Natural Wine Oasis in the Middle of Nowhere
Kakaʻako · Honolulu · Wine Bar & Spirits Lounge (BYO Food) · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed June 23, 2026
Wingman Metrics
You walk into a second-floor lounge on Waimanu Street — cigars, spirits, and a wine retail wall that immediately signals someone actually cares. This is not a restaurant wine list; it's a curated natural wine shop where you're allowed to drink your purchase on the spot. In Honolulu, that alone makes it worth knowing about.
Owner Rick Lilley has built a 60-to-90-bottle selection that leans hard into natural and low-intervention producers — pét-nats, méthode ancestrale sparklings, orange wines, and small European and New World labels you won't find at Safeway or Total Wine. The European sparkling game is real: Laurent-Perrier Brut La Cuvée and Gondolino Rosé Prosecco Extra Dry anchor the fizz end of things, with a handful of natural pét-nats rounding out the category nicely. The list has gaps — no deep cellar, no verticals, no old-vine throwbacks — but the intentionality is obvious. Brix and Stones isn't trying to be everything; it's trying to be the natural wine shop Honolulu needed.
Glass pour documentation is murky — this place operates more like a retail-with-seating model, so bottles are the main event. A 'J. Bordeaux' carafe option does show up on the menu at $55, which suggests some pours are available, but formal by-the-glass programming isn't the focus here. If you want to drink by the glass, ask — the staff knows the list well enough to guide you.
Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley — $85
Caymus retails for $90 on the mainland, so at $85 on-site in a Honolulu lounge, this is essentially at or below cost — rare to see in Hawaii where everything carries an island premium. It's not the most exciting bottle on the list, but the math is genuinely good.
Natural Pét-Nat (méthode ancestrale sparkling)
Brix and Stones actively promotes these low-intervention sparklings and they're the spiritual center of the list. Most guests gravitate toward the Champagne or Prosecco, but the pét-nats represent what this place is actually about — funky, alive, and a world away from the resort wine lists dominating the rest of Honolulu.
J. de Telmont Champagne (187ml)
A 187ml split at $45 is a brutal ask. That's a quarter-bottle format retailing around $7, and even accounting for the lounge experience, the math doesn't hold up. Order a full bottle of something more interesting for the same spend.
Gondolino Rosé Prosecco Extra Dry + BYO charcuterie or takeout from a nearby Kakaʻako spot
This is a BYO food situation, so lean into it. The Gondolino Rosé Prosecco is light, slightly sweet, and bubbly enough to cut through cured meats and salty bites — grab a charcuterie board from a neighbor and you've got a proper evening.
🎲 The Bottom Line
Brix and Stones is the kind of place that shouldn't exist in the form it does, in the city it's in — and that's exactly why you should go. The markup swings from genuinely fair to eyebrow-raising depending on what you order, but the natural wine focus and knowledgeable staff make it the most interesting wine stop in Honolulu by a comfortable margin.
Kaimukī · Honolulu · Wine Café & Bistro
Brix and Stones is doing something genuinely valuable for Kaimukī — bringing a thoughtful, accessible wine program to a neighborhood that needed one. The Caymus carafe pricing is a bona fide deal and the Meinklang shows real taste, but watch out for the bubbly markups and a list that could use a little more rotation to keep regulars coming back.
Small but Thoughtful
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Waikiki · Honolulu · Italian with local Hawaiian influence
Fresco is a solid resort wine list doing exactly what it's designed to do: keep guests comfortable and the floor moving. If you're looking for adventure, you'll need to look elsewhere — but if you just want a cold glass of something decent with a view of the Pacific, it gets the job done.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Kakaʻako / SALT · Honolulu · Hawaiian-inspired / New American
Moku Kitchen isn't a wine destination, but it's a reliable neighborhood spot that doesn't gouge you — and in Hawaii, that alone earns real points. Send a friend here for dinner, not for the wine list, but tell them the prices won't sting.
Crowd Pleasers
Steal
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Waikiki · Honolulu · Steak and seafood with Hawaiian regional influences
Beachhouse at the Moana is a perfectly decent wine experience as long as you know what you're walking into: a hotel list with hotel markups and a stunning ocean backdrop doing the heavy lifting. Go for the Jordan with your steak, catch the sunset, and save the serious wine exploration for somewhere else on the island.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Waikiki · Honolulu · Seafood / Mediterranean
Orchids is a reliable wine program wearing a luxury price tag — the sommelier is real, the pours are properly handled, and the list gets the job done for the room it's in. Just know that you're paying the Halekulani premium on every bottle, and budget accordingly before you sit down.
Solid Range
Steep
Varietal Specific
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
Waikīkī · Honolulu · Regional
Hau Tree earns its Wine Spectator nod — this is a genuinely considered list in a setting where mediocrity would have been completely forgiven. If you're in Waikīkī and want a glass of something real with your toes near the sand, this is the place.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
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