. Every week is something different, which is a fun challenge for me and the staff. We often plan months ahead because we have so many ideas."

Piʻilani Kitchen sources a majority of its ingredients from local farmers, ranchers and fishermen, a philosophy that aligns with the mission of Onomea Farm Hub, which purchased the Low Store building from the Low family in 2021. Onomea Farm Hub describes its focus as creating a gathering space for families with businesses that utilize locally grown food and products from small, local vendors. Piʻilani Kitchen sits between two other tenants in that cluster, Onomea Country Market and The Lei Bar.

The building itself carries nearly a century of Pēpēʻekeo history. The plantation-era Low Store served the rural community across multiple incarnations: gas station, arcade, auto body shop and convenience store before settling into its final form as a general store and deli. The Low family closed the business before selling to Onomea Farm Hub in 2021.

For Ketner, the site offers a rare combination of community roots and creative latitude. The never-duplicated weekly special is both a culinary constraint and a marketing draw, giving regulars a reason to return each week without knowing what they will find on the board.