Danville, California – When local restaurateur Randy Negi took a hard look at his successful Danville, California wine bar, The Vine and Spirits, he realized that it was a nice place—but a little ordinary.
So, in true Bay Area disruptor style, he decided to scrap everything and start a tiki bar. Closing The Vine and Spirits wine bar, he renovated the entire space, reopening it as Kaia’s Island Kitchen and Tiki Bar.
Located at 480 Hartz Ave in Danville, it’s unlike anything else in the 925.
I stopped by a little over a month after Kaia’s opened to try out the food for the Bay Area Telegraph. What I found is a retro-chic restaurant that’s both incredibly fun and genuinely delicious.
Tiki Comes to Danville
Negi’s previous venture was going fine. The Bay Area is chock-full of wine bars and apparently had room for one more, as The Vine and Spirts was well-respected and by all accounts, successful.
But as a staff member told the Bay Area Telegraph during our visit, Negi reportedly looked around at the other restaurants surrounding him and realized that many of them had a similar wine-paired-with-farm-to-table-food type of vibe.
Negi wanted to do something different—specifically, to introduce more color to downtown Danville, we were told.
Inspired by family trips to the Hawaiian Islands—filled with “lazy beach days” and “the simple joy of sharing great food with the people you love most”—Negi decided he needed to own a tiki room.
For those unfamiliar, tiki culture has a rich history dating back to the 1800s, but really came into full swing in America in the 1950s. Local restaurants like Trader Vic’s in Emeryville and Smuggler’s Cove in SF pioneered the lively, island-inspired food and tropical drinks representative of the trend.
Tiki bars appealed to Americans who were newly able to travel to tropical spots like Hawaii. They remained popular through the ’60s and into the ’70s, then had a resurgence in the ’90s.
They faded for a while, but given that everything from the ’90s is slowly starting to come back into vogue, it’s not surprising that the tiki trend might be having its third wave.
The Ambience
Kaia’s renovation pulls off the classic tiki bar look absolutely stunningly. The revamped restaurant is brand new but looks like it could’ve been there for 50 years.
Inside, you’ll find a full, classic tiki bar, complete with carved wooden statues, dramatic, colorful lighting, and blown glass orbs arranged over the bar itself.
Ukulele music plays quietly through speakers inside the restaurant, and palm fronds and thatchwork complete the look.
Kaia also makes terrific use of its outdoor space. In true island form, you can eat outdoors, surrounded by heaters and tiki torches, and watch the sunset over Danville.
It does a great job making you feel like you’ve been transported to the islands—a tough thing to do when you’re really sitting in a suburban location in the East Bay!
The Drinks
Tiki bars are about the ambience, yes. But ultimately, tiki culture is built around drinks!
Kaia serves a variety of tiki classics—sweet, tropical drinks served in dramatic style, many in fancifulware glassware like ceramic tiki heads and big cocktail glasses.
The tiki classics section of the menu at Kaia’s includes drinks like the Zombie, Painkiller, and classic Mai Tais.
One of the signature tiki drinks is the Chi Chi, which features Pau Maui vodka, creamy coconut, macadamia nut liqueur, and pineapple, served in a custom bamboo-shaped ceramic cup.
Beyond the classics, Kaia has its Matt’s Groggery menu, which highlights more bespoke cocktails at a slightly higher price point. Drinks like the Ohanapod Mai Tai and Three-Hour Tour feature higher-end and fancier ingredients like organic rum, falernum, orange curaçao, and honey lilikoi foam.
For kids or those who don’t want the buzz associated with classic tiki cocktails, Kaia also has a “Buzz-Free Breeze” menu with nonalcoholic versions of the Painkiller and other drinks.
I got the classic Painkiller, and it was delicious—festive but not overly sweet, served in a tall glass topped with coconut and bordered by a slice of pineapple. Save for the cars parked along Hartz Avenue and the other Danville stores, I could’ve believed I was in Maui!
The Food
The food at tiki bars is often something of an afterthought—dried-out kalua pork and boring starches.
Perhaps because of its origins as an upscale restaurant and wine bar, Kaia goes in an entirely different direction.
The food here isn’t just a foil for the drinks—it’s front and center, and absolutely delicious.
I started with poke crisps: pieces of starchy taro root topped with delicious raw Hawaiian-style poke and served with a spicy lilikoi dipping sauce.
I also tried the catch-of-the-day fish tacos, which combine fresh fish with delicious salsa and slaws, reflecting whatever happens to be in season.
For dessert, Kaia has an absolutely delicious hula pie. Inspired by the original from Kimo’s restaurant in Lahaina—which was tragically destroyed in the 2023 Maui wildfires—the hula pie at Kaia’s is massive, made from ice cream, topped with whipped cream, and sprinkled with macadamia nuts.
Although it pales in comparison in terms of size versus the original hula pie from Kimo’s, it’s just as good—and a bit more reasonable for two people to share than the dinner-plate-sized original slices!
The Verdict
I came to Kaia’s expecting to find a fun but perhaps not-too-serious restaurant. Again, tiki bars often focus on their ambience and don’t try too hard when it comes to the food. They also often lean into overly fruity drinks and use their cool vibes and interesting glassware to avoid having to make those drinks actually good!
Neither of those stereotypes fits Kaia’s at all. Not only have they perfectly nailed the tiki vibe—down to the mid-century look of their central tiki bar—but they managed to do it while serving food that’s just as good as anything on the Hawaiian Islands and drinks that wouldn’t feel out of place at the East Bay’s trendiest cocktail bars.
It’s a rare feat to pull off this kind of quality in a restaurant that could easily veer into gimmick, and Kaia’s Island Kitchen has pulled it off beautifully.
If you’re missing the Hawaiian Islands this summer or want to extend your too-short Hawaii trip vibes back to the mainland, you should absolutely stop by Kaia’s for a Chi Chi, fish tacos, and a fantastic time.
Website (still under construction at press time): https://kaiasdanville.com/
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