Dave Newman

The Climb

The early marker in this career is program-building: Dave Newman created and rolled out the Industry Sundays program at Nobu Waikīkī in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi (from 2007). That kind of assignment points to more than floor execution; it requires an eye for service structure and the ability to shape how a bar program is experienced. From 2012, he was co-owner at Pint + Jigger in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, a step that added ownership to the practical demands of the bar. The arc is steady and readable: responsibility accumulates, and with it, authority behind the counter.

Today

Since 2012, Dave Newman has held the owner and bar manager role at Pint and Jigger in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, United States. The value in that position is continuity. A bar held that long develops its own habits, and the person running it is responsible for keeping the standard legible in every pour, every shift, every decision made in the room. One line from him stays close to the work: "It’s an absolutely perfect cocktail and very close to my heart. I still serve it the same way today." It points to a bartender who treats repetition as part of the craft, not a limitation. Another remark is simpler and more personal: "I’d love to have one more drink with my grandpa." Put together, the two lines show what hospitality often carries beneath the service: precision on one hand, memory on the other. For Newman, a cocktail is both method and meaning.

Signature

Dave's signature cocktails include Glenlivet Perfect Rob Roy and carbonated Mai Tai. The two drinks suggest a bar mind that can move between a more structured classic and a livelier, more carbonated build. In both, the throughline is attention to form, balance, and how a drink lands on the palate.

In Their Words “It’s an absolutely perfect cocktail and very close to my heart. I still serve it the same way today.” “I’d love to have one more drink with my grandpa.”