This is a story about five Irish bars, and it begins at the end, with a man named Mitch sleeping on Lewers street. That’s because “all endings are beginnings,” as Mitch says to me.
I could set up tent on Monsarrat Avenue for a solid month and still wouldn’t be tired of its neighborhood dishes. There’s the Pioneer Saloon that sells Japanese bentos with wakame and shiso rice, Diamond Head Cove right across the street (serving the locally famous açai bowl) and don’t get me started on the DH market torte from Diamond Head Market.
“So,” I said to a friend, a local girl–German, Irish, Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese– “doesn’t Hawaii celebrate Thanksgiving in its own, particular way?” “Doesn’t everyone?” she asked. Don’t Southerners serve cornbread stuffing?
Next time you’re waiting for a cappuccino, consider where you really are. Right, the lengthy line of your local coffee shop, but where else?
When Grandma wanted a plump bird for the holiday table–a local, natural, no-hormone, free-range turkey–she stepped into the yard with an axe. Or maybe she even sent Grandpa out with a shotgun (there are wild turkeys on Big Island).
There’s a lot to love about Kiss My Grits, a cozy little restaurant located behind Varsity Grill &Bar in Puck’s Alley. It’s as cute as a blue and white apron, it’s as American as a red and white tablecloth, but bless their little ‘ole hearts, they need a lesson in frying chicken from Paula Dean or Sean Priester of Soul Café in Kaimuki.
Food & Drink / I have a daily morning ritual. The location will vary, but the motions are the same: basking in the angelic glow of my MacBook while zoning out on my RSS Feed, catching up with inside jokes on Facebook and adding people I’ve never met before to my “People I’ve Never Met Before” circle on Google+, Twitter, rinse, repeat.
I walk past a familiar storefront in Kailua and imagine what the walls would say if they could talk: I seem to hear, “Free…We are free at last” in an elated, tear-laden whisper. I peek inside the window–situated between Foodland and Baskin-Robbins–now home to the brand-new Italian restaurant Prima and see sleek décor with a modern, minimalist appeal.
Most people don’t consider P.F. Chang’s high-pedigree.
Food & Drink / The term “Happy Hour” dates back to the 1920’s. Folks gathered nightly at their local speakeasy (illegal drinking establishments during Prohibition) to revel in a stiff cocktail or two before dining out where spirits were sure to be missing from the menu.
P opular deals on Groupon Honolulu: $25 worth of food for $12 from Le Cacao Bistro, $20 of pizza and drinks for $10 from Round Table Pizza, and $65 worth for $30 from Gyu-Kaku. If enough people jump on the bandwagon (and they do, in the thousands), you’ll have a set amount of time (24–48 hours) to take advantage of your score.
Aside from Sushi ii (pronounced “ee-ee,” Japanese for good), there’s probably no other restaurant in the world that has both sushi and pai‘ai on the menu. Not only that, but it’s impeccably fresh sushi–buttery uni, rich hamachi, even aku, the flavor cut with grated ginger and garlic and a touch of green onions.
Food & Drink / More on the Eat Local Challenge Wanna try 100 percent strictly local and reconnect with food traditions and culture in an affordable way? Town, Downtown and Heeia Pier Deli offer at least one 100 percent locally grown entrée.
To be honest, when I first took on the Eat Local Challenge, it wasn’t so much the green/sustainability/food security issues that drew me in. It was the adventure and challenge of it all that appealed to me, and through the experience, I’ve come up with my own personal motivations for eating local.
Pledged to take the Eat Local Challenge? This is the first in the Weekly’s series of guides to get you through the challenge: where to get groceries, eat out and drink.
Courtney Love just served me a Bellini. Okay, she just looked like C-Love, but her attitude was more Cobain–salty, sexy and full of don’t-piss-me-off.
The open road of drive-by delicacies (what we’ll affectionately call “highway food”) can consist of anything from a lady selling pickled mango out of her trunk to the guy popping Kettle Korn passenger side. More often than not, we’ll just drive right past these institutions and leave them in the dust as we watch their humble reflections grow faint in our rearviews because really, who’s in the mood for that one little fill-in-the-blank they’re selling?
Da Spot 2469 S. King St., 941-1313 Eating in a garage on King Street isn’t exactly my dream dinner spot.
SALT Kitchen and Tasting Bar is not Kevin Hanney’s dream restaurant. It is, as he calls it, his “second plan B,” with 12th Ave Grill being the first.
Kaiseki is a formal, almost ceremonial, Japanese cuisine devoted to a series of small courses. It’s as much about taste as it is the textures, the colors of the food, the vessel it’s served in and the seasons reflected in each menu.
We don’t have a little Italy here, but we do have more than 41 “Italian” restaurants on the island of Oahu. We don’t have an Olive Garden either, but we do have ye Old Spaghetti Factory.
Honolulu is not an ice cream town. San Francisco, despite summer days being a full 30 degrees cooler than our average day, seems to open a new ice cream parlor every season, exploring flavors from salted caramel to secret breakfast (cornflakes and bourbon).
In 2004, the açai phenomenon began. First there was the super-berry, multi-level marketing campaign that sold the juice for $40 a bottle (and never stopped charging peoples’ credit cards).
Madre Chocolate, Uncle Clay / A recent glance at food projects on crowdfunding sites like IndieGoGo and Kickstarter yielded a slew of micro-breweries waiting to be funded from San Francisco to Louisville, Kentucky to Denton, Texas. Sites like these give entrepreneurs a medium through which to gather public support and funds for nearly anything imaginable.
Umami Cafe, Tango Market / I’m a fairly easy casual diner who doesn’t need arse-kissing. I don’t need someone to wipe my crumbs or applaud me for ordering bruschetta while pronouncing it correctly.
With roots planted in the 1893 overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and a presence that extends through the entire archipelago, the military’s influence in Hawaii is surpassed only by tourism. The military controls some 236,000 acres throughout the state, including 25 percent of the land mass of Oahu, and thousands of square miles of surrounding airspace and sea.
“I’m having a hard time not swearing right now,” Spike Kane says in his UK accent, all smiles after his first surf session at the second annual Hawaii “They Will Surf Again” event hosted by the Life Rolls On Foundation (LRO). “It just feels so good to be in the water again.” Kane beams.
Into Willie Sabel’s vast and detailed set enter a cast of rippled sweatshirts and oversized shoulder-pads, thanks to Dusty Behner’s sense of color and history, and Lisa Ponce de Leon’s especially-80s hairstyles. A few of the bunch even manage to hold-their-own against the largeness that is the setting of Dividing the Estate, the newest show to hit Manoa Valley Theatre.
Mayumi Oda, an artist often dubbed the “Matisse of Japan,” is a petite woman with boundless ambitions. In the book Merciful Sea: 45 Years of Serigraphs by Mayumi Oda, meetings with intensely raw and passionate artists, including Ginsberg, Rothko and De Kooning, triggered her to reflect, “I am small.
Everything’s coming up mangoes. And last week, we joined the crowd at Foster Botanical Garden to witness the first-ever Honolulu blossoming of Amorphophallus titanium, nicknamed the “Corpse Flower” for its malodorous, fly-catching bouquet.
Through the years there have been many mayors who’ve aspired to be governor, but for the first time in Honolulu ’s history, a former governor is running for mayor. At Honolulu Hale on Friday, May 18, as he signed the nomination paperwork making him an official candidate for the 2012 race, Cayetano told the room that, back in January, he made his decision quickly.
Important back stories are huddled behind last week’s Star-Advertiser headline, “Federal Judge Narrows Lawsuit on Rail.” Foremost is that the lawsuit will go forward unimpeded. The same substantive points of contention including the most important historic and cultural sites are still at issue.
In announcing his support of same-sex marriage two weeks ago, President Barack Obama reinvigorated a vexed debate. Locally, the wrangle has been deadlocked following the contentious legalization of civil unions and subsequent federal court challenge in January.
Thailand grows 75 percent of the flowers used in Hawaiian-made lei, but a flooding in the country last fall destroyed 80 percent of its orchid crops, according to Summer Campos, co-founder of the Hawaiian Lei Company. Together with the graduation season and the growing popularity of lei on the mainland, “All lei prices have inflated due to the orchid shortage,” Campos says.
Lynne Matusow’s letter [“Goodbye Bus, Hello Rail?” May 16] hit the nail right smack dab on the head. The rail may have its attributes but it seems the more we delve into it the bad seem to outweigh the good.
We have a problem with traffic congestion on the major highways leading into the city; we have the controversy over the issue of rail; and we have the concern over preserving prime agricultural lands. It would seem to me that all these issues point to one thing in one way or another and that is the development of a second city in Kapolei.
Though you didn’t discuss it in the most recent issue, there was a brief mention of how long it took for the Kinau off-ramp to be completed. Ambulances [had] ALWAYS been able to take the exit BEFORE Kinau, and turn left directly into the Emergency Room.
I enjoyed your issue on Mayoral Candidate Peter Carlisle. It would be great if you did a series on those running for the two congressional seats and the Senate race.
On [April 26] the Weekly [ran] a story damning Hoopili as you have been for quite some time. Then you are running a full-page promotional ad this week?
It’s important to understand the difference between editorial content and ads. At the Weekly, they are two completely separate departments.
We retract the letter “Questionable Ethics?” [May 9] and apologize to Herb Barboza for its inaccuracies. Mr.
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