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Christian Shimabuku

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Michael Brestovansky

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Food & Dining

Whether you’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day by indulging in corned beef or simply want to toast with green beer, scroll below for fun ways to enjoy March 17.

59th annual Waikīkī St. Patrick’s Day parade

 will start at noon on March 17. The parade route includes Saratoga Avenue, Kalākaua Avenue and continues to the Honolulu Zoo.

There will also be a St. Patrick’s Day celebration (free admission) from 4 to 10 p.m. on March 17 between King and Hotel streets. Attendees are encouraged to wear their greenest gear, and can look forward to live performances and Celtic pipes and drums.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Aloha Beer Co."}]

: Customers can make any pint a green beer ($1 more) on St. Patrick's Day.

[{"type":"text","text":"Menu specials include:"}]

: Aloha Beer Co.’s St. Patrick's Day beer garden party is from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, March 13 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Big City Diner"}]

Family meal deal packs to-go are designed to serve four to five people and are available with a 24-hour notice. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Black Shamrock Tavern"}]

: The eatery will offer corned beef and cabbage sandwiches; cheese and pepperoni pizza slices; fish ‘n chips and cups ‘o fries. It will also have a corned beef and cabbage pizza, which features Guinness braised corned beef with housemade cabbage slaw and a drizzle of tangy Guinness mustard sauce. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Da Burger Wing Hub"}]

: This Wahiawa restaurant’s St. Patrick's-themed monthly specials include shepherd’s pie ($30); fish ‘n chips ($30); reuben sandwich ($22); corned beef, cabbage and potatoes ($35); and matcha float. 

: The bakery’s Irish soda bread ($10.25) will be baked every Tuesday and Saturday during March. It’s made with whole wheat and white flour, along with raisins, honey and buttermilk. 

: Irish soda bread will also be available on March 16 and 17

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Kona Brewing Co."}]

: The pub’s locations in both Kona and Hawaiʻi Kai will celebrate with food and drink specials. Guests wearing Kona Brewing Co. merch will enjoy happy hour pricing all day.

At the Kona Brewers Festival on March 14 at the Kona pub, the biz will be offering a special pairing menu to celebrate the limited release of Miss Bee-Havin’, a honey hefeweizen brewed with local honey in support of Pink Boots Society

. The nonprofit organization empowers women and non-binary professionals in the beef industry through education and scholarships. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Murphy’s Bar & Grill"}]

Takeout will not be available on St. Patrick’s Day. 

: Bar/restaurant is open from 11 a.m. on March 17

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Olive Branch Hawaiʻi"}]

: The online business is offering a St. Patrick's Day sweets box ($15) and assorted sweet set ($3), which includes any two dipped pretzels, Oreos or Rice Krispies. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Piko (Hawai‘i Island)"}]

: This special Irish-themed prix fixe menu ($60 per person) includes a hearty Guinness stew in a bread bowl with beef tip, bacon and seasonal root vegetables; corned beef and cabbage with roasted cabbage, mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, fried leeks and a Guinness-mustard sauce; and Grandma’s Irish soda bread with POG butter and lilikoʻi coulis. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Plumeria Beach House"}]

kahalaresort.com/dining/plumeria-beach-house/

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sippin’ Pretty"}]

: The matcha and coffee pop-up business’s March specials ($12 each) are St. Patrick’s Day themed. Enjoy the End of the Rainbow (iced matcha latte with organic mango puree, coconut cream top and rainbow sourbelt), Charmed & Lucky (iced cereal milk latte with toasted marshmallow cream top and Lucky Charms marshmallows) and double matcha (iced matcha latte with matcha cream top). 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sweet Revenge Honolulu"}]

: Customers can enjoy festive specials like:

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Boardroom Kailua"}]

: On St. Patrick’s Day, The Boardroom Kailua will feature green beers, Irish Car bombs, Jameson Irish whiskey specials, live music, and Irish food specials and flatbread pizzas.

During the week of St. Patrick’s Day, guests can look forward to signature green cocktails (emerald sour and shamrock martini),

For all of March, the eatery will feature Irish whiskey flights (Proper No. 12 Irish whiskey, The Whistler PX I Love You, and Boann Marsala Cask), fresh green cocktails and mocktails, and Guinness Stout and cold pints. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Pig & The Lady"}]

: Enjoy specials like corned beef pho, charred cabbage with egg nuoc chan and pickled mustard seeds; and an exclusive St. Patrick’s Day cocktail. The cocktail will feature Viet-Irish coffee, robusta beans, Jameson and pandan whipped cream. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Zippy’s Restaurants"}]

: Zippy’s is bringing back its corned beef cabbage plate ($20.95 in Honolulu), which includes cabbage, hearty pieces of corned beef, two scoops of rice and mac salad. Other festive specials include the Pot o’ Gold soup ($5.50 in Honolulu) — a creamy soup with chopped cabbage, heavy cream and bits of cooked corn beef with onions and potatoes — and a decorated St. Patrick’s Day donut ($2.99 in Honolulu). 

: March 17 starting at 10:30 a.m., while supplies last

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

St Patricks Day 2026 Aloha Beer Co 030426

<title>Where to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2026</title>

Get ready to (sham) rock and roll with green beers, corned beef and these limited-time specials.

Where to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2026

Government & Politics

A state proposal to limit the governor’s emergency powers has been lambasted as government overreach.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, then-Gov. David Ige made more than 20 consecutive emergency proclamations that suspended various state statutes without oversight from other branches of government.

 is a measure drafted partially in response to those proclamations, attempting to define what the governor or any county mayor can and cannot do through an emergency declaration.

But the bill has drawn controversy from individuals who believe the bill signifies an attempt to codify extrajudicial authorities for the executive branch.

 submitted in advance of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday excoriated the bill, with dozens calling it governmental overreach empowering the governor to activate sweeping powers on a whim.

“[SB 2151 hands] one person — the governor — near-unchecked power to declare emergencies, suspend our rights, enter our property without permission, lock us down, seize assets, or disarm us, all with too-little real accountability from the Legislature or courts,” read one letter by resident Dawn O’Brien, which echoed sentiments repeated through much of the testimony at Tuesday’s hearing.

However, this is not what the bill does. Karl Rhoads, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the bill’s primary introducer, told the committee 

 that he intended the measure to restrict the governor’s powers, and that much of the opposition facing the bill appears to be misdirected.

“There’s been a lot of testimony opposed to it seemingly thinking that this bill was expanding the governor’s power and it is certainly not,” Rhoads said.

As currently written, the bill prohibits any emergency declaration from overriding the state’s requirement to respond to public records requests in a timely manner.

Ige’s early Covid proclamations suspended the Uniform Information Practices Act, which requires public agencies’ records to be open to public inspection and review. They also included a partial suspension of the Sunshine Law — which requires state and county boards to hold meetings open to the public — to allow for meetings to be held entirely remotely.

, in Feb. 2021, the UIPA was only suspended insofar as agencies did not have to adhere to deadlines. However, the partial Sunshine Law suspension continued.

SB 2151 specifically prohibits a governor or mayor from suspending deadlines to respond to UIPA requests, or deadlines for the Department of Health to provide various patient vital records. However, the bill allows for a “reasonable delay” for the DOH to provide the latter during extenuating circumstances.

For those laws that can still be suspended through an emergency proclamation, another section of the bill specifically details how those suspensions can be carried out. As stated in the bill, any suspension of law cannot last any longer “than the governor deems necessary for the execution of emergency management functions.”

The same applies for county laws and emergency proclamations issued by mayors.

For every law suspended, the bill specifies that any emergency proclamation must identify the specific statutes affected and explain why the suspension is necessary for emergency management.

Furthermore, the bill introduced by Rhoads would amend the emergency powers law to allow the state Legislature to terminate a gubernatorial state of emergency by a two-thirds majority vote. The same goes for county councils, which could vote to end a county state of emergency by a two-thirds majority.

The latest version of the bill also amends the statutory definition of “emergency” to specify that it must be an imminent threat of a disaster that could cause “catastrophic harm and immediate danger” and that could be averted or minimized through timely action. Rhoads said Tuesday that this precludes the possibility of the governor issuing emergency proclamations regarding homelessness, which Rhoads noted “has been with us for many years.”

This isn’t the first time Rhoads has attempted to pass a similar bill. Last year, 

 — which proposed much the same changes as SB 2151, with much less public opposition — came very close to passing, but failed in April over disagreements between the House and Senate regarding various amendments made to the measure.

But while the bill may not be an expansion of the governor’s powers, it has attracted criticism from other directions. Several testifiers argued that the bill still allows the governor or mayor to be the sole judge of whether something is an emergency, and to continually re-issue consecutive proclamations despite an existing statute that automatically terminates a state of emergency after 60 days.

Nor does the bill remove existing statutes allowing the governor to enforce quarantines against people believed to be infected with a deadly contagion, or to seize and destroy property, or to authorize unpermitted entry onto private property, or seize firearms, all of which dozens of testifiers have demanded to be changed.

On the other hand, several groups voiced support for the bill, including the Grassroot Institute of Hawai‘i, which lauded the measure’s ability to both preserve the intent of emergency statutes while also checking the executive branch’s power.

The state Office of Information Practices, which responds to UIPA requests, took no stance on the measure, stating that the matter “is a policy decision for the Legislature to determine.” However, OIP confirmed that the suspensions of the UIPA during the pandemic “had a significant effect on requesters, agencies and OIP’s own operations,” with people experiencing long delays before receiving official responses to record requests.

The Senate Judiciary Committee took no action on the measure on Tuesday, with Rhoads deferring any decision on the matter until March 5. A corresponding bill, House Bill 2236, passed second reading in the House on Feb. 18, but has not yet been scheduled in that chamber’s own judiciary committee.

 For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Capitol Jan 2026

<title>Emergency proclamation bill stirs controversy</title>

A measure intended to limit the governor's ability to declare a state of emergency has citizens warning that it does the opposite. But does it?

Emergency proclamation bill stirs controversy

Sports

[{"text":"Everything was trending towards 2024 being Spyros Chakas' year. ","type":"text"}]

The star outside hitter was the latest elite international men's volleyball player to make his way to the University of Hawai‘i and embrace the Islands as much as it embraced him over the course of his college career. It's why he turned down pro overtures following his sophomore and junior seasons.

"You get offers, but it wasn't something that was enough for me to persuade me to leave Hawai‘i, and honestly, it would take a lot to get me out of Hawai‘i. I was having such a good time with my teammates, my friends in the islands, that I don't think that I would have given up on it," Chakas recently recalled to Aloha State Daily. "Especially after my third year, I've done three years of it. I might as well finish."

Chakas entered his senior year as the star player, floor captain and unquestioned leader for the Rainbow Warriors, who had won national titles in 2021 and 2022 and finished national runners-up in 2023. 

After a team trip to Japan in the fall, the stage was set for Chakas to have a memorable senior season. The 'Bows were considered among the teams in the mix for national title contention, while Chakas was one of the preseason favorites for national player of the year. 

"I was feeling really good going into that season. We had such a good time going to Japan, bonding as a team, and then just playing some really good volleyball. That was a great experience," said Chakas, the Most Outstanding Player in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. "The year started really well, and then going into the season, I was feeling probably my best physically that I felt my four years in Hawai‘i."

[{"text":"Then March 10 happened, and Chakas' college career was suddenly over. ","type":"text"}]

In the fifth set of an intense championship match of the Outrigger Volleyball Invitational, a ball was for set for Chakas, which he swung straight into the UC Irvine block. He landed on his left leg and immediately went down, clutching his left knee. The Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 6,923 went silent. 

The Rainbow Warriors went on to win the match, and Chakas won MVP of the tournament. Following the match, Chakas' teammates went to the training room to check in on him. He knew something was off immediately, but it wasn't confirmed until the next day. 

Chakas went home and was only able to sleep for about an hour before heading to the hospital for a 7 a.m. MRI, which revealed a full ACL tear, a third degree MCL tear and a first degree meniscus tear. Chakas had to wait an additional 10 days to get surgery to allow the swelling to go down. 

From there, a laborious rehabilitation process — both mentally and physically — ensued. His first physical therapy session took place the day after surgery. 

"That was pretty intense, learning how to live with crutches. The first month and a half being stuck in bed, only getting up to go to the toilet was an interesting time," he recalled with a grin.

During UH's five-set win over UC Santa Barbara on March 30, Chakas was part of the starting lineup as the second libero and sat on the bench, a respite from the early recovery stages he was facing at home. 

The Rainbow Warriors went 5-5 in Big West play without Chakas, falling to UC Irvine in the conference semifinals before missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018. 

In exchanging injury stories with others, Chakas realized his wasn't painful as others he had talked to, although he faced a long road ahead to get to where he once was.

As for his pro prospects, a team in Germany that was prepared to negotiate with Chakas after the season ended withdrew their interest following the injury. 

"I saw it all as a lesson, because it was not that I could control whether I got injured or not," he said. "I could only control how I dealt with it. And I think I did a pretty decent job controlling it and learning through it."

Chakas expressed gratitude towards the athletic training staff at UH. With Raiki Miyazato, he was able to learn to slowly get off his crutches and stand on his two feet again, supplemented with workouts at the pool. Meanwhile, strength coach Josh Elms introduced Chakas to leg exercises with the goal of not letting his leg atrophy. Chakas says in the early stages of rehab, his left leg was "skinny as hell."

The countless hours in bed allowed Chakas to self-reflect and learn more about himself. He even watched the fateful match against UC Irvine in which he suffered the injury. 

"I was rewatching the game against Irvine that I got hurt, and then I was watching how tense I was and how hard I was playing. I was like, OK, maybe I need to calm down a little bit sometimes. That was an important lesson," Chakas said. "Getting hurt obviously wasn't great for me or for the team. I believe that we could have done way better. But that doesn't take away the effort that the boys put in after I got hurt. I was really proud to watch them battle every game out, play their hearts out. ... Overall, not the way that I wanted it to go, but there's good things to keep from that season."

Teammates and coaches would frequently visit Chakas, making him plates from the team's postgame spread. Thousands from around the volleyball world messaged him, wishing him well in the recovery process. But when he was left to his own devices, that's when Chakas grew the most as a person.

"The physical part, you get used to it because you don't really have a choice. It's the mental part that you grow up a lot, because you just learn to face adversity in a different way, because it takes something away from you that you're used to doing for so many years. I played volleyball for so many years, and it's what I enjoy to do. So when that is being taken away from you, you just need to find other things to do," Chakas said. "For example, my enjoyment from music grew even more. I still remember being on crutches, and I'll go to (former teammate) Max Rosenfeld's house, and we would just make music together, and we'll just have good times. 

"That would be something that would distract me from my injury or any other issues that might have occurred. You find out so many more things about yourself, because you're not only focused on playing volleyball or winning games. There's so many other sides that you discover. I think that's the main thing that I keep from from this process: Just expanding my character and my interests as as a whole."

Chakas graduated from UH-Mānoa with a BA in psychology and then signed his first pro contract with AONS Milon in his native Greece, the same club team he played with as an amateur. With fond memories of the jam sessions he had with Rosenfeld, the first thing he bought after he landed in Athens was a drum set. 

Physical therapy for Chakas continued after moving back to Greece. After spending months working on his recovery, he began practicing with the team about 10 months following his injury. 

He returned to action on Feb. 19 — less than 11 months after surgery — and delivered five kills and four service aces against Hefestus Florinas. 

AONS Milon is currently in a best-of-five series in the Greek playoffs against Olympiacos, one of the most prominent multi-sport clubs in Greece. 

"It's rewarding," Chakas says of his return to the court. "There's some minor muscle issues that are pretty normal to occur after being out for so long, but I've been jumping well like I did before. I'm even stronger than I was before, so that's really encouraging." 

While the injury Chakas had against UC Irvine ended his season, it certainly didn't end his career. After enduring the hardest parts of the recovery process, he's eager to ascend up the pro ranks in Europe. 

"There's definitely goals in mind of where I want to go and where I want to play, but these goals won't achieve themselves," Chakas said. "I'm the one that has to be putting in the work every day if I want to achieve those goals. So, for example, if I want to go play in Italy, that will not happen if I just manifest or if I pray about it. I gotta actually put in the work. So, yeah, it's still a day by day process, trying to get a little better every day, whether that's physically, mentally or or both."

With a 12-hour time difference between Greece and Hawai‘i, Chakas said he's not able to watch as many matches live, but he'll watch them in full once they're uploaded on YouTube. He remains in touch with former teammates that are still in college, such as starting UH setter Tread Rosenthal and middle blocker Kurt Nusterer. He's hoping to visit the islands soon and show his friends some of the scenery, as well as reunite with poke bowls and spam musubi. 

"It's the best volleyball community I've ever seen in my life. People that actually care about the sport and love the sport and really, really good people that I came in contact with and made friends with over the years, and Hawai‘i is an amazing place itself. The Islands, the nature, the ocean, the mountains, it's something that I'll never forget, and I'll always want to come back to show my friends from here that I was living in Hawai‘i for four years. The food was pretty good, not gonna lie, some food that we don't have in this side of the world."

In the year since Chakas suffered his first major injury, he believes he's able to play at a high level again because of his short-term mentality. Have one good day at a time, and suddenly the starting point is a distant memory. 

"The first thing is that when adversity comes, you can't control what's going to happen to you, but you can control how you're going to deal with it," he said. "When I got injured, my initial thoughts, I was angry and sad and pissed about it. But then I realized that there's no point in me wasting energy in being emotional about it. But instead, I just gotta do my best to come back from it, go to PT, do my strengthening and all that. Just controlling the way that you come back from adversity, and not letting it get you stuck in a place where you don't want to be for a long time. 

"And then the second thing would be to take it day by day. I know that's a cliché, but when you're in a place like I said before, stuck in bed, not being able to get up, thinking long term is not really going to get you anywhere. You just gotta think like, 'OK, I'm gonna do this now.' I'm gonna do these things today to be better, feel better, and then get up the next morning and do the same things. I also had many messages from either kids that have gone through this injury or parents of kids that are going through these injuries. The messages that I would send to them was just be patient. Take it day by day, and be good on yourself. Love yourself."

Spyros Chakas 1

<title>Former Hawai‘i star Spyros Chakas carries college experience to the pros</title>

A year after suffering a major knee injury, Chakas is now playing for AONS Milon in his native Greece.

Former Hawai‘i star Spyros Chakas carries college experience to the pros

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Daily Smile

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Daily Smile: Wednesday, February 25, 2026

They bought the cat a new toy and this was the reaction...

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Hawai'i Skies

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Owana Kaʻōhelelani Salazar at Waimea Bay.

Owana Kaōhelelani Salazar 16 X9 jpeg

Hawai‘i Skies: A lucky moment

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Daily Smile: Monday, February 23, 2026

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Daily Smile: Sunday, February 22, 2026

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Daily Smile: Saturday, February 21, 2026

Little girl has her dogs say grace before dinner...

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Daily Smile: Friday, February 20, 2026

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Maia Rosen at Kāhala Beach.

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Hawai‘i Skies: A perfect frame

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Daily Smile: Thursday, February 19, 2026

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Dogs having the time of their lives following this week's historic blizzard in the northeast...

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Daily Smile: Saturday, March 7, 2026

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Daily Smile: Friday, March 6, 2026

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Daily Smile: Thursday, March 5, 2026

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by ChrisAnn Hayes on the Pali.

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Hawaiʻi Skies: On the way to work

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Daily Smile: Wednesday, March 4, 2026

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, March 3, 2026

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Daily Smile: Monday, March 2, 2026

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Aris Suchinroj in Waialua.

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Hawaiʻi Skies: Waialua rainbow

This is Minnie. She let out her first ever puppy bark today in an effort to bravely fend off her own reflection...

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