I Went to First Friday in Chinatown on Oʻahu and This is What It was Like

At 9:30 p.m. I sat at a table outside of Fête restaurant and watched a four-piece band set up on the corner of Hotel Street and Nuʻuanu Avenue on Oʻahu.

“This guy comes every weekend,” co-owner of Fête Chuck Bussler said of the drummer. “He shows up with different musicians each time. It’s great.”

With his rattan-lined drum set and fedora hat he looked like something straight out of the roaring twenties. Then beep boop boop the guy next to him started building beats on a synthesizer, another guy started blowing on a sax, and the fourth guy began to sing and strum an ‘ukulele. I ordered a glass of wine and an appetizer of chicken liver mousse with house-made sourdough and settled into the scene, from the only outdoor lānai (veranda) on Hotel Street.

It was the first Friday of the month in Chinatown. I had just finished hopping around the neighborhood, popping into art shows, running into friends, eating, drinking and just seeing where the night took me. (The next First Friday is this Friday, July 5.)

A musician playing in Chinatown on First Friday.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

First Friday’s Beginnings

In 2002, during Honolulu’s artistic renaissance, Kim Coffee-Isaak, then managing director of The ARTS at Mark’s Garage—a multimedia space and nonprofit for local artists that opened in 2001, along with its creative director Rich Richardson, director of The Downtown Art Center (DAC) Sandy Pohl and local artist Jody Endicott, started First Fridays in Chinatown. Coffee-Isaak said local artists Pegge Hopper and Hank Taafausau as well as Don Murphy (owner of Murphy’s Bar & Grill) were also strong initial supporters. And in 2006, the Nuʻuanu Merchants Association formed and it started helping organize First Fridays, too.

Kealoha Wong, Hawaiʻi’s first poet laureate, began hosting slam poetry competitions in the spring of 2003 at Studio 1—a multimedia space where there were performers, deejays, dancing and slam poetry on the corner of Nuʻuanu and King streets—every first Thursday of the month to coincide with First Fridays. “On Thursday night, you’d hear about what was happening on Friday and that evening would spill into the next,” he said.

Wong said on First Fridays the evening would always begin at The ARTS at Mark’s Garage around 5 p.m. preceded with an “art walk” where you would drop into art openings and connect with friends. Around 8 p.m. performances—theater, music or fashion shows—would start. After you watched those you would end the night hopping around to clubs and bars. “For me it encapsulated everything the movement was trying to do,” Wong said.

“After a year or so, First Friday did not need promoting,” Coffee-Isaak said. “Thousands were gathering every month.”

First Friday before the pandemic.
Photo: David Croxford

As First Friday picked up speed more restaurants, galleries and retail spaces opened in Chinatown. Ong King, Next Door, 39 Hotel, Louis Pohl Gallery, Roberta Oaks and the Downtown Art Center were all popular spots. The artists’ lofts above the courtyard of the Mendonca Building on Smith Street opened their spaces to the public to sell art and add entertainment to the party. The restoration of the Hawaiʻi Theater was also a big draw to the neighborhood.

“Crowds were so large they always spilled onto the street,” Coffee-Isaak said.  On special occasions Murphy would rally some of the other bars and restaurants to apply for permits to close Nu’uanu Street and cover the cost of security, porta potties, live bands and street barricades.

“Because of their partnership with the art community,” Coffee-Isaak said. “They were able to make the case that the street closures benefited more than their individual businesses.” Artists and galleries were getting lots of new exposure each month.

First Fridays Post-Pandemic

First Friday at Capitol Modern.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

On the evening I attended First Friday I began at Capital Modern. Formerly known as Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, the free downtown museum hosts events every month for First Friday. It is a family-friendly affair with a mixed crowd gathering in the back courtyard for live Hawaiian music and dinner from local vendors.

Native Hawaiian chef Kealoha Domingo, the resident caterer for the museum, was serving traditional lau lau (pork and fish wrapped in taro and tī leaves and steamed), lomi tomato (tomatoes massaged with sweet onion, green onion and Hawaiian sea salt) and steamed ʻuala (purple sweet potatoes). Other vendors for the evening included ʻUlu & Kalo Bakery with its kalo (taro) brownies, ʻulu (breadfruit)-banana bread and Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies—all gluten-free and plant-based; Kapakahi Grindz with poke bowls; and another vendor serving kālua pork nachos. Inside, two men prepared and poured ʻawa, a traditional Hawaiian beverage made from kava root, for anyone walking by. I was there during The 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, the world’s largest gathering of Indigenous Pacific Islanders, so I also got to watch hula performances and chants from visiting performers.

Authentic Hawaiian food from Nui Kealoha at First Friday.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

Afterward, I headed toward the heart of Chinatown, stopping first at Manini Gallery, next door to Hawaiʻi Theatre, where they were having an art opening. I arrived to wine and charcuterie cups by Bubbly & Bleu, and a room full of art lovers discussing the new installation, “Heʻe Nalu: The Art and Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing,” with artist Daniel Ikaika Ito.

An art exhibit at Manini Gallery on First Friday.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

From there I walked around the corner to The ARTS at Mark’s Garage. Although it appeared quiet, it was indeed open. There were a few people milling around looking at art—new art exhibits are presented every first Friday—and purchasing items from the gift shop. Two women sat at a table sipping wine, talking. They were hosting an open mic night, which started around 9 p.m. Poets, comedians and musicians were welcome to perform, and anyone else attending could watch for $10. There was inexpensive beer and wine you could purchase. Although I was curious, I did not stay because I wanted to see what else was happening in the neighborhood and not pigeonhole myself to one event, but I would definitely go back. 

On I walked. Through a gate on Smith Street I could see and hear people enjoying cocktails in the courtyard at Obake, a sushi hand roll joint that pops up an outdoor bar and yakitori grill on the weekends until 2 a.m. This is the Mendonca Building courtyard, where the artistsʻ lofts resided above in the early 2000s. Now, the courtyard is shared by Obake, Skull & Crown and Olay’s Thai and is still a lively hidden gem away from the action on the street. It was so busy Obake had a doorman guarding its entrance, checking IDs. Lucky Belly, the modern ramen shop on the other side of Smith Street, was full, too, and there were already people lining up for bars on Hotel street.

A medley of mushrooms over an herb salad from Obake.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

On the next block, heading makai (toward the ocean), Kaiao Space—a community space and gallery owned by Sig Zane Designs—was also hosting an art opening. Fashionably dressed men and women spilled out of the tiny gallery onto the street. Inside, I ran into a friend and fellow writer who introduced me to a woman who told me about three other events happening that evening.

At Native Books I arrived once again to a packed house with an overflow of people on the sidewalk. I caught the end of a woman reading a poem. When she walked off stage, four Hawaiian men who had been sitting behind her began singing, two with guitars, two acapella. I later learned the quartet are members of the Pacific Climate Warriors, an environmental organization dedicated to protecting the Pacific islands from climate change. Native Books launches new gallery shows every first Friday.

Skull-face Books & Vinyl on Bethel street was hosting a live punk show. Behind bookshelves I could see a crowd dancing and pounding their fists in the air. 

Although there were plenty of events happening that night I thought about the pandemic and how hard it must have been to get people to return to the neighborhood for First Friday after losing so much momentum.

“First Friday has gone in waves since it began,” Wong said. Coffee-Isaak echoed the sentiment. She said in 2013, after Indigo (a beloved restaurant that had been in business 19 years) closed, the neighborhood struggled. Crowds became rowdy, with more visitors interested in getting drunk than appreciating art. Because of this the block parties started to disappear.

“But ARTS at Marks Garage stayed true to its vision,” Coffee-Isaak said. “Even if much of it was inside the art center versus on the streets of Chinatown. In the past several years it has been making an effort to promote First Fridays and plan events around that night. The Downtown Art Center has helped with that.”

A live performance at Modern Capitol on Friday Friday.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

Is Chinatown a little rough around the edges? Sure. Is it also one of the best places in Honolulu to find delicious food, inspiring art, and live performances? Definitely. While it is true Chinatown has its fair share of underbelly characteristics, such as houselessness and grubby sidewalks, it is nothing compared to parts of Chicago or San Francisco. I feel safe walking around at night, especially on a First Friday when there are lots of other people around.

First Friday is a hodgepodge of cool, interesting, weird and fun, just like the makeshift band that pops up across the street from Fête on the weekends. Is it what it was back in the 2000s and 2010s during the high peaks? No. But, whatever this is, happening now, I’m here for it. It feels like a revival.

Visit Chinatown this Friday, July 5. The party starts at 5 p.m and goes until the bars close down. These art venues will for sure be participating, but stay open to where the night takes you.