While I was in Hawaii for holiday break, I stopped by Volcano Vapor Cafe in the Kapahulu section of Honolulu. My brother mentioned the place to me, as it’s just down the road from his condo. Naturally, I had to stop by. What I found was a fun place where you can check out e-cigs and e-liquids, as well as hop on the Internet, grab some coffee, enjoy a sandwich, watch TV, and play some console games. Check out the video above for a tour of the cafe.
The cafe’s staff are a nice bunch of people that are friendly and knowledgable about vaping. Similar to my experience with The Vapor Spot in Los Angeles, they’re a cut above the employees you find at most retail shops. As many of you know, I generally hate the retail experience; I rather slam my fingers in a door repeatedly than deal with some of the people I’ve encountered at Best Buy and GameStop. After watching the staff at Volcano Vapor Cafe for a few hours, I was reminded that the retail experience can be a pleasant one.
The customers were a diverse group of people. Most of them were locals that were stopping in to get new cartomizers or juice. They seemed proud to be supporting a local company (Volcano HQ is in Oahu, near my beloved Lanikai Beach). It was cool seeing people quickly to stop in to get cartos, similar to how they’d drop by a convenience store to get tobacco cigarettes. Naturally, there were a lot of people that were inquiring about the LavaTube Version 2, one of the hottest products on the market today. Lastly, there were some tourists (Kapahulu is minutes from Waikiki) that were picking up e-cig kits to bring back to their countries. Whatever their needs were, the staff took care of them in a polite and friendly manner.
While I was filming, some of the patrons noticed my Ovale USA eVic. It was cool that other vapers were immediately able to identify new gear. Of course they had lots of questions about the mod and the software it works with. And of course, I had to let them try it. Soon enough, a bunch of people got out their drip tips and tried my eVic. After that, we talked about the different tanks I had on me (Cirrus Vapes and Valley View Vapes). This led to other conversations about different gear and e-liquids, showing the community aspect of Volcano Vapor Cafe. It’s awesome that vapers have a place to hang out, meet fellow vapers, and share experiences.
By the time you watch this video and read this article, Volcano will have a second cafe. I was told that the new cafe will be bigger and feature a stage for live music. Coincidentally, it will be in Ewa Beach, which is where my parents recently moved to. I’m pretty sure that there are cosmic forces at work, placing vaping cafes near where my brother and parents live, respectively.
If you’re a vaper that’s vacationing in Oahu then I highly recommend stopping by Volcano Vapor Cafe. It’s just a fun place to hang out, vape, grab a snack, and meet fellow vapers. While there are many Internet vendors that I love dealing with, it’s awesome that there are more physical locations where vapers can shop and socialize too. Hopefully more and more vaping cafes will open in the future. With some luck, perhaps a Volcano Vapor Cafe will open up in your town!
