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Bring Me the Bucket: Brasserie Francais Honolulu-Style

(Alex Salkever is the editor of Hawaii travel blog Hawaiirama.com and a general travel maven on all things Hawaii.)

The Chinatown District of Honolulu has been perennially on the verge of a nightlife breakout. Seedy enough for prostitutes yet sleek enough for urban swells, Chinatown now has enough watering holes and clubs to make a bar crawl more than a one-night affair. Now Dave Stewart, the impresario behind Indigo Eurasian Cuisine, a restaurant with three bar nooks and a fab Indo-Asian vibe, has rolled out Du Vin. It's an Alsatian-style brasserie down to the weird meats and sweet breads.

Oddly out of place in downtown Honolulu, Du Vin, however, is lovely spot. The wine-by-the-glass menu is pricey but excellent--make sure to ask about the bucket. The crowd is nicely varied from aging boomers down to 20-somethings stepping out. The back room is the place to hang, with dim candles, exposed stone walls, and a speakeasy sensibility. The food is generally good; our risotto was perfectly cooked. The mussels and frittes--natch--hit the spot.

True, its odd to travel to Hawaii to end up in Alsace or--gulp--somewhere in downtown Manhattan. But go with it and the warm weather and you'll have a nice ride.

[Photo: hawaii]