If you’ve driven by the new cafe and lounge in Kenai, just across the highway from the Kenai Chamber of Commerce, and tried to pronounce it in your head, you might be saying it wrong.
“A lot of people come in, they say “Is it…..ooooh, AK zen?”
Chef and owner Krista Harrison said that’s not quite right.. It’s pronounced OAK-zen, and the idea for the name, she said, has been in her mind since culinary school.
“It stands for one-of-a-kind-zen. That one-of-a-kind, actually goes for artists. If they do an individual piece, then it’s unique and they put that in front of the title. And I thought that was really interesting,” she explained. “And then zen is just the atmosphere that I want to create here.”
OOAKZEN opened in late May, in the former Bargain Basement building in Kenai. It’s a healthy foods cafe, coffee shop and zen retail store, and is the culmination of Harrison’s years-long passion project.
Harrison graduated from culinary school in 2017, then needed to complete an externship at a restaurant. She got a gig at the Princess Lodge in Cooper Landing for a few weeks, then worked for the Kenai juvenile detention center’s nutrition program.
She eventually made her way to Addie Camp in Soldotna, and then was encouraged by Chef Maya Wilson to strike out on her own. Harrison found a location on K-Beach, but two weeks before opening, she was in a major car accident.
“Which actually landed me with a broken foot and a traumatic brain injury,” she said. “So it took me a little bit to work through that.”
The K-Beach location opened as just a retail shop while Harrison recovered. But she kept the OOAKZEN dream alive, and eventually found the Kenai spot.
The shop is an ode to Harrison’s commitment to making healthy foods without sacrificing flavor or creativity. There’s a consistent brunch menu, but other foods on the menu change seasonally, and include colorful sandwiches, pastas, soups, salads and bowls.
“We have weekly specials that allow for that creativity, because I want people to be able to try new things, and I want to make new things, because it kind of keeps me going,” she said. “Being a chef, I just love to play.”
She tries to source products locally, and said she’s working on developing more connections to local farmers and producers.
The drink menu is the same year round. She uses coffee from Chugach Mountain Roasters out of Girdwood, as well as a Brooklym-based roaster. Options include traditional coffee drinks, as well as specials, like the Kenai Fog, a London Fog-inspired latte with a house-made spruce tip syrup, made of locally harvested spruce tips.
The spacious shop has seating that includes a fireplace lounge area. On the retail side of things, there are books, clothes, gourmet foods, healthy snacks, a wide selection of teas, clothes and a crystals corner.
Harrison said the retail selection reflects the ingredients she uses behind the counter, and is inspired by the healing she did following her accident.
“I was introduced to lion's mane mushroom, and that was one of the only things that was actually helping my cognitive healing, which sent me down this path of really wanting to offer more holistic options for people,” she said.
Harrison sells and serves tea from Felicity Loft, a local tea company from Megan Weston, another member of the local food community that inspired Harrison along her journey to opening OOAKZEN. Harrison said the Central Peninsula area has a lot of women-owned businesses, which has both inspired and bolstered her new enterprise.
Since opening, Harrison said she’s been learning about the area’s desires for her style.
“You realize that there is a community that’s looking for this, and it’s not really available. And it’s a risk, because a lot of people say, “we don’t want to do this, it’s too expensive, these ingredients, nobody’s gonna pay these prices,” and they don’t put the investment into the food. And really that’s the investment, that’s what I want to give people. I want to give them their health.”
OOAKZEN is open from 11-6 Tuesday through Friday, and from 10-3 on Saturdays. You can find the cafe and shop at 11472 Kenai Spur Hwy.
