The southernmost bakery in the United States, Punalu’u Bake Shop, was among the businesses devastated when Hurricane Lala tore through the southern Big Island. Floodwater entered the Naalehu property, leaving its retail and production areas under roughly three feet of mud. The bakery closed, suspended online sales and refunded pending orders while it began assessing the damage.
What caught our attention afterward was the response. Punalu’u said it received hundreds of emails and thousands of social media messages, and reading through them made clear that people weren’t simply worried about where they would buy their next malasadas.
Visitors wrote about honeymoons, birthdays, parents, late spouses, and family traditions that stretch across generations. One said Punalu’u had been part of every Big Island visit for decades, while another remembered buying bread there on a 2003 honeymoon and making sandwiches for a picnic at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach.
One family had celebrated a son’s 13th birthday there just days before Lala, and a woman who said she may never make it back to Hawaii remembered buying goodies with her late husband on every visit and hoped she could eventually order online again.
Our last visit to Punalu’u Bakery was in December on our way to Hawaii Volcanoes. We stopped for their famous malasadas, as many travelers have before.
Below is the official video media release from Punalu’u Bake Shop posted on their Facebook page.
Far more people stop here than we ever realized.
The scale of the outpouring surprised us. Shortly before Lala, the baker said it had been getting nearly 700,000 annual visitors, with up to 5,000 people passing through on some days and up to 2,000 malasadas sold daily.
Those are big numbers for a bakery located so far from the Big Island’s major resort areas. Punalu’u opened in 1991, although the sweet bread that helped establish it dates to the 1970s, and over time the Highway 11 location became a natural break on one of the island’s longest visitor drives.
The comments describe that role better than any tourism statistic could. Again and again, people called Punalu’u a must on every visit, their regular break between Hilo and Kona or Kona and Volcano, somewhere they went after Black Sand Beach, or simply one of the places their family always included. Some remembered breakfast and local musicians in the garden, while others talked about taking malasadas to the airport or ordering taro rolls from the mainland between visits.
Its importance goes well beyond visitors.
Punalu’u also fills an economic role that is easy to overlook from the parking lot. Management has said the decision to keep the business in remote Ka’u rather than move closer to Kona or Hilo was intentional, providing jobs and career opportunities in an area where residents often travel considerable distances in order to work.
There were responses from people whose connection was both local and personal. One former employee called Punalu’u the best job they ever had, while others asked about friends, relatives, and the surrounding Ka’u community. Many wanted to know how they could help, asking about donation funds, buying products when sales resume, and contributing from the mainland.
The bakery has not announced a reopening date. Production remains halted while the damage is evaluated, and repairs can begin at this iconic roadside stop.
The current situation at Naalehu from a Beat of Hawaii reader living there.
Andy, who lives in the same community as Punalu’u Bake Shop, reported to us today.
“To say that it is a disaster zone is an understatement. The level of cleanup, rebuilding, and the work to get just basic infrastructure in place, like power and running water, is overwhelming. Visitors arriving to the island really should consider seriously about taking long drives to various sites around the island. There are numerous hazards among all of the highways leading to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, as well as the more scenic route along the north side of the island. People traveling into Kona might as well just stay there. Just being on the road impacts those that really need to get to where they need to go from the west side along the southern part of the island, there’s absolutely no access to Pahala and any place east. Access to HVNP is cut off; the highway down through Waiohinu is closed. Many arrive and go straight to Costco to get their essentials. I will tell you those essentials are wiped out. People are buying water and other necessary supplies.”
One stop became part of the Big Island trip.
We’ve driven past plenty of businesses in Hawaii that attract enormous visitor traffic without becoming something people remember years later. Punalu’u is clearly different, partly because of its location and partly because so many of these comments trace relationships with the place across years, marriages, children, and losses. For some families, returning there became a familiar part of coming back to the Big Island.
For now, one of the Big Island’s most familiar road-trip stops is off the itinerary. Judging by the messages that followed, plenty of visitors are already thinking about the day they can pull off Highway 11 there once again.
Has Punalu’u Bake Shop become part of your Big Island trips too? What do you remember most about stopping there?
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
