ALOHA TO OHANA
While she may be departing for a new parking space in Susanville, Ohanas395 owner and chef, Rena McCullough, knows that local loyalties have fueled her food truck for the past 11 years.
“The locals that work, you know, in the trenches—they’ve sent people. Everybody comes here because they get recommended from the hotel. The gas station. The general store. It’s been a blessing.”
On any given day, Ohanas395 has churned out hundreds of plant-based, Hawaiian soul food meals from its heavily-trafficked corner of the June Lake Brewing lot.
For McCullough, the secret to feeding those locals has always been, quite literally, in the sauce.
It was her mom’s from-scratch salsa business—run out of a family friend’s deli—where McCullough got her start. A few years later, and a true saucier at heart, McCullough demanded the overhaul of a tartar sauce recipe at the restaurant she worked at age 17, because she knew she could do it better.
“I was already like, ‘We need to have good sauce,’” remembered McCullough. “The sauce makes everything.”
McCullough’s come a long way from the tartar sauces and ‘ma and pop’ shops of her youth. She’s seen Ohanas through the fallout of Covid, a transition to a plant-forward menu despite the skepticism of her clientele, and most recently, what she believes is the apex of the county’s housing crisis.
What’s gotten her through it all is a bromide that McCullough admits is cliche, but true.
“Food is love,” she says. “Twice a year, we would have a community dinner. Feed everybody for free. The perception was that we were down here printing money, but that [wasn’t] true. We just wanted to make people feel good.”
And while Ohanas is letting go of its foothold in the June Lake food scene, McCullough encourages her fan-base—and everyone, actually—to remember that, when it comes to community, what you give is what you get.
“Support any small business,” said McCullough. “Go get a burger at the Tiger Bar. Go get a taco at La Parilla. Do anything local. It supports all of us.
As for the future of Ohanas, keeping it local is key. McCullough will be pumping the brakes, next, up in Susanville where “the growing season is longer, the variety of food is richer.”
According to McCullough, there are some 50 farms and ranches within driving distance of Ohanas’ new spot. Farmer’s markets. Mushroom foraging. Something of a dream come true for the veteran chef as she continues to develop a menu catered toward organic, plant-based foods—and radically wholesome sauces, of course.
On her move, McCullough expressed mixed emotions.
“I feel deep gratitude for getting to express myself—to be weird with food,” she said. “But I’m excited for Susanville—an old logging town, turned prison town. It’s going through a bit of a shift in identity. So there’s an opportunity there.”
It’s possible that McCullough and her crew’s departure from town will render something of its own identity crisis in June Lake. So, for one last metaphorical trip around the block, Ohanas will be plating up all its summer hits for the final time this Saturday at the Autumn Beer Festival.
“The ahi bomb, Honolulu noodles, musubi,” McCullough promised. “We’re prepped and ready.”
