Monkeypod
Maui Brewing founder Garrett Marrero doesn’t need to venture beyond his house to enjoy Hawaii’s Garden Island—the guy’s got three craft taps flowing next to his pool—but the longtime islander knows exactly where to go for a day that starts with breakfast and ends with bourbon. He spilled his Maui musts for our get-me-out-of-this-snow vacation-planning pleasure.
1. “My favorite breakfast on Maui is Mala Ocean Tavern in Lahaina. I usually get the same thing every time: chilaquiles with lamb sausage, jalapeños and sambal. They also make great mojitos, which go down really well until you’re ready to switch to beer.“
2. “My wife and I grab the dogs, Sofie and Bella, and go to the beach off Highway 30, at mile marker 14; you just pull your truck over onto the sand, hop out and paddleboard or throw the Frisbee around. Or, we hike the Pali trail. It’s on very steep mountains close to shore, and the views are amazing; you can see down into the water, it’s so clear. It’s good exercise.”
3. “We spend the whole day at the beach, then go home and barbecue. If we decide to go out, we have dinner at Lahaina Grill. The menu changes frequently, but we always get the Bufala Salad with Olowalu tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and balsamic. The Triple Berry Pie is a must for dessert.”
4. “For drinks, we go to Monkeypod in Wailea. It’s a bit of a drive, but they have a great beer program. On tap, they have beers from Lost Coast, Rogue, North Coast and Deschutes, and in bottles, they have international beers like Italy’s Baladin Nora.”
5. “If I need to hide out, I go to the lobby bar at the Ritz-Carlton. It’s tucked away in the corner of the lobby, so you can people-watch, and at the same time enjoy a great bourbon without the madness of downtown Lahaina.”
MAUI’S LATEST (AND LAST?): Garrett’s year-round beers are classics—who hasn’t lusted after his Coconut Porter?—but his recent one-offs (think fall’s collaboration with Dogfish Head, a breadfruit-and-papaya-seed imperial golden ale) are ones for the books. The latest: a Brussels-style stout brewed with Mayan chocolate, cayenne and cinnamon dubbed Aloha B’ak’tun, released to commemorate the Mayan maybe-end-of-the-world (a b’ak’tun is a 144,000-day calendar cycle, the 13th of which ends on Dec. 20). Assuming you survive, score it in cans on the mainland or at the Maui Brewing brewpub in December.
