Honolulu Weekly

In this town, where the pau hana standard comes in a longneck bottle and specialty drinks are served with impaled pineapples and have names taken from erupting volcanoes, it can be harder to find innovative cocktails than it can be to score street parking downtown on First Friday. Here’s a selection of superior drinks that reject bottled mixes and behind the bar shortcuts to preserve the art of the finely-crafted cocktail.

Mai Tai

The Chart House Honolulu, 1765 Ala Moana Blvd, 947-2490

Even the bars named after this local cocktail hour classic can’t top the Guy Tai at the Chart House, served in a signature logo pint glass. One of the few bars on the island that uses crushed ice, this version has an advantage before the liquor’s even added. The blend of fresh juices, Bacardi and Meyer’s rum leave clunky, pre-mixed versions in its potent wake. No parasol here, just a notched orange rim piece and a cherry and a lime quarter bobbing in its icy depths. During Power Hour, they’re just $5.95, making it easy to linger at the gorgeous wooden bar, built by a shipwright to resemble the deck of a yacht. The name comes from its creator, bartender Guy Maynard, though, as is true of any great drink name, there is a double entendre: This is a drink grown men have been known to steal from their dates.

The Blood Mary

Cabanas Pool Bar, ‘Ohana Waikiki West Hotel, 2330 Kuhio Ave, 922-3143.

Bartender Eric Thomas builds this hair-of-the-dog classic from fiery Absolut Pepper and his top-secret blend of spices. Unlike most versions, this one ($5) doesn’t taste like it was poured from an aluminum can of vegetable juice or leave the aftertaste of bottled cocktail sauce diluted with acetone. With its lucid tomato flavor, if it was served with a spoon rather than a straw it could pass as a light, peppery gazpacho. One Bloody connoisseur at the bar claimed they were among the top three he’s ever knocked back on a Sunday morning.

Summer Sangria

Town Restaurant, 3435 Wai’alae Ave, 735-5900

Town’s menus are attuned to the inner compass of the greenmarket mentality, so it’s only fitting that its bar features a seasonal Summer Sangria ($7.20), served as long as fresh peaches are available. Slivered peaches are marinated in orange juice, then mixed with Protocolo white wine, DeKuyper Peach Brandy and house-made lemon verbena syrup. The extra-tall glass it’s served in feels decadent, and the orchard chill is innovative and yet so apt for our warm evenings it’s hard to believe there aren’t pitchers of knock-offs popping up around town.

Whiskey Smash

Lewers Lounge, 2199 Kalia Rd, 923-2311

Sassier than the mint julep and more unique than the overplayed mojito that has had every bartender scrambling for a muddler, the best leaf-laced drink in town is the Whiskey Smash ($9) at Halekulani’s Lewers Lounge. Smashed lemons are mixed with a dash of simple syrup, fresh mint and Maker’s Mark and poured over crushed ice in a squat and gentlemanly lowball. The addition of lemon juice gilds the dark liquor with sprightly topnotes. Elegant, simple and refreshing–even the ladies who don’t like whiskey will be signaling for another round.

The sake list

Tokkuri-Tei, 611 Kapahulu Ave, 739-2800.

When navigating the long-winded, plastic-sleeved menu, don’t skip over the whimsical sake list as you deliberate over ‘ahi katsu and stuffed Portobello mushrooms. Available by the glass, each order comes in a little glass set within a thick, lacquered square cup. When the servers pour your selection at the table, they invert the bottle until the sake overflows from the glass into the lacquered box for a little bit of dinner theatre to go with the scene-stealing dishes.

Green Apple Martini

Panya Bakery & Cafe, Ala Moana Shopping Center, 946.6388.

Who among us doesn’t long for the era before the colorful flock of Way Too Sweetinis and their anecdotal titles descended upon nearly every bar and restaurant in the nation, under the guise of sleek modernity? In this saturated era of saccharine and tonics and sugaritas, who doesn’t crave a specialty cocktail that doesn’t look like a sunset with a sugar-dunked rim? And we’ve yet to encounter a Cosmopolitan on the island that, besides being full flushing crimson and not faintly blushing pink, didn’t taste like an Ocean Spray blend gone wrong. Luckily the folks at Panya get it. Forgoing the usual acid-green artificial apple liqueur, the Green Apple Martini ($7.50, $6 during happy hour) at this bakery/cafÈ is made with the juice of freshly squeezed green apples, tempered with a splash of pineapple juice. As you take your last few sips, you get the little bits of fresh apple that have settled to the bottom, making it seem like you’ve just finished a health-tini.