Smoked brisket, ocean breeze, and a Pinot
Alii Drive · Kailua-Kona · Hawaiian-style barbecue / plate lunches · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · July 24, 2026
RagingWine reviewed TJ's BBQ By the Beach’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Take Vibe Match and we’ll tell you what to order here.
Wingman Metrics
You're at a walk-up BBQ stand on the Kona waterfront, the smell of smoked meat in the air, and somehow there's a wine list. It's short — seven options covering the basics — but for a casual open-air plate lunch spot on Alii Drive, the fact that wine exists at all earns a raised eyebrow in the best way. Nobody's coming here for a deep cellar experience, and that's fine.
The list hits every familiar varietal: Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc on the white side, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Merlot holding down the reds, with a Prosecco rounding things out. Producers are unlisted, which is a real limitation — you're essentially buying a varietal, not a wine. There's no regional storytelling here, no local Hawaiian producers, no adventurous picks. What you see is what you get, and what you get is the kind of list that gets the job done without inspiring a single conversation about it.
Three pours by the glass at $12 each, which is reasonable for a tourist-heavy stretch of Hawaiian coastline where everything costs a little more just because it can. The three BTG options aren't specified beyond varietal, so you're ordering on instinct. Rotation appears nonexistent — this list isn't being curated, it's being maintained.
Sauvignon Blanc — $12/glass
At a BBQ spot by the beach in Hawaii, a crisp Sauv Blanc at $12 a glass is the move. It's refreshing, it cuts through smoke and fat, and it's the kind of wine that just works when you're eating outside in the sun.
Prosecco
Nobody orders bubbles at a BBQ stand, which is exactly why you should. A cold pour of Prosecco with smoked pork on a hot Kona afternoon is a better idea than it sounds — the bubbles scrub the richness and the slight sweetness plays nice with the smoke.
Cabernet Sauvignon
A full-bodied, tannic red at a beachside BBQ shack in tropical heat is fighting the setting at every turn. Without a producer name or any context, you're rolling the dice on something that's almost certainly going to feel heavy and flat in this environment.
Pinot Noir + Smoked brisket plate
If you're going red with brisket, Pinot Noir is the play over Cab — lighter tannins, brighter fruit, and enough acidity to handle the smoke without steamrolling the meat. It's the least aggressive red on the list, and that's a virtue here.
🎲 The Bottom Line
We would never send someone to TJ's for the wine list — we'd send them for the smoked brisket and the ocean view. But if you want something in a glass while you eat, the list does just enough to keep you covered, and $12 a pour is fair by Hawaii standards.
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