During our time on Kauai earlier this year, my wife had read about a place that was a combination cafe and art gallery. She's into that kind of stuff - the combo places that feature both culinary and cultural arts - so we decided to go to Art Cafe Hemingway for breakfast on our last morning on Kauai.
Markus Boemer grew up in Germany and was in the advertising field as an art director. His wife, Jana, was a Czech native who was an educator and a cultural manager. Shortly after the couple met in the late 1980's, they traveled to Hawaii and the island of Kauai. They immediately fell in love with the place eventually getting married on Kauai in 1992.
The couple's love for art had taken them to Switzerland, Italy and France for jobs in advertising and education before Jana Boemer became a curator for a leading photographic gallery in Prague. The Boemer's wanted to run their own photo gallery and they opened a small gallery in a space that wasn't much larger than a regular business office in the center of Prague.
One of the first photographers the couple showcased was a somewhat unknown Brazilian by the name of Sebastião Salgado. His series of photos - "Migrations - Humanity in Transition" - focused on war refugees and peasant workers on the move to find a better life elsewhere. Almost as soon as the exhibit opened in their small space in September of 2002, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon happened. Immediately, some art critics in Czechoslovakia compared the tragedy in the United States to Salgado's photography.
The Boemer's small gallery soon swelled with visitors and they relocated the exhibit to Prague's Manes Gallery. The exhibit was an immediate "must see" in Prague. One month, over 47,000 people visited the exhibit to view Salgado's stirring and provocative photographs that of refugees primarily in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America he took over a six year period.
Pictured right - Markus and Jana Boemer. Picture courtesy TripAdvisor.
From the popularity of the Salgado exhibit, the Boemer's were then granted space inside the Prague Castle - Supreme Burgrave, a castle that was built in the 9th century. The castle housed a number of art exhibitions and is the home of a large toy museum. The Boemer's were able to showcase photographic works from the likes of Wim Wenders, Rene Burri, Helmet Newton and Salgado. Connected to the gallery was a small cafe that served food while the gallery was open.
A change in government priorities in the Czech Republic in 2005 caused the Boemer's to lose their space inside the Prague Castle. Faced without a space to exhibit the photographic art they had in their possession, they commissioned train cars to travel around the Czech Republic and Slovakia, basically taking photographic art to the people. For three years, the Boemer's "Gallery on a Train" moved to nearly 2 dozen cities annually where over 150,000 people viewed works from Winders, Salgado and Antonin Kratochvil. After they finished with the train galleries, they exhibited works of photographic art at a large tent in Wenceslas Square in Prague. One month during the exhibit, over 100,000 people visited the tent. The Boemer's also exhibited photographic art at universities, hotels and other public spaces.
By 2010, the Boemer's were tired and looking to do something else with their lives. Food was also very important to them and the art of food was something that was always on their mind. Remembering how great life was on Kauai, they sold everything they had in Prague and moved to Kauai in 2010. They found a two story building along the Kuhio Highway in Kapa'a and renovated it into a restaurant on the first floor with an art gallery on the second floor. They named the cafe partly after Ernest Hemingway, a world traveler who also shared a gusto for wine and food. Art Cafe Hemingway opened in September of 2011.
We pulled into a lot across the street from Art Cafe Hemingway, a big blue two-story building on the west side of the Kuhio Highway. (see map) Actually, Art Cafe Hemingway was literally next door to a restaurant that we ate at the day before and Cindy walked over there to get a brochure on the place. I promised that we'd eat breakfast there the next day so she could satisfy her cultural needs during our trip to Kauai.
There was a small patio out front of the place. A woman seated at a table with her husband was wearing an Iowa t-shirt and I said, "Go Hawks!" as we entered the restaurant. It turned out the couple was from Cedar Rapids. I had worn my Iowa shirt at Hanalei Bay a couple days earlier and we were stopped by a couple who had lived in Pella, but had retired and moved to Arizona. Iowans are everywhere.
Entering the restaurant, we found a rustic and cozy space with a number of small to large tables. Electronica music was playing throughout the dining area. All the smaller tables of 4 or 2 seats were filled up, so we were shown to a large table near the entrance to the second floor art gallery. Three people were seated at one end and we were asked if we wanted to sit at the far end of the table. We had no problem with that.
Near where we sat we saw a sign that the art/photo gallery upstairs was "Closed for Renovations". This disappointed Cindy tremendously who thought it would be cool to eat breakfast, then while away some time in the gallery upstairs. But there was enough interesting art work on the walls of the dining room that we were able to take a closer look at after we finished our breakfast.
Art Cafe Hemingway has two menus - a breakfast/brunch/lunch menu that is served from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a dinner menu that is served from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. For the first nearly five years of business, the Boemer's were open Wednesday thru Sunday. This summer, they partnered with Jeremiah "Miah" Merriman - a South Dakota native who had moved to Hawaii and ended up working in small restaurants that specialized in locally-raised and vegetarian cuisines - to open the restaurant seven days a week. Merriman (who doesn't seem to be related to famed Hawaiian restaurateur Peter Merriman) runs the restaurant Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while the Boemer's are back in the kitchen on Thursday thru Sunday.
The European-style menu features a number of locally raised and sourced foods. They try to make everything from scratch in the kitchen including their own mayonnaise, relish, sauces, and desserts. They also are pretty proud of their espresso at Art Cafe Hemingway - they had a full printed page explaining everything from the type of espresso beans they used (Filicori Zecchini specially roasted beans from Italy) to the type of machine they use (a machine by La Marzocco, an Italian company that has been making handmade coffee and espresso makers for nearly 90 years). I've turned into somewhat of an espresso-snob over the past few years - thanks to my Euro-centric co-workers from Montreal - and I had to try a double espresso. And it was damned good. So good that I had to have another.
You're not probably going to find a big hearty breakfast if you go to Art Cafe Hemingway - most of the items are light and healthy on the menu. I went with a basic breakfast croissant sandwich that featured locally-raised smoked ham and scrambled organic eggs topped with gouda cheese, lettuce and chopped tomatoes. I also got some fresh-squeezed orange juice to go along with the croissant breakfast sandwich. It was fine - nothing special. I've had similar sandwiches in the past, but everything tasted fine.
Cindy ordered up a platter called "The Sun Also Rises" after Hemingway's 1920's novel. It featured two scrambled organic eggs with smoked ham, Parmigiana Reggiano and Camembert cheese slices, with sliced baguette and whole-grained bread. She, too, got a fresh squeezed orange juice and a coffee - the low-octane . She said her breakfast was good, although she wasn't enamored much with the cheese. It was light and put something in her stomach that would hold her until lunch.
While the breakfast we had at Art Cafe Hemingway was sort of expensive, we've found that everything is somewhat expensive on Hawaii. The young server that took care of us did a good job and it was a nice place to have a meal. The food was fresh, but the portions were pretty small for what we paid. And the fresh-squeezed orange juice and the espresso I had were very good. It was a nice simple breakfast in a nice simple setting.
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