By *SPOILER ALERT* This is not a post for the best place to drink a tasty, yet over-priced Mai Tai while fighting for a table at Duke’s in Waikiki. While there is a time, place and clientele for that, I’m gonna spill my ultimate itinerary of a perfect night out with the locals.
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You’re going to need fuel for the night ahead, so start at Yakitori Glad (766 Kapahulu Avenue), a popular Japanese tapas restaurant. Everything, and I mean everything, on the menu is $3.90! Pro tip: Order the large Kirin draft, as the small Kirin draft is also $3.90, just smaller.
Make sure you order the salt and pepper chicken kabobs, the shrimp, the ahi poke (diced, marinated raw Ahi Tuna), the chicken stuffed mushrooms, stuffed green chili peppers and the wasabi beef skewer.
Now that you’re fueled up and ready to go, head over to Honolulu’s industrial district to Honolulu Beer Works (328 Cooke Street) for a hip, warehouse watering hole serving their own small-batch brewed beer. Pints will run you $6.75, but the beer is great quality, the community seating and ambiance is great and the service is top-notch. Go for a pint of the Sheltered Bay IPA or the whimsically named Animal Farmhouse Ale.
If for some reason you didn’t fill up at Yakitori Glad, Honolulu Beer Works has a small, but ono selection of local kine grinds (delicious food).
No need to get back into your car for the next stop. Walk over to Bevy (661 Auahi Street), an eclectic, artsy hand-crafted cocktail place. Pro tip: Make sure you come during happy hour which runs Mon-Sat 4-7 p.m. Here’s why: You can get local beer for $3 a pop, or just start living the high life like I did. I had a $5 glass of champagne and Jonathan had a $5 gin champagne cocktail. Top it all off with $1.50 oysters on the half-shell and you should start feeling mighty fine.
You have to be loosened up by now, but it’s not time to call it a night yet. Next stop? Brew’d Craft Pub (9th and Waialae) is a cool neighborhood spot with a beer selection that rivals many good craft beer bars on the mainland. Pair awesome beer with upbeat funk music and you have a recipe for a fun night. Choose from 20 rotating taps and over 200 bottled beer. We shared a 22 oz. Big Island Holy Humulus IPA and couldn’t resist an order of their bacon fat fries with homemade ketchup. Round two was some other delicious IPA whose name I can’t recall. Maybe it was time to pack it in.
NAH! The last stop on your itinerary is Karaoke Hut Sports Bar & Grill (909 Kapahulu Avenue). I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t divey, but at this point in the night, this is exactly what you need – trust me. After a few cocktails, nothing is more fun than passing around the microphone to belt out “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” You can rent a private room for $30 an hour or just sing out in the bar space. The beer selection is meh, but at this point, you should gladly switch to Pabst Blue Ribbon and Coors Light anyway.
And there you have it. Make sure to take an Uber home and call it a night…Or just do like the locals and keep drinking once you get home!
Brave New World Traveler 