Honolulu Weekly

Uncle Bo’s Pupu Bar and Grill / Friends. Family. Both are important and sometimes (but not always) they intertwine. That’s probably part of the reason why Uncle Bo’s comes up in conversation more than any other place. Like the favorite uncle who knows the best jokes, slips you drinks and knows how to make even the most standard foods taste fantastic, the unassuming storefront on the outer edge of Waikiki is the spot local people keep returning to—and they don’t need a holiday or special occasion to drop in.

There are plenty of places where you can get food with your drinks, or drinks with your food, depending where your priorities lay, but Bo’s is one of the few spots where the two go perfectly together—sit down and they’ll hand you a drink menu along with the traditional food items, and what’s amusing is they’ve put more aesthetic effort into the drink menu than their laminated simple pupu and entree menu.

That’s the kind of dichotomy that’s everywhere at Bo’s. The outside looks like a greasy sports bar—hell, from the street it almost doesn’t look like a bar at all, given the blocked window and single doorway—but inside is jazzy and elegant with a high end, high-class environment which they then accentuate with paper napkins, presumably to make it less intimidating. The marble bar is enormous considering the size of the room, and well-stocked with the hipper liquors from each genre. And then there are the wire curtains draped down the middle. We have no idea what’s going on with that.

The anything goes mentality the place exudes has spread to its patrons, and you’ll see that any evening can feature a mix of families sitting in booths or the back room, while couples snuggle in the corner and local joes share a pizza at the bar and a couple of Heinekens (which invariably turn into a couple more). Food sits on nearly every table, ready to share, and if you’re at the bar, they’ve left you the room to order plenty.

What’s more remarkable is how the hodgepodge melds together. It’s a restaurant more than a bar, but the place is packed with people who want to have a few drinks and relax, where oyster shooters go hand-in-hand with shots. And to work with the hipster bar-going crowd the music is played at near-barrage level, and yet it only becomes obtrusive when the hip-hop/dance mix goes into something particularly obnoxious (obviously, the barometer on obnoxious differs, and mine is on the lower, cranky old man level). Rather than fuss with lots of different prices most drinks have a set rate, meaning you might pay more than you’re used to for Jim Beam, but if you’re a Patron drinker, you’re in luck. It’s classy, but not intimidating or judgmental, so the tattooed guy with the mohawk can sit next to the older couple an knock back a few. In short, Uncle Bo’s deserves its favorite family member status.

Uncle Bo’s Pupu Bar and Grill

Getting in: Nightly 5pm–2am

Dress code: Fresh off the job to hipster style

Soundtrack: Hip-hop and dance, played loudly

Signature drink: Various martini concoctions, including the Caramelized Apple and the Lemongrassitini