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A downtown Honolulu bar brimming with classic cocktail ambience and creative technique has won a national James Beard Award.
Bar Leather Apron owners Tom Park and Justin Park (no relation) accepted the Outstanding Bar award Monday in Chicago. Their business, started in 2015 and located in the Topa Financial Center, was also a semifinalist in last year’s event among 50 competitors.
It was in 2022 that Fete’s Robynne Maii won Hawai‘i’s first James Beard Award in 19 years, for Best Chef in the Northwest and Pacific region.
Consistent Yelp reviews rave about “the best cocktail experience ever,” with Bar Leather Apron’s warm polished wood, moody lighting and leather accents (including the aprons), inspired but the owners’ international travels.
The cocktail menu fuses local and seasonal ingredients and unique signature drinks, “the most famous being Justin Park’s award-winning E Ho‘o Pau Mai Tai – made with raisin-infused rum, coconut water syrup, spiced orgeat, vanilla ohia blossom honey, lime, absinthe and wood smoke,” according to theworlds50bestbars.com. The bar offers an extensive whiskey collection of over 500 diverse bottles.
Mixologist Justin Park has won a plethora of national and international awards, including the Don the Beachcomber Mai Tai Festival “World’s Best Mai Tai” competition (2012, 2015 and 2018); and Best Technical (2014, 2015) and Overall First Place winner (2014) of the “Shake It Up!” Cocktail Competition, according to barleatherapron.com.
Tom Park is the bar’s business and brand manager. He is the founder and owner of Leather Soul, a retailer of premium men’s shoes and accessories, and is the director of Kahala, the original manufacturer of aloha shirts since 1936.
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