Cozy Cat Cafe

Cozy Cafe Story and Photos by Raydiance Joy Grace

COZY CAT CAFE

SOFT OPENINGALL

HOMEMADE SOURDOUGH BREAKFAST

SANDWICHES, MEAT AND VEG OPTIONS

FRUIT PARFAITS AND MORE!

9 AM TO 1 PM THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

STARTING HALLOWEEN OCT. 31 AND NOV 1

12-208 E.POHAKUPELE LOOP, SEAVIEW

 THE ROAD SIGN ANNOUNCING OPENING OF CAFE

The Cozy Cat Cafe is located in Seaview in the garden of a private home at 12-208 E. Pohakule Loop in a tropical atmosphere surrounded by flowers.  Walking down the pathway to the open-air seating, the Tiger Lillies greeted me with their burst of bright orange as green banana trees swayed in the wind. The comfortable couches invited me to sit down and lounge as I talked to my neighbors waiting for my food. 

WALKING INTO THE TROPICAL GARDEN AT THE ENTRANCE OF COZY CAT CAFE YOU ARE GREETED BY THE CHARMING HOST AND OWNER MARINA MONARREZ

Chef Marina flashed a big friendly smile as she asked me to fill out a liability form that made me a member of her restaurant club. ⁸I was served breakfast in approximately 5 minutes, which satisfied my hearty appetite. Her sourdough bread is one of the best-tasting breads I have ever eaten. 

The most important attraction is the healthy quality of the food. Marina serves mostly organic food, including her eggs, golden-fried potatoes with fresh rosemary, juices made from fruit from her garden, and her specialty, home-baked sourdough bread made from a finely milled (non-GMO) special Italian Caputo flour.

SEAVIEW BREAKFAST PLATE  AT THE COZY CAT CAFE

 Eating breakfast for the first time at the Cozy Cat Cafe on Halloween, I ordered the Seaview Breakfast at $16 which included 2 organic eggs, prepared the way I like them, over-medium, the golden fried potatoes, with her freshly picked rosemary from her herb garden and sourdough bread,  pan-fried in coconut oil. Everything was delicious, especially the sourdough bread. If you have gluten sensitivity, the natural probiotic in sourdough bread reduces the amount of gluten.

MARINA SHOWED US HER SPECIALITY OF THE DAY, VEGAN FRITTATA. 

The food was so good that I came back the next day to try her vegan delight, a frittata made from chickpea flour, fresh vegetables, and golden rosemary potatoes. One slice filled me up for several hours with the delicious slow-digesting carbohydrates.

MARINA SERVES SYLVIA  HER SIGNATURE SOURDOUGH FRENCH TOAST

 Sylvia Dolena, the director of the Entrepreneurial Program,  raved about how superb the sourdough French toast was. When I asked her how she felt about one of her students actualizing her dream of opening a cafe, Sylvia said, “I am excited about seeing Marina’s entrepreneurial plan manifest in today’s opening of her cafe. To see her idea progress into a real business is very satisfying to me. If anyone has an idea, a vision, and a purpose as Marina did but doesn’t know how to put it out to the public, the Puna Entrepreneur Hub I offer can help if they are fully committed to fulfilling their vision. Anyone can do their vision, it’s just a matter of getting it out there and doing the work to get there. That’s the work that the Entrepreneurial Hub does for committed individual wanna-be business owners. We help them through the learning process of launching a business and continue to support them after their business opens. I encourage anyone passionate about opening a business and wanting to serve the community, we can do it together!”

Robert Golden, the co-director of the Puna Entrepreneur Hub also shared Slyvia Dolena’s excitement about this opening. “We have been working towards this for a long time. This is a learning process about how to get a business up and running. It is similar to giving birth. Marina gave birth to her baby, her Cozy Cat Cafe, and she will continue to take care of her baby as she keeps going forward and going through her challenges.  The key ingredient for me as an advisor with Sylvia in this program is to see all the support that we and the participants give to each other; they are not doing this alone. Starting a new business can be challenging and scary. I want to honor Marina for her accomplishment of opening the door to her Cozy Cat Cafe!.”

SYLVIA DOLENA, MARINA  MONARREZ, ROBERT GOLDEN, SHARING THE SUCCESS WITH A STAR STUDENT

The Cozy Cat Cafe was an intimate dining experience starting with the friendly greeting from our hostess/chef to the excellence of the organic food and the connection I felt with my neighbors, which we enjoyed in the open-air garden atmosphere. I am happy that there is an organic food cafe down the street where I live in Seaview so I don’t have to drive to town to enjoy a nutritious, healthy, gourmet-tasting breakfast. 

THE BREAKFAST MENU AT THE COZY CAT CAFE IN SEAVIEW IS OPEN ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY FROM  9 AM TO 1 PM

Marina Monarrez was a participant in the Puna Entrepreneur Hub program which helps aspiring business owners launch their businesses. She said, “The program helped me to apply my accountability and passion towards a focused business sense which was the catalyst that created my success in opening the Cozy Cat Cafe. The program gave me insight into how businesses work. I remember Sylvia telling me that you have to go back to your “why”? Why am I doing this? This puts me in alignment with price points and marketing, things that entrepreneurs usually don’t think about. Opening this cafe has been a life-long dream evolving slowly over the years. I fell in love with nature and growing your food. I noticed in my community there is not an abundance of healthy hot food which made me want to prepare more food.”

LOGO FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR HUB

“After learning the mechanics of business in the Puna Entrepreneur Hub, I felt supported by the solidarity of the other participants and the inspiring communication of elevating each other with our words. After showing up for 2 hours, twice a week for 6 months, I realized that I was not alone and that support was what I needed to open this cafe! I wanted to create an intimate space for people to feel safe in connection and community in sharing a local hub in this remote part of the island. This is a private, not a public business that allows me to operate my cafe in the tradition of my vending food at farmers markets, which allows sovereignty and freedom. I would like to encourage anybody who wants to have a business that it is about the passion behind it and why you want to do it. If you have the passion, everything will fall into place. It might not happen the way you want it to happen or in the timeline you want, but if you just keep going, loving it and putting your energy into it, the right people will show up and divine timing happens!”