For more than 60 years, the counter at 94-209 Pupukahi St. kept a schedule no festival can match. Leeward Drive-Inn opened in 1964 and served meals 365 days a year, according to Hawaii News Now. It didn't close for holidays or slow weeks.
Early on Friday, Oct. 2, firefighters arrived to find smoke coming from every side of the single-story building and flames coming through the roof. Three weeks later, Waipahu's fall calendar is filling up. The pumpkin patch is now on Kunia Road, the Haunted Plantation has two weekends left, and Taste of Waipahu is listed for early November. All of those happen on set dates. The one business that never missed a day is the one that's closed.
What happened on Pupukahi Street
On Oct. 14, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that the Honolulu Fire Department had ruled the fire accidental. Investigators found it started in the kitchen when an unattended gas griddle ignited grease that had built up in the exhaust vent. The fire then spread through the roof. No one was inside and no one was hurt.
The damage estimate breaks down this way:
| Category | Estimated damage |
|---|---|
| Property | $743,000 |
| Contents | $160,000 |
| Total | $903,000 |
Those numbers explain why there's no reopening date. Most of the damage is to the building, and the property figure alone is more than four times the contents. A cleanup and a new griddle won't reopen a kitchen that lost part of its roof.
A GoFundMe campaign is raising money to restore operations "as soon as possible" and to help workers who lost hours. When Hawaii News Now covered it on Oct. 7, the campaign had raised $1,330 toward a $24,000 goal. As of Oct. 18 the page showed $2,435 from 42 donors, still about a tenth of the goal. Even the full $24,000 is small next to $903,000 in damage, so the fundraiser looks aimed at a bridge, especially for staff. It won't cover a rebuild.
A 2022 HONOLULU Magazine feature named the drive-inn's signature favorites as fried saimin, barbecue chicken, kalbi and mac salad, plus baked turnovers and soft-serve. All of it is off the table for now. Leeward Drive-Inn hasn't announced a temporary setup or a target date.
The weekend side of the calendar moved closer
The month's events were already set, and one of them moved into Waipahu itself this year.
Aloun Farms is holding its 24th annual Pumpkin Patch, called "Back to Our Roots," at what it calls a new location: Aloun Country Market, 94-488 Kunia Rd. In 2024, the festival address was 91-1440 Farrington Hwy. in Kapolei, according to HI Now. This year's event uses a Waipahu address on the Kunia side, at the farm's market.
The format is smaller. The 2024 festival ran three weekends. This year has two, and the first, Oct. 17 and 18, is over. Aloun Farms lists pick-your-own pumpkins, sunflower fields, fresh produce from the Country Market and local vendors. Admission is $5 per person, children 2 and under get in free, and parking on site is free. Educational field tours aren't offered this season. Schools can still order pumpkins for delivery.
The second event takes place in a plantation-era setting. The Haunted Plantation runs at Hawaiʻi's Plantation Village, 94-695 Waipahu St. Per the organizer's ticket page, gates open at 6 p.m., the first group goes in around 7 p.m., and gates close at 10:30 p.m. On Halloween they close at 9 p.m. Tickets start at $20. KHON's Oct. 5 Halloween roundup gave the hours as 7 to 11 p.m., which doesn't match. The organizer's times are the ones to use.
Here's what's left, counted from Thursday, Oct. 22:
| Date | Event | Location | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Oct. 23 | Haunted Plantation | 94-695 Waipahu St. | Gates 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Aloun Farms Pumpkin Patch | 94-488 Kunia Rd. | 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Haunted Plantation | 94-695 Waipahu St. | Gates 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. |
| Sun., Oct. 25 | Aloun Farms Pumpkin Patch, final day | 94-488 Kunia Rd. | 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Sun., Oct. 25 | Haunted Plantation | 94-695 Waipahu St. | Gates 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. |
| Fri., Oct. 30 | Haunted Plantation | 94-695 Waipahu St. | Gates 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Haunted Plantation, final night | 94-695 Waipahu St. | Gates 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. |
On Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th, the patch closes at 5 p.m. and the Plantation Village gates open an hour later, so you can do both in one day. Halloween night is the shortest night of the haunt's run.
Taste of Waipahu, in a month short one kitchen
The next date is a food event, which makes the drive-inn's absence more obvious.
The City and County of Honolulu's 2026 street-use calendar lists the 20th Annual Taste of Waipahu for Nov. 7, sponsored by the Waipahu Community Association. It expects about 6,000 people. The listed closure covers Waipahu Depot Street from Farrington Highway to Hikimoe Street, and Hikimoe Street from Depot Street to Kahuailani Street. The 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. window on the listing is for closing and reopening the roads. It isn't the festival's hours.
Two details on that listing are unsettled. It labels Nov. 7 a Friday, but Nov. 7, 2026 is a Saturday. And the permit is marked submitted, not approved. The Waipahu Community Association's Taste of Waipahu page has vendor registration and donation links, but no 2026 vendor list or event hours yet. Check that page before you plan around the date.
Taste of Waipahu is the town's own food event, and this year it's set for a stretch when one of the town's best-known kitchens may still be closed. With no reopening timeline, Leeward Drive-Inn could well still be dark on Nov. 7.
Depot Street sits next to the train
The Taste route is close to transit. Pouhala, the Skyline station at the Waipahu Transit Center, is at Farrington Highway and Hikimoe Street. That's the same corner where the listed closure starts. The City's current Skyline schedule runs daily from 4 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Trains come every 10 minutes until 8:30 p.m. and every 15 minutes after that. West Loch has its own stop, Hōʻaeʻae.
Skyline ridership was rising before any of this. The Department of Transportation Services reported a weekday record of 14,143 rides on Wednesday, Aug. 26, and an average of 13,478 weekday rides for Aug. 24 to 28. A street festival expecting 6,000 people, starting at the corner by the station, may add more riders that evening.
The schedule matters for the Haunted Plantation too. Its gates close at 10:30 p.m. on regular nights, the same time the published Skyline service day ends. If you ride the train, a late group may not get you back in time.
Until there's news from Pupukahi Street, the best place to check on Leeward Drive-Inn is its GoFundMe page, which had raised $2,435 of its $24,000 goal as of Oct. 18.
Leeward Drive-Inn shows how much one long-held Waipahu property can mean to a neighborhood. If you own a Waipahu apartment building and want to know what it would trade for in this market, Commercial Investment Strategies can underwrite it against current numbers. What's your property worth?