It’s 8:30 a.m. on the Friday after Prince Kūhiō Day and I am parking in the State Capitol’s damp underground structure.

In the chamber level inside there are used carpet squares and blue recycling bins repurposed to collect leaks from the recent storms. The drinking fountains are covered in plastic, as they have been since Covid.

As I make my way to Civil Beat’s tiny office, the building’s fire alarm goes off, as it is wont to do. All of us working in the seat of state government are advised to evacuate and not use the elevators. (If the elevators are working, that is. On this day, at least two are not in service. Sigh.)

We do nothing, though. It turns out to be yet another false alarm, and folks in the rundown building take it all in stride. It’s a nearly 60-year-old structure, and it needs a lot of work.

But I’m not going to let any of that bother me. No, I’m going to make my usual stop during legislative session days at the Bites & Bev snack shop, located on the mauka-Diamond Head corner of the basement.

“Good morning, Chad,” says Emily Cruz, co-owner, ready and waiting at the counter.

“Hi, Emily,” I reply cheerfully.

Cruz is chatting with a customer who is sharing what she did on the holiday. Bites & Bev is like the bar on “Cheers,” where everybody knows your name.

There is no alcohol sold at the Capitol snack shop, and that’s just fine. Customers come to load up on something to eat, including hot foods, and something to drink, including hot beverages, to get them through the session day.

Eating options have always been a bit of a challenge for Capitol denizens. With the exception of a nearby food truck (Sooooooooo FAT at Richards and Hotel streets, home of the “Frickn Chicken”), the nearest food joint is several blocks away.

But when it rains — and it’s been raining a lot in Honolulu lately — it can be a wet trek to Madame Saigon at Tamarind Park or Pālama Supermarket on Alakea.

There are also few places to sit down and eat at the Capitol, too, other than a few picnic tables on the open area on the fifth floor. But Bites & Bev offers a couple of tables and chairs, warm overhead lighting and jazz or classical music humming through the snack shop sound system.

Another bonus: Lines often form during lunch hour at places like My B.B.Q. at Tamarind Park and even Subway on Alakea. That’s rarely the case at Bites & Bev, where there are two self-service checkouts. One even takes bills.

I purchase my usual coffee and a Nature’s Bakery Fig Bar (today I choose the blueberry over the raspberry). I also elect to not grab the Spam & Egg Bento. Gotta watch the cholesterol!

Bites & Bev used to brew and dispense caffeinated and decaf coffee until recently, when they installed a sleek “bean to cup” machine that brews espresso, cappuccino and more. It’s been a big hit with the Capitol crowd, most of us having been weaned on Starbucks.

“I would like to say for the record, I have my own coffee upstairs, but I choose to come to the cafe,” Sen. Samantha DeCorte tells me as she fills up her own cup. “Whenever I need to get away, I come down to the cafe, make myself a coffee, get a little snack, have good conversation, and then I’m ready to battle another day.”

A Jewel In The Rough

It has not always been so accommodating at the Capitol snack shop, which is officially part of the historic building along with its open-air design, cone-shaped legislative chambers (volcanoes) and a surrounding reflection pool (Pacific Ocean).

The public hasn’t seen those pools in years, however, as the state continues work on installing a mural to replace the water (which leaked and stank; it’s a long story) with what is now a $73.5 million project that might well miss its November 2026 completion date.

There are no vending machines at the Capitol, save for a Coke machine located where deliveries are made and trash is collected near the turn-around entrance on the chamber level. Capitol veterans will remember a snack shop with little to offer and a proprietor that seemed more interested in watching a ball game or a K-drama on his little TV than greeting each customer with a welcome.

The shack shop is run through the Business Enterprise Program, which is part of the Hawaiʻi Division of Vocational Rehabilitation within the Department of Human Services. The objective of the program is to “improve the quality of life” for qualified persons who are blind through their placement as vending facility operators “so that they can become self-supporting and tax paying members of society.”

The Business Enterprise Program currently has 43 vending facilities on federal, state, county and private properties. That includes nine properties at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport as well as one each at the Kauaʻi Civic Center, Maui Memorial Hospital, Hilo County Building and Marine Corp Base Hawaiʻi at Kāneʻohe Bay.

According to the most recent report from the Hawaiʻi State Committee of Blind Vendors, the Legislature approved $2 million for the program in 2025 for two fiscal years. A big portion of the funding goes to a benefits package for the vendors totaling $38,000.

Emily Cruz, legally blind, is the the official owner and operator and has since August 2023 run Bites & Bev “with a lot of support from my husband,” she told me.

That’s Antonio Jardine-Cruz. His contributions are many, starting with selecting the music to “set a nice vibe and kind of put people at ease,” he explained. “We’ll rotate through different things. Like, right now we’re kind of in a phase of more piano stuff. We did jazz for a little bit. It kind of just depends on the day.”

Cruz is originally from Michigan by way of Nebraska. She came to Hawaiʻi through her brother-in-law stationed with the Air Force. Jardine-Cruz was born and raised in Hawaiʻi, went to school in Arizona, then moved back. Both have a background in customer service, and Cruz has more extensive experience working in the food industry.

At Bites & Bev, Jardine-Cruz has played a big role with the makeover of the snack shop.

“It’s not without exaggeration to say we really kind of ripped everything out from the studs,” he said. “We’ve redone the flooring, we’ve redone all of the fixtures. We have redone the point-of-sale system, so now we have our micro-market system.”

Great consideration is also given to the food selection.

“We try to source all of our hot foods from local vendors close by in town,” said Cruz. That includes bentos like chicken katsu curry from Warabeya, a new vendor for Bites & Bev.

Healthy fare is also top of mind for the couple. Tucker & Bevvy, a locally owned store that’s known for their offerings at Whole Foods, offers a buckwheat soba noodle salad, Caprese and pesto pasta salad, and butternut hummus wrap.

“They’ve given us a lot vegetarian and vegan options to offer, and then a lot of great baked goods,” says Cruz. A shoutout also goes to Lanakila Kitchen for its scones and pumpkin crunch.

“I could just go on,” she said.

And it’s not just food and beverages. There is no 7-Eleven or Longs near the Capitol, either, so the snack shop is the place to buy Aleve, Secret deodorant, Tums, Halls cough drops and a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Bites & Bev is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is often a rush before it closes for folks in the building working late.

On March 12, the day before the state shut down for the first Kona low storm, the couple had a “storm day” sale to clear out the Tucker & Bevvy inventory.

Senate President Ron Kouchi stopped by that day to “make sure we were OK,” said Cruz. He’s a regular, as are lots of other senators and representatives and lobbyists and testifiers and journalists.

Cruz said plans going forward include possibly expanding the menu selections and offering coffee catering both inside and outside the building.

“We’re kind of the only watering hole, which is why we try to offer a little something for everyone — you know, something maybe at a higher cost, but more value, and then also some more cost-effective things as well,” she said.

It’s 10 a.m. and I am done with my interview. It’s raining again outside, too, and it’s chilly. I purchase a teri chicken and rice bento and go back to my little media hole to enjoy my lunch.

Tell us about a government program or service you think is working well. We’re also interested in people, especially public employees, who deserve to be celebrated for their service or their contributions to making Hawaiʻi a better place. Send to sunshine@civilbeat.org and include Bright Spots in the subject line please!