Reborn Garden is
a downtown oasis
THE GARDEN SPORTS
BAR AND GRILL
Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight
Sundays to Thursdays;
11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Fridays and Saturdays
Location: 1041 E. Nuuanu Ave.
(half a block mauka
of South King Street)
Phone: 537-6971
ALL THIS TALK about revitalizing downtown Honolulu is music to Mai Peavey's ears. For over two and a half years, Peavey struggled along with daughter Lani Marion and hanai son Thomas Corleon to keep what used to be called The Garden of Saigon in business. In an attempt to draw a different clientele to the establishment, the family decided to do away with the Saigon reference and replaced it with a familiar tag of "sports bar and grill" last October.
Being the thrifty kind of guy that I am, the Barfly landed at The Garden earlier this week on a very specific mission. While skimming through a free publication I found in a recycling bin at work, I found a buy-one-get-one-free hamburger coupon next to an advertisement for $1 beers at The Garden. Cheap beer and free food? Good times!
One of my biggest complaints about hanging out near downtown is the almost complete lack of parking. If you visit The Garden, look for metered spaces along Nuuanu Avenue, or park in the loading zone across the street after 4 p.m. Willing to pay a couple of bucks instead of searching for a spot? Make a left onto South King Street and look left for the entrance to a three-floor parking structure. You can park there for 50 cents an hour (maximum charge is $2) after 5 p.m, and a security guard also patrols that area.
Immediately upon entering The Garden's main doors, customers are welcomed by a comfortable-looking game area. A couple of video games join five dart machines along the downstairs wall, while a pool table and a few extra chairs and tables take up the available floor space (there's also a television down here). Walk upstairs and you've entered the main room at The Garden; another dozen tables and booths share space with the bar itself, which can seat nine people. Four more televisions are set up on the second floor for customers to watch as well.
The biggest difference you'll notice about this place since their name change in October is the menu. The Garden allowed a few items to remain from the old restaurant, like the beef or chicken pho ($5.50) and yellow chicken curry ($6.95), while adding some grinds that go a bit better with alcohol. Corleon did a great job with the mushroom and Swiss hamburger ($6) the Barfly tried -- it easily beats some of the other joints in town that claim to be the best. Ahi poke ($8.50), potato skins ($5.75) and New York steak ($8.50) are on the menu, too.
Wandering back onto Nuuanu Avenue around 9 p.m., the Barfly had a nice buzz going and a full belly -- and I got to watch Monday Night Raw, too! The Garden is close enough to downtown for the aloha shirt army (especially if you're used to drinking at Indigo up the street), while also keeping a distinctively younger vibe than other bars in the immediate area. I'm surprised HPU students haven't turned this place into their new favorite watering hole.
Next time you're driving through downtown, don't just roll up the windows and ignore the surroundings. The city and area businesses are working hard to clean things up and results are starting to show. Now it's up to the general public to spend time in the area. The Garden Sports Bar and Grill is a great place to do just that.
How much for a Bud Light?The Barfly drank $5 pitchers of Bud Light during happy hour (5 to 7 p.m.), which later went up to $7 each. A "Power Hour" also takes place Mondays through Wednesdays from 5 to 6 p.m. For 60 minutes, every beer served is only $1.
Get things to do?
Dart machines, Megatouch game machines, a pool table and even a shufflepuck game take up space at The Garden. A jukebox lets customers pick the music, and karaoke is available on certain nights.
What about the grinds?
We were too stuffed to try the "Garden Sampler" ($15) during our visit earlier this week, but you can't go wrong with a platter that includes teriyaki steak, calamari, battered fish, spring rolls, potato skins and chicken wings. And don't forget dinner items like the 1/2 game hen ($7.50), fried rice ($6) or spicy lemongrass chicken ($6.95).
And the help?
The Garden is a family-run operation, so don't expect an army of servers if you visit. About a half-dozen customers were in the bar when the Barfly visited, and we didn't have any problems getting a pitcher or placing a food order. Besides, they let me change the channel on one of their televisions so I can watch pro wrestling? Now that's customer service!
Barfly appears every Friday in Star-Bulletin Weekend.
E-mail Jason Genegabus at jason@starbulletin.com with suggestions of neighborhood bars to visit.
