A World-Class Cocktail Room On The West Side
Some of the world’s most famous hotels have an equally famous cocktail room. Now Four Seasons Ko Olina has a room worthy of such fame.
They’ve named it the Bar at Hōkūleʻa, after the famous voyaging canoe. And they’ve honored that name with amazing service, drinks, and entertainment.
On a recent Friday night, Christian Yrizarry was the performer. West siders of a certain age may remember him as one half of Hoʻonuʻa. He sang and soloed on ʻukulele to a broad playlist, including the classic “Blue Light.”
When he found out some Australians were in the house, he queued up “I’m A Man From A Land Down Under.” During another recent Friday visit, a graceful hula dancer performed.
The cocktails are high-end, and local. The Four Seasons partnered with Kō Hana Rum in Kunia to create rum-focused cocktails you won’t find anywhere else.
Mau’s Mai Tai: Kō Hana Kea Rum, Pineapple, Lilikoʻi, Orgeat, Tiki Bitters
You can also try a flight of four Kō Hana rums.
This is a room for sitting, sipping, and delighting. The service makes that possible. You’ll get housemade shrimp chips and pork rinds when you sit down—a very west side selection of snacks. Your waitperson only has a few tables—so you feel more like you’re being hosted than being served.
Add it all up, and the Bar at Hōkūleʻa is a new must-stop on any west side “out-of-town visitors” tour.
How To Go, And A Suggested Conversation Topic
Valet parking is free if you buy drinks, so that’s easy (and a little taste of luxury for out-of-towners, or significant others). We’d recommend entering through the main hotel building, rather than the exterior steps by the pool. This will give you the full experience.
The L-shape of the room draws you into the bar, then past it to the floor-to-ceiling view of the lagoons and the ocean.
If you sit at the bar, you’ll be facing a large vintage canoe paddle. If you sit in the main room, with the recessed carpet, you be drawn to the ocean.
Either way, you’ll be reminded of the Hōkūleʻa. Tell your out of town visitors about it —- the traditions that it has revived and the pride that it has brought to Hawaiʻi. Or if you’re alone, check in on the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s latest update.
Other world-famous cocktail rooms also have a built-in conversation piece. The King Cole room, at the St. Regis Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, is where the Bloody Mary was invented. The room gets its name from the strange and mysterious mural of a ribald medieval scene facing the bar.
It’s weird and compelling, but how does it stack up against…
The Bar at Hōkūleʻa looks out onto the Ko Olina lagoons and the ocean view beyond. That’s a view that no cocktail room in New York, London, or Tokyo will ever be able to match.
