Shiso mint chip. Miso salted caramel. Mango sticky rice. These are just several of the unique ice cream flavors you’ll find at Kailua-based Please Come Again.
The ice cream shop opened last November by husband-and-wife duo Kyle and Josephine Wai Lin.
“We came from a corporate world and post-pandemic, we started talking a lot about feeling like we’re on Zoom all the time and it feeling lonely,” Josephine says. “Space became a really important theme — finding a place for people to hang out, pau hana and get together. What brings people together better than ice cream? It was our dream to be this neighborhood scoop shop where people can just come and be together.”
The other story (behind how we started this) is that we have two kids — a five-year-old and a three-year-old,” Kyle adds. “We were going to Baskin-Robbins all the time getting ice cream. We wanted to make ice cream that was locally sourced and high-quality stuff, because our kids are eating it and we’re eating it.”
The business officially opened last November, according to Josephine, who says “Please Come Again” is hers and Kyle’s creative duo name.
“We always dreamt of having a retail experience that’s kind of revolving,” she says. “We’re seeing ice cream as our first chapter; there’s always a reason for people to come back.”
“Have you ever been to Asian grocery stores where they have that bag that says, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you; Mahalo Mahalo Mahalo; or Please come again?’” Kyle says. “We like this idea of just welcoming people back to get more ice cream.”
Ice cream flavors are inspired by local flavors and produce, along with people and Hawaiʻi agriculture.
“We consider ice cream to be a canvas for community, so we’re really inspired by the place,” Josephine says. “We’re inspired by the people (here). People will come and say, ‘You should try miso salted caramel,’ so we’ll just make it.”
“A lot of times, people will come in with ideas,” Kyle says. “We ask people all the time to direct message us ideas on Instagram, because we’re open to anything. They’re (the ice cream flavors) certainly Pan Asian-inspired. Jo’s Filipino and I’m half Burmese, so we pull from different palates as well as palates on the island. Everything here is kind of Pan Asian-inspired, really.”
The shop features 16 ice cream flavors in its display case at all times, including eight signature flavors and four rotating/seasonal flavors. During the time of our visit, customers could choose from flavors like guava lava, rose lychee, Vietnamese iced coffee, yuzu sorbet and Mānoa choc chip.
“If you come back week to week, you might find we have a brand-new flavor because we’ve had inspiration — we saw a new fruit that is fresh and looked good, or we got a lot of messages to bring something back,” Kyle says.
“We have a lot of non-dairy and vegan options, too,” Josephine says.
The couple’s personal favorites are shiso mint chip — “It’s a classic flavor with a twist; I can eat that all day,” Kyle says — and Kona Snow, which features 100% whole Kona beans from Tradition Coffee Roasters, another Kailua-based business.
“I’m a coffee girlie, so I love Kona Snow,” Josephine says. “It’s an all-white coffee ice cream.”
Ice cream can be ordered in cups or cones with keiki ($4.75), single ($5.95), split single ($6.50) or double ($9.50) scoop sizes. If you’re with a group, go for the ice cream flights ($16.50) to try multiple flavors. No matter what you order, rest assured that the ice cream is made with high-quality ingredients, including real fruits.
“It’s 14% to 16% butter fat, so it’s super rich and super creamy,” Josephine says. “We say we make it with unreasonable amounts of love.”
You also don’t need to drive to Kailua to get a taste of Please Come Again. The biz currently has an outpost at Potluck — a pop-up shop in Ward Centre — with pre-packaged cups and pints. The pop-up has several exclusive flavors like kakimochi and Amaou strawberry (Amaou strawberries are known as the “king” of Japanese strawberries), in addition to pupsicles, which are pet-friendly treats.
“Our friend runs this incredible store (Potluck) with curated designer goods,” Kyle says. “We’ll be scooping out of there once a month just for fun, just to make it active and invite the community in.
“We’ll also have these ice cream cake pops,” he adds. “They’re brand new; we’re just developing it. It’s like the Starbucks cake pops, but it’s all ice cream.”
Please Come Again encourages customers to keep updated with its news on social media, and stay tuned for more exciting collaborations and projects with other local businesses.
“We do a lot of partnerships with farms and local artisans,” Josephine says. “Right now, we’re doing a watercress ginger lime sorbet flavor with Sumida Farm; (coming up), we’ll do a partnership with Olive & Oliver — they’re a boutique here in Kailua.”
“This is the first iteration of what we’re doing,” Kyle adds. “We’re also going to potentially open up other concepts, outside of ice cream — other food concepts, other community gathering places, maybe an outdoor food hall … nothing specific yet, but there’s a lot cooking.”
The business’s tagline is “scoops and futures,” which keeps the couple moving forward and looking for ways to inspire the community.
“We really stand for hope — looking forward to an ice cream when thinking about how crazy the world can feel, focusing on spending time with people you love and those precious moments,” Josephine says. “Taking your kid to get ice cream after school and looking forward to that — that gives you hope at the end of the day.”
“It’s about celebrating those everyday moments, just because we need them now more than ever,” Kyle adds.
CONTACT
Please Come Again
322 Kuʻulei Road, Kailua
pleasecomeagainhawaii.com
Instagram: @pleasecomeagainhawaii
Open 1-7 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 1-8 p.m. Fridays-Sundays
Parking available in the surrounding municipal lots
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
