When you hear the words “Auberge” and “summer restaurant residency,” you might imagine a fancy, over-the-top experience. But in go-with-the-flow Hawaii, the waves—and everything else—hit differently.

From now through September 1 at Auberge Resort Collection’s Mauna Lani on the Big Island’s Kohala Coast, guests can go to the hotel’s outdoor Surf Shack, order food and sake from free-spirited Los Angeles izakaya Ototo’s trailer and eat dishes like sesame-seed-topped chicken wings and rock shrimp okonomiyaki at oceanfront picnic tables. The summer residency is open for dinner and beachside drinking seven nights a week.

Ototo, owned by chef Charles Namba and beverage director Courtney Kaplan, won a James Beard Award for its extensive sake program in 2023. Kaplan is eager to make the connections between sake and surfing during her Hawaii residency. And obviously, the connections between Hawaii and Japan are manifold. (The Mauna Lani resort was owned by Tokyo Corporation before it became an Auberge property.)

“There’s a brewery in Japan called Tensei,” Kaplan tells Observer on Friday, June 6, during Ototo’s grand-opening weekend at Mauna Lani. “They’re right on the coast. They’re very close to Shonan Beach. And the master brewer loves two things: surfing and fermentation. He makes surf sakes that are really inspired by ocean culture and are meant to pair with all the seafood they’re eating.”