BIG KAHUNA BOWL
RAINBOW BOWL
WITH ALMOND
BUTTER
EUGENE IS READY FOR
FRUITY
HAWAIIAN
BOWLS
A
çai bowls — those fruity concoctions like
smoothies you eat with a spoon — may
be a trend but they certainly aren’t a fad,
say the three owners of Big Kahuna Bowl.
Christopher Tennis, Elliot Gruver and
Howard Choe Miyashiro who were all born on Oahu.
“We’ve all been getting açai bowls there for the last 10
THE CREW AT
BIG KAHUNA
BOWLS
2
CHOW SUMMER 2017
Big Kahuna Bowl offers açai treats
BY VANESSA SALVIA
years,” Choe Miyashiro says. “It’s only just getting popular
in Oregon now, though.”
Choe Miyashiro has lived in Oregon since 2002, moving
first to Portland and then Eugene, where he's been for the
past eight years. “We feel like Eugene is ready for it,” he
says. “But it was a leap of faith. We all put everything we
had into the opening.”
P HOTO S BY TO DD C O O P ER
The açai berry comes from Brazil, where açai bowls are
typically nothing more than the berry puree and banana.
“It was in Hawaii that people started adding all the tropical
fruit to it,” Choe Miyashiro says.
At Big Kahuna Bowls, diners choose from a base of
thick puree of purple açai or bubblegum pink dragonfruit,
called pitaya. The bowls are topped with a rainbow of
fruit including banana, strawberries, blueberries, mango,
pineapple, kiwi and dried goji berries.
Add delicious goodies such as granola, coconut flakes,
honey, bee pollen and flax, chia or hemp seeds, and you
have a delicious and filling meal or treat.
“We all eat açai bowls religiously,” Gruver says. “It’s an
alternative to ice cream or it’s a healthy breakfast. You can
eat it for any meal really, and feel satisfied.”
All bowls are customizable with options for dietary
restrictions such as gluten-free granola, almond butter
and agave syrup in place of honey. Organic options
are important to the owners — dry goods come from
Hummingbird Wholesale and ingredients are Northwest-
sourced whenever possible.
Big Kahuna Bowls opened March 2, and though they
haven’t done much to get the word out, customers have
found them nonetheless. “The first weekend was really
rough!” Choe Miyashiro says. “We’ve worked out the
kinks since then.”
While Tennis remains in Hawaii and Gruver is in Eugene
for now, Gruver will likely return to Hawaii and open a
Big Kahuna Bowls there as well. Choe Miyashiro plans to
add cold-pressed juices in a grab-and-go case in the store,
and he hints at the possibility that there might be another
Eugene location of Big Kahuna Bowls in the future.
Big Kahuna Bowls is open 10 am - 7 pm Tuesday to Sunday at 1351
Willamette Street. Find them on Facebook at facebook.com/B.K.Bowls.
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