Why this landlocked city is known as Hawaii’s ‘Ninth Island’
Matt Villano
Las Vegas (CNN) — On a grass mat in front of a DJ booth, hula dancers sway gracefully in time to the gentle tones of traditional island music. By some food trucks, the pungent scent of garlic shrimp swirls in the air. At communal tables under a tent, several tattooed men and women talk softly in the inimitable lilt of Hawaiian pidgin.
It’s a Saturday evening on the west side of Las Vegas, and a parking lot in the middle of the Mojave Desert has transformed into a tropical wonderland.
This is the scene at the Killah Kine (pronounced kyne) Night Market, a monthly gathering of local Hawaiian-owned businesses and the people who support them. While the aim of the market is commercial, the star of the show is the vibrant community of Native Hawaiians and other transplants who have moved to the Las Vegas area from the South Pacific.
It’s a sizeable community. Clark County consistently ranks among the top metropolitan areas on the US mainland for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations. Recent census data indicates roughly 50,000 people in the area identify as at least part Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
So many Hawaiians have relocated to Las Vegas that the transplants now refer to the city as the “Ninth Island,” a metaphoric addition to the eight-island archipelago that comprises the 50th state.
For market organizer Terann Enriques, that nickname is a badge of honor, an acknowledgment that more than five years after she moved 2,500 miles to Las Vegas from her native Oahu, the place is starting to feel like home.
“You come to these markets, you see people that look like you and talk like you and it makes you kind of relax and feel like, ‘These are my people,’” she said. “Those good vibes and sense of family is special. It makes you feel like you’re back on the island. It makes you remember where you came from.”
Of course, these Aloha vibes aren’t only for transplants and locals; visitors can experience them too. Between dozens of regular events, local restaurants, and some of the best Polynesian-themed bars in the world, there are many ways to tap the tropics in the city of neon.
Marketing a diaspora
A thriving community of Hawaiian transplants in the middle of the desert didn’t happen overnight — or by accident. It began a half-century ago with a simple and calculated risk by a casino owner named Sam Boyd.
In 1975, Boyd opened the $10 million California Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas with the goal of attracting customers from Southern California.
The problem? SoCal visitors wanted to be near the action and attractions on the Strip. Facing mounting losses, Boyd pivoted his strategy and decided to market the property directly to a brand-new customer base: Hawaiians.
Boyd began making sales trips to Hawaii to pitch “The Cal” to travel agents, according to Boyd Gaming spokesman David Strow. Boyd and his team brought with them cases of Coors beer — which was popular but difficult to find. The Boyd team offered travel agents free seminars and free beer to come and learn about the value of Las Vegas vacations. Almost immediately they started selling all-inclusive package trips to Hawaiians.
Eventually, Boyd created his own travel agency to promote trips. These multi-day packages included airfare, hotel nights and food-and-beverage credit on-site. Some charter-flight vacations were priced as low as $9.70 per person for the whole thing. (Yes, you read that right.)
While these incredibly low prices attracted Hawaiians, the experience kept them coming back, according to David Schwartz, a historian and ombudsman at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“They got to the Cal, saw food from home and dealers wearing Hawaiian shirts and they felt welcome,” said Schwartz. “Nobody else in Vegas to that point had made this kind of effort to reach out to Hawaiian guests. Added together, all the little details made a big impression.”
Over the years, parent company Boyd Gaming doubled down on these little details. Today, giant exterior murals depict tropical scenes. Interior décor amplifies the island vibe with tropical upholstery, palm leaf-patterned wallpaper and white plantation shutters. An ice cream outlet scoops Lappert’s, artisanal ice cream from Kauai. Market Street Café serves Hawaiian-style oxtail soup.
Despite a brief drop-off after the Covid-19 pandemic, Hawaiians are still visiting in big numbers.
The most recent annual report for Boyd Gaming said that during the year ending December 31, 2025, patrons from Hawaii comprised approximately 75% of the occupied room nights at the Cal, as well as 45% of the occupied room nights at Main Street Station Hotel & Casino and 37% of the occupied room nights at the Fremont Hotel & Casino — the two other Boyd properties downtown.
“Some of our guests are what we call legacies — their parents came here as kids, then brought them as kids, and some are even now bringing their kids,” said Strow. “Often after a few visits, many guests decide to stay.”
Celebrating Hawaiian food
Hawaiians who have stayed have brought the flavors of the islands with them. Food is a huge part of Hawaiian culture. In recent years, the Hawaiian food scene has evolved to become a critical part of Ninth Islander life in and around Las Vegas.
Currently, some of the best places to get Hawaiian food in the Valley are food trucks.
One of the most popular: Island Kryptonite, which serves modern fusion dishes such as teriyaki burgers and poke nachos, as well as a traditional plate lunch with rice, macaroni salad, and fall-off-the-bone Kalbi short ribs. At street festivals and other public events, the line for Island Kryptonite typically stretches 20 to 30 people deep.
Other food trucks that have established cult followings include Hapahaoles, which specializes in street tacos; Fork U, which makes a mean Katsu chicken-and-macaroni-salad sandwich; and Enriques’ Killah Kine Shrimp, which serves a variety of garlic shrimp dishes.
“When you go to the North Shore of Oahu, garlic shrimp trucks are everywhere,” she said. “Over here, we’re the only (truck) that just sells shrimp. We took a staple from back home and brought it to life in Vegas. Now people come and eat our shrimp and have an immediate connection to home.”
Antidote, another favorite of Hawaiian transplants to Las Vegas, started as a food truck and now has a brick-and-mortar restaurant southwest of the Strip. The menu here is simple but delicious, with highlights such as garlic chicken, spicy salmon poke bombs and a Loco Moco plate comprising beef patties, steamed rice, over-easy eggs, sautéed onions and gravy.
Then, of course, there’s Matt Pichay, a.k.a. the Manapua Pork Hash Man.
Pichay whips up Hawaiian comfort food favorites such as steamed barbecue pork buns, local-style pork hash, and sweet, chewy and sponge-style rice cakes. He takes orders through a Facebook page and has customers pick up from a residence in Southwest Vegas.
The growth of the Hawaiian food scene in Las Vegas over the last few years is reflective of a burgeoning community celebrating its traditions, according to Chef Roy Ellamar.
Ellamar, who grew up in Hilo, worked at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon and Sensi before opening his own restaurant at the Bellagio in 2015. That restaurant, Harvest by Roy Ellamar, was renowned under his direction for pan-Asian food that drew heavily on the chef’s Hawaiian roots.
“To see chefs using good ingredients and showcasing the flavors we grew up on — it’s exciting,” said Ellamar, now the executive chef at Aya, a fine-dining restaurant at Graton Resort & Casino in Sonoma County, California.
“It used to be that the only way you could have many of these dishes was if you went to Hawaii.”
Cultivating community
Hawaiians who choose to live in Las Vegas permanently do so for several reasons.
Cost of living is a big one, since prices for basic items such as groceries and gas are significantly higher in Hawaii. Employment is another. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there are about 1.2 million non-farm jobs in metropolitan Las Vegas — nearly double the number of jobs in the entire state of Hawaii.
Hawaiians also save on state income tax when moving to Las Vegas, since Nevada has zero state individual income tax and Hawaii has some of the highest income tax rates in the nation, reaching up to 11%.
Randy Hatada, a realtor with Xpand Realty who specializes in helping Hawaiians find homes in the Las Vegas area, said all his Hawaiian clients mention finance as a factor in their moves.
“Hawaiians have been getting priced out of paradise for years,” he said. “So many Hawaiian people will never have the opportunity to be a homeowner on Maui and Oahu unless they get an inheritance. Vegas is the opportunity to change that. Here they have an opportunity to become homeowners.”
Once Hawaiian transplants settle in the Vegas area, they seek ties to others like them.
Perhaps the best place to find community has been the Las Vegas Hawaiian Civic Club (LVHCC), a nonprofit cultural organization that supports Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders living in Southern Nevada.
The member-supported group serves as a cultural anchor for Ninth Islanders, promoting and preserving Native Hawaiian traditions, values, language and arts through monthly meetups at Hawaiian-owned businesses, community workshops, annual festivals and an annual golf tournament.
The goal of these gatherings is to forge connections among the club’s 120 members and other Hawaiian transplants in the region, according to LVHCC President Kalani Heu.
“All of us who came here from Hawaii are one big family,” Heu said. “The more we get together, the more we support each other, the more we learn from each other, the closer to each other and to home we can feel.”
Members of the Ninth Islander family also organize independent festivals and community get-togethers throughout the year. The Killah Kine Night Market is one such endeavor and is held at least once a month (if not more). Other popular shindigs are the annual Flavors of Aloha Festival, held in May at Craig Ranch Park in North Las Vegas, and the annual Village Festival, held in September in a parking lot outside the Orleans Hotel & Casino.
This year’s Village Festival featured more than 150 local vendors and dozens of local hula performers and musicians. It attracted more than 10,000 people over eight hours.
Keeping culture alive
Ninth Islanders in Las Vegas are keeping Hawaiian culture alive in other ways, too.
Across the valley, there are several hula schools, or hālau, dedicated to teaching the art of Hawaiian dance.
At one named Hālau Anuhea i Kapoli‘o Kawahine Ho‘omanawanui, instructor Kawahine Ho’omanawanui Charles-Aulelava offers separate classes for kids, teenagers, and adults on Sunday and Monday nights.
Ho’omanawanui Charles-Aulelava started the hālau in 2022 after moving to Las Vegas from Oahu in 2020 to be closer to her grandchildren. She said those same grandchildren inspire her to keep the hula school alive.
“When I moved here it was to take care of my family, and part of that is building something they can be a part of,” she said. “I’d like to think the hālau is supporting Hawaiian culture in Las Vegas. This way when my grandbabies grow up, they have somewhere they can feel at home.”
Young people also can learn hula as part of an afterschool program at Vegas Vista Academy, a charter elementary school on the north side of the city. The program at Vegas Vista includes a language component introduced in 2025 as part of a concerted effort to keep indigenous Hawaiian language alive.
Other Hawaiian cultural activities are more accessible and open to everyone, including visitors.
While Polynesian-themed bars might not be the most enriching way to sample Hawaiian and Pacific Islander culture, Vegas is unsurprisingly home to some great and over-the-top ones. Among the most notable options right now: the Golden Tiki, with stiff drinks and animatronic creatures; Frankie’s Tiki Room, a palapa-inspired dive that sells all sorts of Tiki mugs; and Glitter Gulch Tiki, in the heart of downtown. A new spot, Grand Tiki Las Vegas, is slated to open soon on Harmon Avenue behind Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. All these bars are a short rideshare from most Strip hotels.
Around the corner from Glitter Gulch, at the Downtown Container Park, the monthly Island Ohana Night is yet another opportunity for locals and visitors to experience culture from Hawaii and other Pacific islands. The focus of these events is music. Local band ST1 plays island reggae, sometimes with special guests.
There are food trucks, and brick-and-mortar vendors such as Ninth Island Gourmet and the Poke Shack offer Hawaiian treats, too.
Bounce Cruz is the lead singer of ST1, and he said the nights are a great touchstone to some of the traditions from his youth.
“We’re all from some place very far away,” said Cruz, who is from Guam. “Celebrating the culture of Hawaii and the Pacific Islands here in Las Vegas is a way for us to keep that culture alive.”
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