After sitting vacant for nearly a year, the bar formerly known as Tropics Tap House has reopened at Puck’s Alley as Study Hall Sports Bar & Grill.
Business registration records show Study Hall is owned by Moe & Jed Food and Spirits LLC and list service-industry veteran Douglas “Moe” Morrison and Matthew Spector as company members.
The “Jed” refers to Jed Roa, longtime general manager at defunct Kakaako nightclub Pipeline Cafe. And sure enough, a quick drop-in visit a couple of weeks ago found Roa sitting at the bar, sampling a quesadilla from the kitchen.
Other than a fresh coat of paint and a major remodel of the bathrooms, the most noticeable difference with Study Hall is a renewed emphasis on University of Hawaii athletics. The walls are plastered with portraits of local sports heroes past and present with ties to UH Manoa.
Expect to watch pay-per-view games here during football season, along with anything broadcast free on local television, on more than a dozen screens spread throughout the bar.
And while Study Hall boasts 36 draft taps and specialty cocktails with names like Frat Party, School Girl, Detention and My Tutor’s Sangria, Roa said an effort will be made to create a more family-friendly environment at the bar, especially earlier in the evenings.
(Those who remember the Puck’s Alley of yesteryear might consider Study Hall’s approach as more like the old East Side Grill’s than Magoo’s during its heyday.)
Lunch service is also scheduled to start this week, with daily themed specials like “Mac-and-Cheese Mondays” and “Steak Night Saturdays” to provide value to nearby college kids and encourage other local residents to made Puck’s Alley a destination once again.
Knowing Roa’s track record with successful bar and food programs, I’m excited to watch Study Hall join its neighbors RB Sports Bar & Grill, Beer Lab Hawaii, Waiwai Collective and Anna O’Brien’s in providing a healthy mix of entertainment options near UH Manoa.
Find Study Hall at 1019 University Ave.; the bar has yet to get a working telephone or set up a social media presence, so you’ll just have to go down and pay a visit in real life!
MORE THAN a few people were worried last month when rumors started flying about the demise of Home Bar & Grill at 1683 Kalakaua Ave. It’s been a mainstay near the Hawai‘i Convention Center for seven years, serving affordable food and drinks with solid service and accumulating an impressive roster of regular customers despite a critical lack of nearby parking options.
The bad news? It wasn’t an April Fool’s joke — Home Bar really did close April 1. But the good news, according to owner Chris Tai, is that the closure is only temporary. Renovations are expected to last about two weeks, but the bar will reopen “under the same ownership, with the same great food and service,” according to a March 30 post on Instagram.
The easiest way to find out when Home Bar reopens is to follow @homebarngrill on Instagram, or call 942-2235 in a few days.
THE NEXT time you’re in the spirits aisle at Walmart, take a minute and search for drink mixers from Cocktail Artist. They’re pretty easy to spot, with packaging that features the faces of bartenders from around the United States — including Jen Ackrill, director of mixology at Sky Waikiki and Top of Waikiki.
Ackrill’s contribution is triple sec syrup, the nonalcoholic version of orange-flavored curacao liqueur, and is made with natural orange flavor and real cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. She joins the Cocktail Artist roster on Walmart shelves in Hawaii alongside bartenders like Las Vegas’ Juyoung Kang (mint syrup), Chicago’s Luke Andrews (lime juice) and Marv Cunningham of Nassau, Bahamas (blue curacao syrup).
“The cool thing is, it’s all natural (ingredients),” Ackrill explained during a break in the action at Sky Waikiki last week, where she was busy introducing “Aloha Life,” a new lineup of nine signature cocktails (and three nonalcoholic offerings) now available at the Waikiki nightspot. “They’re in Walmarts across the country, so I wanted my mom to be able to go to the store with her brothers and sisters and see it.”
Pick up a bottle of Ackrill’s triple sec for $2.87 at any Walmart store; visit cocktail-artist.com for more info about the full product line.
NOT REALLY into mixing your own drinks at home? You’re no longer stuck choosing between beer and wine, thanks to the ready-to-drink canned cocktails from San Diego’s Cutwater Spirits that have appeared in local stores in recent months.
Only a handful of drinks from the full lineup — the Rum & Cola, Rum & Ginger, Gin & Tonic and Bloody Mary — are available on shelves locally, but they provide a great way to get acquainted with Cutwater’s liquor brands, like Three Sheets rum, Fugu vodka and Old Grove gin. Pour these into a regular glass and serve them to unsuspecting guests, and they’ll have no clue it came out of a can.
Me? I’m holding out hope that Cutwater’s versions of the classic whiskey highball, along with three different flavors of vodka sodas (lime, grapefruit and orange), will be picked up for distribution in Hawaii before we reach peak beach-cooler usage this summer.
Find Cutwater Spirits canned cocktails in four-packs at Foodland stores on Oahu and Fujioka’s Wine Times at Market City Shopping Center; you can also test one out at Bev Mart on Date Street, where individual cans are on sale for about $4 each.
Jason Genegabus has written about the local bar and drink scenes since 2001. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @honolulupulse or email jason@staradvertiser.com.
