New bars, Merriman restaurant to join Kamehameha Schools’ Salt retail complex in Honolulu

Two bars serving beer and other spirits will join Hank’s Haute Dogs and a new restaurant concept by Hawaii chef Peter Merriman at Kamehameha Schools’ 85,000-square-foot Salt at Our Kakaako retail and restaurant complex in Honolulu, the state’s largest private landowner told PBN Wednesday. Pitch Sports Bar will open at a 3,000-square-foot second floor space…


This rendering shows the interior of the warehouse shops planned for the Kamehameha
This rendering shows the interior of the warehouse shops planned for the Kamehameha

Two bars serving beer and other spirits will join Hank’s Haute Dogs and a new restaurant concept by Hawaii chef Peter Merriman at Kamehameha Schools’ 85,000-square-foot Salt at Our Kakaako retail and restaurant complex in Honolulu, the state’s largest private landowner told PBN Wednesday.

Pitch Sports Bar will open at a 3,000-square-foot second floor space at the Honolulu shopping complex, which is expected to be completed by the end of summer with most tenants opening by the second quarter of 2016.

Derrick Stevens, head bartender of Pitch Sports Bar, who also heads up Free Spirits Hawaii Mobile Bartending Service, told PBN that other well-known bartenders from such restaurants and establishments in Honolulu, including Ryan’s Grill and The Modern Honolulu hotel, are part of Free Spirits.

“This is our first bricks-and-mortar location,” he said, noting that he and the other bartenders are working on behalf of a local ownership group. “This is the flagship and whatever comes up afterwards, we may pursue.”

The other beer-related new tenant is Social Beer, which is headed up by one of the partners of the Honolulu bar Pint + Jigger and an experienced home brewer who started the Beer in Hawaii blog.

Daryn Ogino of Pint + Jigger and Timothy Golden of Beer in Hawaii, have registered Ale Stake LLC and the trade name Social Beer as a beer shop and tasting room, selling various alcoholic beverages, including but not limited to craft beers on tap and bottled for on and off premises consumption and a variety of hot and cold foods.

Other signed tenants at Salt include Hank’s Haute Dogs, Orangetheory Fitness, Atmasphere Yoga and Moku, a new restaurant concept by Merriman and restaurateur Bill Terry.

They join existing tenants such as Starbucks, Cocina, Highway Inn, Lanikai Juice, Bevy, Insomnia, Paiko + Brue Bar, Illest and Sprint.

Eric Ogata, senior asset manager in the commercial real estate division of Kamehameha Schools, said at a recent retail industry event that the complex is about 50 percent leased with another 15 percent soon to be leased.

Salt at Our Kakaako was named after the paakai (Hawaiian for “salt”) ponds that once dotted the low-lying wetlands of the area, according to its website.

Duane Shimogawa
Pacific Business News