I write in praise of Kula Lodge on Maui, its location, its ambience, its five chalet accommodations, its restaurant, its new chef and, most of all, an owner who has had a lifelong love of the Kula area and the lodge. A visit to a lodge
on slope of HaleakalaThe location is 3,200 feet up 10,000-foot-high Haleakala volcano, amid cool Up Country Maui's ranches and protea farms. The villages of Pukalani and Makawao aren't far down slope.
When my wife and I want to get away from the heat of Honolulu we most often retreat to Volcano on the Big Island. But our first overnight weekend at Kula Lodge convinces us we'll be back there, too.
Kula Lodge grew from a rustic private home built by the Frank Jameses more than 50 years ago. They converted to a lodge and restaurant but stayed in a lower-level studio apartment on the property. The Fred Manarys were next-door neighbors. The Manarys' grandson, Fred Romanchak, now 50, lived down in the hot country but loved to come up to visit. He considers Kula "my old stomping ground."
James died, the lodge and restaurant passed to their daughter and fell into bankruptcy in 1984. By then Romanchak was a real estate broker on Oahu with one of his focuses on restaurants.
By sheerest chance he spotted a Pacific Business News listing of the Kula Lodge bankruptcy sale in Honolulu that very day. He stopped by the court building behind the Kamehameha statue out of curiosity only, saw the only two bidders team up to buy the property for a song, and began to muse. The musings changed his life.
The fall of the hammer could be reversed, he knew, by a higher bid to the court within 90 days. In the rebidding he got the lodge he loved and its 3.77 acres of land for $401,000. Since then he says he has spent more than $1 million to spruce it up and bring it to profitability.
Because the Star-Bulletin's restaurant critic, Nadine Kam, hasn't yet made it up the slope to Kula Lodge, I'll offer our judgment of the restaurant. Ambience: Rustic and great. Some tables afford a view to the West Maui mountains with the Maui isthmus in the foreground. You can see the blue ocean on both sides.
Food: My wife said chef Steve Amaral's presentation of my vegetarian sampler dinner was as attractive as any she has seen anywhere. Taste: Also great. Price: $18. Service: Super-friendly. Overall: A rustic joy.
People driving to or from the Haleakala summit often grab a bite there. Groups of bicycle riders on the long coast downhill may pull in for late breakfasts after sunrise at the top.
Kind words are earned, too, by the spacious chalets, four with lofts, one a studio, advertised nationally at $100 to $150. Kamaaina rates are 20 percent less.
A number of bookings come from New Englanders I'd think would want to be down on the beach. The chalets have high wood ceilings, brass four-poster beds, ample bathroom/dressing space and shelves, plus quick-running hot water for tub/showers. Old-fashioned comfy, not glitzy.
Romanchak plans an adjoining timber-frame lodge of 15 rooms. It will be the first use in Hawaii of this type of construction. He's also designing a farmers' market for fruits, vegetables and crafts. A protea shop already is on the property. Amid gardens below the restaurant is a wood-burning stone oven where restaurant breads are baked.
Of this lodge that seems so special, Romanchak says: "I'm just the caretaker...who cares."