Whimsical Cocktails and Bar Bites Star at Chinatown’s New Pigeonhole

Photo: Noelle Chun

“You just missed the lull,” whispers Pigeonhole co-owner Theresa Kim.

I’d believe her, except that this is the fourth time someone at the cocktail bar has told me this—and the fourth time I’ve seen guests crowding every corner and flowing out into the private lanai.

Pigeonhole opened in March as a cozy cocktail haunt in Chinatown and is already one of Honolulu’s most exciting bar openings this year. The amber-lit enclave attracts hospitality workers, their parents and babies, sequestered dates and barrel-panted scene kids. Drink nerds and food lovers are lured by well-made cocktails and Taiwanese-inspired snacks served until 1 a.m. on weekends, boosting Honolulu’s limited offerings in the wee hours.

SEE ALSO: Pewa by Pono Potions is Chinatown’s New Bar, Lounge, Bistro and Brunch Spot

Whimsical cocktails unapologetically take the main spotlight, alongside a more modest selection of n/a drinks, beers, wine and craft takes on shooters. The menu draws on co-owner Harry Chin’s experiences leading Los Angeles cocktail hotspots like Here’s Looking at You, before taking on various roles at MW, Fête, Mara and Brickfire Tavern. Fluorescent drinks with gummies, sushi-inspired highballs and icy drinks with pho references—all ranging from $18 to $25—make stuffy classics fun without abandoning bartending rigor.

The iconic Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai gets a fizzy but elegant treatment that bartenders crack open from a soda can. Despite the easygoing presentation, the drink takes five days to create with milk clarification, forced hyper carbonation and in-house canning to deliver the extra delight of a bright yellow custom label.

Photo: Noelle Chun

The most popular drink, the Negreeni, takes the classic Negroni’s traditionally stern, bitter, ruby-red mix of gin, sweet vermouth and Campari and flips it into a neon green version with pandan extract. Served in a rocks glass over a big, clear cube, the cocktail is still viscous and rich enough to quench Ron Swanson, but nutty from the pandan. It’s crowned with a gummy pineapple and bright enough to match a construction crew.

Like most historic Chinatown spaces, Pigeonhole is small. Ten seats at the red-tiled retro bar and a sprawl of inside tables that surround it make for an intimate space that seats 50. The kitchen has no gas line or stove, just a flattop and fryer. “We were like, who is going to make the food?” Kim recounts. “I was like, I guess it’s me.”

Pigeonhole owners Harry Chin and Theresa Kim. Photo: Noelle Chun

One would think there would be little question. After culinary school in Washington D.C., Kim cooked under Top Chef alumni Mike Isabella and Jennifer Carroll, then worked for James Beard semifinalist Lauren Macellaro in Florida. After moving to Honolulu to cook at Senia, the D.C.-area native moved to Fête’s front- and back-of-house. She makes the most of the limited kitchen to present clever bar bites inspired by her Korean upbringing and Chin’s Taiwanese heritage.

Kim’s pastrami green onion pancake roll, one of the standouts, takes the blistered and flakey Taiwanese onion pancake—made from scratch each day—and packs salty stretches of smoked beef, cucumber, cilantro, Kewpie mayo and hoisin into hefty rolls. Though deviled eggs are tried-and-true bar bites, she makes hers by marinating the boiled eggs in anise-spiked shoyu tea as they do in Taiwan, then whipping the yolks with Kewpie until tangy.

Photo: Noelle Chun

That much about Pigeonhole takes high-key effort and makes it, well, low-key is a direct reflection of Chin and Kim, who are also partners in life. Both grew up as restaurant kids. “We weren’t sure if we really wanted to do it,” Kim says. “So we looked at 30 or 40 places.”

“We were playing it down because we just didn’t want to disappoint ourselves,” adds Chin.

“You have to want it really badly to do it,” Kim says. “Once we signed the papers here, we knew. It was go time.”

Open Sunday, Monday, Thursday 5 p.m. to 12 a.m., Friday and Saturday 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., 1128 Smith St., Chinatown, (808) 312-3424, pigeonholehi.com, @pigeonhole.hi

Noelle Chun is a contributor to HONOLULU Magazine and Frolic Hawai‘i.