In the Bay Area we’ve become accustomed to pairing recreational drugs with social venues. This region offers bars, hookah lounges, cannabis cafes and gentlemans’ clubs with cigars. The smell and smoke, or the drunken behaviors, keep users of different substances from frequenting the same scenes. The new alternative is kava bars.
There are currently three in the East Bay—MeloMelo on Grand in Oakland, Rootwater on Third in Jack London Square and Bula Kava on Mission in Hayward. A fourth kava bar is due soon, when MeloMelo opens its next location in Berkeley, where its business originally began.
When kava, a root believed to have originated in Vanuatu, or Oceania, matures, it is uprooted, rinsed, dried, then either pulverized into powder by distributors, shaved into shreds or given away as the raw lawena kava, the tubers of the plant, and raw waka kava, the stick-like roots. The kava gets mixed and soaked or dissolved in water, making a foggy and lightly brown puddle.
Similar to how THC and CBD, both compounds found in cannabis, produce different effects in those who ingest marijuana, lawena and waka each affect the human body differently. Lawena is more grounding whereas waka is more activating. Similar to CBD, kava is used as a pain reliever, sleep promoter, muscle relaxer and anticonvulsant—evidence from new research shows that it might have anti-carcinogenic properties.
MeloMelo, a queer-friendly and Palestinian-owned nonalcoholic bar owned by Rami Kayali, introduces kava to the locals in Grand Lake. The bar is adorned with greenery inside and out, in keeping with kava’s native tropical vibrance. Kayali and his business partner started the business in 2013, then Kayali opened the first MeloMelo in Berkeley in 2014. He then opened a MeloMelo in Santa Cruz and one in Oakland. Now he hopes to reopen MeloMelo in Berkeley and open another in San Jose.
After helping his brother in the cannabis industry, where he learned the nuances and struggles of efficiently growing, processing and distributing a highly regulated plant, Kayali seemed well-suited to take on kava. His dedication to the culture led him to the University of Hawai’i, Manoa, during the pandemic to study kava for its nutritional value, and the most efficient way to grow it. Once Kayali earns his graduate degree, he’ll be one of a very few kava academic experts in the world.
He’ll likely be lauded for his determination to learn about kava by kava-drinkers, considering most of the existing research data is two decades old and may be why kava has a bad reputation. Kava became a popular recreational drug in the ’90s until governments in Europe, including Germany, banned kava after research studies claimed it caused liver damage. The problem with those studies was the kava drinks they were basing them upon contained kava mixed with alcohol, the Westernized version of the traditional kava-in-water beverage. In 2014 two German courts found there wasn’t enough evidence to continue this ban, so it was removed.
Any substance that changes us physiologically when it enters our bodies is a drug, but drugs are not all equally beneficial or toxic. Recreational drugs are toxic to our livers because our livers break down and metabolize them so our bodies can use or dispose of them. Alcohol and kava combined cause more damage to the human liver than drinking alcohol on its own. But then again, Tylenol and ibuprofen are also toxic to our livers.
Partners Troy McClendon and Ty Thompson, who began their journey with kava seven years ago, together run Rootwater Kava Bar. Thompson, now in his seventh year of sobriety, was introduced to kava in his first year by his housemate at an open mic night. Kava became a new passion project for Thompson, who had worked as a bartender. Going to an alcohol-bar when sober is dreadful, McClendon and Thompson both said, so they weren’t interested in hanging out at bars. Kava, a new and different substance, provided Thompson and his fellow sober friends with alternatives.
The Rootwater sits on an elevated deck. Minimal furnishings and artwork give it a dive-bar feel. The inside boasts a large, open room with a bar in one corner and a small window to the kitchen area. The room is big enough for a dance party, and includes enough bartop space for a belly dancer—proven by the dancer at the Pride party held there in June. The bar opened on Halloween in 2023, after a year-long stint as a pop-up bar. Now it hosts parties every few months; for Halloween, Pride and other events.
Rootwater and MeloMelo make and distribute their kava very differently.
Rootwater processes its kava shreds using a secret process that McClendon learned from a mentor. The process uses kava very efficiently, allowing for a higher concentration with less material. McClendon and Thompson said their drinks contain about 60% kava, versus the 14% kava drinks usually contain. MeloMelo uses the whole roots—waka, lawena or both—and processes them traditionally by filtering and hand-pressing them.
Where bars can turn bacchanalian and hookah bars or cannabis lounges are intoxicating for non-smokers, and both substances damage lungs as well as livers, kava bars have the upper hand. They invite a naturally calm environment, and the kava drinks keep imbibers from reaching any anxiety-attack threshold.
“I see just as many people meeting each other and chatting in kava bars as I do in alcoholic bars,” McClendon said. “But I’ve never seen anyone get into a fistfight at a kava bar.”
Pacific Islanders have used kava for 3,000 years as a ceremonial and social drink, at major events and in informal gatherings of men, which can last for 12 hours or more. Like the French with their wine, kava is a community-centered drink meant to bring the people together. Prepared in the tanoa bowl—a ceremonial bowl that stands on three legs, also called a kumete—it is served in coconut half-shells.
“Vanuatus and Hawaii drink kava ‘fresh’—meaning they harvest, wash and blend the root with water, filter and drink,” MeloMelo owner Rami Kayali said in an email. “It has a distinct ‘green’ taste akin to cucumber covered in some earth. Tonga and Fiji traditionally dry the root after harvest, then grind and mix with water.”
Thursday nights at MeloMelo provide customers with the opportunity to learn about kava’s history with MeloMelo’s weekly guest, Cliff Meredith, a Tongan-American who grew up in San Francisco. He brings traditional tanoa, which are 20% off on Thursdays, and those who buy a half-pound of kava and then give it to Meredith as an offering can join the faikava; Tongan for doing kava together.
Attracting people to try kava can be a difficult task. Kayali compares its bitter, wheatgrass-like taste to chewing potatoes, and McClendon calls it “potato-skin soup.” Kava also has a “reverse tolerance” effect, meaning more is less for new consumers and less is more for regulars. Rootwater’s owners took six months to produce and perfect their kava sparklers, which dilute the bitterness and make it more palatable.
While some websites suggest drinking kava on an empty stomach, Rootwater’s owners recommend against it, as it can lead to nausea, vomiting and general uncomfortableness, especially if one drinks too much. Usually the rule is five drinks maximum, and even at the faikava circle at MeloMelo on Thursdays customers can pass on a refill, but it’s still important to pay attention to one’s body and listen when it says to stop.
