At Heart: How Little Vessels Donut Co. Found a Home
Sachi MacLachlan was looking for connection when she launched Little Vessels on Instagram during the pandemic. She found it among neighbors on a small corner in Kaimukī.
Where the Heart Is
Maui Fresh Streatery | Fujiya Hawai‘i | Little Vessels | Central O‘ahu Event Center
In the world of food and restaurants, the most resonant stories go beyond what’s on the table. Here’s Part 3 of the four-part package “Where the Heart Is” in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of HONOLULU Magazine.
Photo: Sean Marrs
Into the Fold
Across town in Kaimukī, Sachi Maclachlan is further proof of Hawai‘i’s tradition of embracing the new, especially when it’s layered on things delicious and timeless. Like doughnuts. Maclachlan started Little Vessels Donut Co. alone, at home during the pandemic and furloughed from her job as a restaurant server.
As she worked on a business plan and scribbled recipes for vegan yeast doughnuts, she leaned into her cravings for comfort food and connection. The one brought her the other: Sweet tooths fell in love with her miso caramel furikake, peanut butter pretzel and strawberry liliko‘i doughnuts. And tendrils of conversation that began as direct messages on Instagram, where customers placed their orders, bloomed into real-life conversations when they picked them up, delivering the human connection she craved.
SEE ALSO: Best of HONOLULU 2023: The Best Food and Drinks on O‘ahu
But it was her neighbors at the corner of Ninth and Wai‘alae who helped root Maclachlan, who’s from the East Coast, in the community of food providers. Following a tip from a friend, she found kitchen space at sustainable local seafood purveyor Local I‘a. With Ed Kenney’s Mud Hen Water, butcher-and-pastry shop Local General Store and pizza maker Fatto a Mano, they formed a microcosm within the larger Kaimukī community, whose vibrant mix of trendy and legacy small businesses is unrivaled except in Chinatown. The five put on a joint fundraising dinner after the Maui wildfires and are talking about more projects.
“Everybody feeds off each other, everybody gets excited for each other, everybody shares ingredients and ideas,” Maclachlan says.
She’s no longer alone in the kitchen, either. Employees help handmake caramel apple pie doughnuts in the fall and mint chocolate doughnuts in winter, Maclachlan’s homage to holidays with her grandparents. On a busy day, customers buy 400 fluffy pastries, eight times the 50 of her first day; and things are no less busy at home, where Maclachlan, 35, is raising a toddler daughter with her husband.
There’s no time to think about the future. But she knows it will be in Kaimukī. “I have always found a comfort and a home within this world,” she says. “Something clicks differently.”
3458 Wai‘alae Ave., littlevesselsco.com, @littlevesselsco
