Hotel Molokai, in Kaunakakai (tel. 800/367-5004 or 808/553-5347), offers live entertainment from local musicians, poolside and in the dining room, on Friday from 4 to 11pm and on Saturday from 6 to 10pm. With its South Seas ambience and poolside setting, it's become the island's premier venue for local and visiting entertainers.
Molokai musicians to watch for include Pound for Pound, a powerful group of artists, each over 250 pounds. The members are lead vocalist Jack Stone, Shane Dudoit, Danny Reyes, John Pele, and Alika Lani. As popular off-island as on, they perform Hawaiian, reggae, country, and contemporary Hawaiian numbers, many of them originals. Their CD, 100% Molokai, has become a local legend.
Darryl Labrado is a teen phenom and the island's rising star; he sings and plays the ukulele to a huge local following. And Pa'a Pono, with its contemporary Hawaiian and reggae sounds, is a familiar name on the local nightlife circuit. Molokai Now, a CD anthology of original music from Molokai, is a terrific memento for those who love the island and its music.
Movie buffs, too, finally have a place to call their own on Molokai. Maunaloa Cinemas (tel. 808/552-2707) is a triplex theater that shows first-run movies in the middle of Maunaloa town -- four screenings a day at each of the three theaters.
Also in Maunaloa, the lounge at the Sheraton Molokai Lodge and Beach Village (tel. 800/782-9488 or 808/660-2710; fax 808/552-2908; www.sheraton-hawaii.com) offers live music Friday and Saturday from 7 to 9pm, ranging from Phil Stevens and his lively Hawaiian songs and stories about the Hawaiian cowboys to keiki hula, acoustic classical guitar, and contemporary Hawaiian music.
A True Molokai Experience: The Hot Bread Run--For years, local residents have lined up outside Kanemitsu Bakery waiting for freshly baked bread to be taken from the oven. Molokai Bread -- developed in 1935 in a cast-iron, kiawe-fired oven -- is Kanemitsu Bakery's signature. Flavors range from apricot-pineapple to mango (in season), but the classics remain the regular white, wheat, cheese, sweet, and onion-cheese breads. Kanemitsu's is part of Molokai's night life, too. Whenever anyone on Molokai mentions "hot bread," he's talking about the hot-bread run at Kanemitsu's, the surreal late-night ritual for die-hard bread lovers. Those in the know line up at the bakery's back door beginning at 10:30pm, when the bread is whisked hot out of the oven and into waiting hands. You can order your fresh bread with butter, jelly, cinnamon, or cream cheese, and the bakers will cut the hot loaves down the middle and slather on the works so it melts in the bread. The cream cheese and jelly bread makes a fine substitute for dessert.
If you are a little hesitant to venture out by yourself for this only-on-Molokai experience, now you can go on a tour with Molokai Outdoors Activities, in the lobby of Hotel Molokai, just outside Kaunakakai (tel. 877/553-4477 or 808/553-4477; www.molokai-outdoors.com). The Hot Bread Run "tour" starts at 9:30pm, when guides whisk you through the back streets of Kaunakakai to line up in a dimly lit alley to wait for the bread to come out. After getting the still-hot bread, they take you on a night tour of the town and down to the wharf, where you can enjoy a cup of hot cocoa and your hot bread. The cost of the tour ($25) includes a loaf of the Molokai bread of your choice.
