Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Olympic Cafe has tasty grinds, a bird’s eye view of old Kapaa town, open air seating and is always filled with wonderful people.
Upon arriving to Olympic Cafe, I was greeted by General Manager Jakki Nelson, who welcomed me with her warm, Texan smile.
The original Olympic Cafe restaurant opened shop 13 years ago, just down the road where Backyards Bar and Grill is currently located. Nelson isn’t too sure about how Olympic Cafe got its name, but she suspects that its name came about because “the former owners were friends with Duke Kahanamoku,” a surfing legend.
Four years later, Troy Trujillo, a California native who moved to Kauai after an eventful surf trip on the island, relocated Olympic Cafe to its current spot — formerly known as Jimmy’s and also as Carol’s and Charlie’s.
After eight years of running businesses back and forth from Kauai and the Big Island, Trujillo hired Jakki Nelson as Olympic Cafe’s general manager in July 2005. If you’re a foodie, you might know Jakki Nelson — she runs this little, annual event called Taste of Hawaii.
“Troy and I had a mutual friend,” Nelson said. “He said, ‘Jackie, you totally need to go to Kauai. It’s so you. You love to hike, you love to camp, you love to kayak.’”
“This is the best job ever,” Nelson added. “There’s always great customers, and we have fun employees.”
After trading stories for about 10 minutes, Nelson got into the real, juicy portion of our interview: the onolicious grinds that come in hearty (and I mean hearty) portions.
“We open for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Nelson said. “We have, I think, one of the biggest breakfast menus on the island — we have 38 breakfast specials.”
Nelson picked entrees from Olympic Cafe’s breakfast menu. The Breakfast Wrap, Strawberry Pancakes and Tomato and Basil Omelet (a dish featured at this year’s Taste of Hawaii) came out of the kitchen in a timely fashion.
“That’s one thing with our breakfast, we prepare it fast,” Nelson said.
When Nelson brought out the Breakfast Wrap, $11.50, my eyes focused on its large portions of scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes and cheese wrapped in a spinach tortilla. Like all breakfast wraps, it comes with your choice of sliced melon or papaya.
Next was a full stack of three extra-large pancakes, drizzled with strawberry syrup and topped with whipped cream and whole strawberries. It goes for $8.99 and is one of eight varieties the restaurant offers.
When it comes to omelets, Olympic Cafe prepares them using three extra-large, AAA eggs, fresh herbs and veggies. They are served with your choice of home-fried potatoes, rice, papaya or melon.
Featured at this year’s Taste of Hawaii, the Tomato and Basil Omelet, $11.50, contains fresh tomato and basil with garlic and Romano cheese — it’s an omelet that’s large and made from simple ingredients, but onolicious.
Covering Olympic Cafe was a real treat. Remember the wraps that I eyed earlier?
Well, Jackki wrapped them up for me to take home to my family. She then gave away the omelet and the pancakes to some lucky and very grateful patrons.
Great service, indeed.
