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Barfly Jason Genegabus |
Nice spot on road
less traveledIT'S AMAZING how you can drive by a bar for months, or even years, and never realize what you're missing by not stopping in for a drink or two.
That was the case for me with Laimu Grill and Bar -- I always thought of it as a small, hole-in-the-wall type of establishment. Part of that belief, I think, came from my visits late at night when I was a little too, you know, happy to really appreciate my surroundings.
I can count the number of times I've stopped by this place on one hand, and each visit consisted of me sitting at the bar and concentrating really hard on staying awake long enough to finish my last beer of the night.
Laimu Grill and Bar
Hours: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily
Location: 1020 Keeaumoku St. (corner of Keeaumoku and Young streets)
Phone: 596-8001
SO YOU can imagine my surprise when I walked into the bar completely sober for the first time this week and realized that hey, there's a lot more to Laimu than I thought!
If you just poke your head inside, all you'll see is nine seats at the bar and four pool tables behind the aquariums near the front door. But walk in and take a left, and you'll find another 13 booths with three different seating options to choose from.
Sit in the middle section, and it's like cruising at just about any other bar in Honolulu. The straight-back seating isn't the most comfortable, but if you come with a lot of friends, it's your best bet, since the dividing wall between booths can be removed.
Along the Diamond Head wall of the bar are another three booths that are elevated, with cushioned, U-shaped seating that can fit four or five people comfortably. This is where I sat during my visit, giving me a good view of all the other booths and the pool tables near the front door.
Your third seating option (not counting the bar itself), is one of four booths on the Ewa side of the room that are equipped with Megatouch game machines. Laimu gets it right by allowing customers to sit down with a drink and some pupus, while still offering them the chance to play video games -- most other bars force you to separate from your friends so you can huddle in an out-of-the-way corner or at the end of the bar, away from all the action.
WHILE THE nearby King Street Cafe is newer and seems a bit less dingy, I found myself more impressed with the layout at Laimu Grill and Bar.
While King Street Cafe is a karaoke bar through and through, Laimu feels like a pool hall that has a lounge attached to it. It's a great call by management to keep the pool tables and dart machines here separated by the seating area -- you don't feel cramped at all, and there's lots of space to move around and check out what's going on throughout the room.
I was also impressed by the music selections during my visit, since I was kind of expecting to hear some bad karaoke while I knocked a few back.
Instead, my drinking partner for the evening and I ended up bobbing our heads to some off-the-beaten-path hip-hop tracks, interspersed with some rock tunes here and there. And while the crowd seemed to be a bit older (we looked like the only ones in the bar who were under 30), nobody seemed turned off by the music choices, and were in fact bobbing their heads along to the beat as well.
ONE OF the things I hear most from regular readers of this column is that I'm able to open peoples' eyes to bars they would have never visited if I didn't write about them. If you haven't been to Laimu Grill and Bar yet, take the time to stop by and have a couple of drinks. Trust me, it's worth the trip.
How much for a Bud Light?
The Barfly drank $3 bottles of Bud Light during his visit to Laimu Grill and Bar. Draft beer is also available, but your choices are limited to Miller Lite and Sam Adams.Get things to do?
Four pool tables and four dart machines provide the usual distractions, along with a half-dozen Megatouch game machines at some of the booths and at the bar. Karaoke is also available here.What about the grinds?
I ended up kicking myself for eating something before my visit -- Laimu has a wide variety of pupus available, including cake noodle with char siu ($8.25), salt and pepper shrimp ($9.95), New York steak with black bean sauce ($13.95), and tonkatsu with noodles or udon ($7). Hungry, but don't have a lot to spend? Try the steamed manapua ($3) or sardines with Maui onion ($2.75). The pupu platter ($8.95), with egg rolls, chicken wings and crispy gau gee, is also worth a try.And the help?
While we didn't have too much of a problem getting drinks or ordering food, it was obvious that we were the only customers sitting at a booth who weren't regulars. Our drink orders always came after the other tables were served, and our server, while she did take the time to tell us about the bar's happy hour and what menu items to try, wasn't as friendly with us as she was with the other customers. Again, it wasn't really a problem -- it just meant leaving a smaller tip when we decided to leave.
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Barfly appears every Friday in Star-Bulletin Weekend.
E-mail Jason Genegabus at jason@starbulletin.com with suggestions of neighborhood bars to visit.