According to the 2010 census there are more 280,000 native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander currently residing across the state, with many of them populating the South Bay and drawing in their own unique culinary communities. The restaurant opened in 1988 as a more direct way to cater to California’s prodigious Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community, which is the largest in the contiguous United States. The real heavy hitter, though, has to be the branded King’s Hawaiian restaurant off Sepulveda Boulevard in Torrance. The quick service stop-off sells a variety of options from sandwiches to bowls to breakfast burritos, while also being a hub for the company’s expansive non-bread bakery items like the famed three-layer paradise cakes. The first is The Local Place, a fast casual option off Western in the city of Gardena. The King’s Hawaiian company actually operates two different eateries in the South Bay, both overseen by various members of the Taira family. In an era where most of the modern world seems to find time to scream at airline companies and scooter brands on Twitter, everybody seems to love greater LA’s own personal sweet bread success story.Īnd then there are the restaurants. Even Arby’s sells sandwiches on licensed King’s Hawaiian buns. The iconic orange King’s Hawaiian sleeves still stand out in any grocery aisle, and the company’s split sweet buns form the base of gourmet burgers in high-end restaurants, and the litany of hot dogs at rapidly-franchising Pasadena eatery Dog Haus. That’s certainly true when it comes to brand recognition. And while today the privately-held company declines to cite specifics on how many millions of rolls and loaves tick off from the conveyor belts every year, it’s safe to say that with more than 1,000 employees nationwide, the company is likely doing pretty well. They built an East Coast baking hub outside of Atlanta, Georgia in 2011, solidifying the company’s growing national customer base.

The mainland jump increased production capabilities and company awareness overnight, propelling the small retail bakery into the major wholesale baking business.įor years, King’s Hawaiian operated out of a 60,000-square-foot production bakery off of Western Avenue in Torrance, before scaling up to their current West Coast hub on Harborgate in 2004. The Taira family first started cooking their signature Portuguese sweet rolls out of a small bakery space on the Big Island in Hilo, Hawai’i back in 1950, expanding in 1963 to some prime real estate in Honolulu before eventually moving to Torrance, California in 1977. Others watch the bake and scan the gigantic freezer, while inside a small research and development area hands tinker with new ingredients, toggling between spreadsheets.ĭespite the ubiquity of King’s Hawaiian as a brand, this is still a family-run operation, based right in Southern California - just like Panda Express. Quality control team members keep an eye on the product as they whiz past, and guys in forklifts move pallets full of finished rolls to the shipping area. It’s a highly automated process that spans multiple floors and countless conveyor belts, but the human touch is still everywhere on the production floor. It seems to hang in the air at nose level, like floating in a pool with eyes barely above the water.Įveryone who works inside is outfitted with white smocks and hairnets, bobbing around the production floor checking endless lines of tumbling rolls as they move from the dough mix area upstairs to portioning to proofing to bake to bag. Outside, the weather is already unseasonably stuffy and thick, but inside the 150,000 square foot King’s Hawaiian production bakery the blend of yeast and and just-baked sweet breads is intoxicating. It’s 10:30 in the morning in a largely windowless building in Torrance, California, and the air smells fantastic.

Hawaiian cookie company