Liholiho Yacht Club Surprise Opens Tropical Basement Bar

Sound the sirens: Liholiho Yacht Club now has a completely separate basement bar called Louie’s Gen-Gen Room. Next to the downstairs bathrooms, Louie’s is a reservation-only cocktail bar that, while technically in the Liholiho space, is a completely separate entity.

Medium Raw Arts

The seating area

Chef Ravi Kapur created an entirely new menu for the 24-seat space, with bar bites like Louie’s salad and potato chips with trout roe, plus gluten- and dairy-free waffles of varying flavors. Since there’s no hood for ventilation downstairs, Kapur will be relying on waffle irons to make dishes like poppy seed waffles with country ham, nectarine chutney, and honey butter, or furikake waffles with avocado, uni, and toasted walnuts. It’s a total departure from the Hawaiian food available upstairs, which was Kapur’s intent.

As for the drinks, bar manager Yanni Kehagiaras will play around as well, making tropical-inspired cocktails like one with Eagle Rare bourbon, passion fruit, and burnt sugar, and another with Avuá Cachaça, Falernum, coconut water, lime, and green chartreuse. Co-owner Jeff Hanak (Nopa) will be offering magnums by the bottle or glass. It’s enough to make one big underground party.

Reservations are required for Louie’s Gen-Gen Room (and open up daily a week in advance), and they’re available now here.