Aloha, Smitty’s: It’s the End of an Era at Smith’s Union Bar
Regulars are in disbelief that Hawai‘i’s oldest bar is closing after 91 years on Hotel Street.
Photo: Tracy Chan
Classic country music plays on the jukebox amid the delighted shrieks of regulars. It’s the last days of Smith’s Union Bar, affectionately known as Smitty’s, and while the air is jovial, there’s an undercurrent of sadness. Chefs, street dealers, arts aficionados, bartenders, office workers, football fans and tourists rub shoulders at Smitty’s, whose 91 years will come to an end, owner Dwight Lockwood declared last week on social media, when supplies run out. “I am heartbroken,” he wrote.
Collective disbelief greeted Lockwood’s announcement.
“Heartbroken over this,” echoed one commenter on Instagram.
“This one hurts,” wrote another.
“This is the saddest news to wake up to. Smitty’s was always a memorable part of my port calls in Hawai‘i for the past 9 years.”
“So incredibly sad to see such a place with such incredible history go away.”
“My husband and I met at your bar nearly 18 years ago and I love to karaoke here still. Thank you for all the good times.”
Photo: Tracy Chan
At 4:47 p.m. on the Saturday before Christmas, an announcement that the last Bud Light has been served draws cheers and applause. There will be many more last occurrences in the coming days.
The closing of this landmark is rooted in different reasons. The lease isn’t being renewed. Staff fear someone might fall through the aged floor into the underground tunnels below, throwbacks to World War II-era Honolulu when these passageways led sailors from Honolulu Harbor to Chinatown to get stewed, screwed and tattooed.
The history of Honolulu’s red-light district is loudest here on Hotel Street, shouting to be heard above the march of gentrification. New hotels and businesses have replaced seedy establishments that once defined the neighborhood. Just up the street, on Nu‘uanu Avenue, stood the Brown Derby jazz lounge where Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and other icons of the age performed. Sailor Jerry’s tattoo parlor is around the corner. Among them, Smitty’s, Honolulu’s oldest bar, opened in 1934 and celebrated its heyday among Chinese fortune tellers, liquor stores, tattoo parlors, brothels and taxi dance halls.
Photo: Tracy Chan
Smitty’s was a fixture that locals believed would never go away, immortal for an atmosphere that welcomed drinkers even at 8 a.m. and the wild rite-of-passage stories of those who sat at its bar. The paraphernalia pays homage to its diverse clientele: signs proclaiming “Leatherneck Parking Only,” artifacts from Pearl Harbor (Smitty’s was the special watering hole of the USS Arizona crew), military and liquor industry-sponsored placards, and photos of notorious street residents like Darlin Abelaye, aka “Sweetie,” a familiar sight on Hotel Street.
Here, people are accepted for what they are. Traits judged or rejected in other spaces are embraced and even celebrated. This is a community, a microcosm. And to generations of regulars and all who carried a piece of it with them, it’s the end of an era.
You will be missed, Smitty’s. Mahalo for 91 long, colorful, memorable years.
19 N Hotel St., Downtown, @smithsunionbar_hawaii
Tracy Chan is a longtime Frolic contributor.
