Find This Bar With Hundreds of Wines to Taste in Industrial Kaka‘ako

If I pointed at an auto body garage and said you could try more than 100 wines by the glass there, would you believe me? I promise it’s for real. Silver Lining Wine Bar hides inside Unibody Autotech on Waimanu Street in industrial Kaka‘ako. And there’s no way you would know from the street, not even a sign.

Head toward Unibody and enter the tinted glass door. Act like you know where you’re going. Don’t go up the stairs—that’s the cigar lounge Brix and Stones—and instead, walk past them to the unmarked diamond-plated door. Do this only after you’ve made reservations. Then prepare to dive into the world of natural wine with Silver Lining’s owner, Rick Lilley.

Photo: Thomas Obungen

Lilley brings a jovial educational approach to low-intervention wines. Previously 12^th Avenue Grill’s wine and beverage director and currently wine curator at Nature Waikīkī, he opened Brix and Stones with his wife, Elaine Lilley, during the pandemic. Lilley’s affinity for natural wine began when he was a buyer at Kermit Lynch, the country’s most important wine importer and merchant. In Europe, Lilley learned about biodynamic wines from producers who have continued the tradition of making wine without intervention for generations.

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On the counter at Silver Lining are two books. One has the food menu and an abbreviated list of wines by the glass or bottle, along with spirits and cocktails from Brix and Stones’ barrel program. Book two is an exhaustive bottle list divided by wine type. It also lists wines available by the glass when you order a minimum of four glasses. Smaller pours of 2.5 ounces mean you can try a lot more than if you committed to a full 4- or 5-ounce glass.

Photo: Thomas Obungen

We split two small plates: Chef Nae’s chicken liver mousse with Breadshop toast ($16) and the 12-slice charcuterie board ($27) with speck, mortadella and spicy soppressata. Other food options include a spinach, chicken and mushroom salad ($18), a brisket patty burger by Goodfellas ($22) and a selection of popular panini and pinsa (pizza) from Bocconcino next door. The charcuterie also comes from Bocconcino and is sliced fresh to order at Silver Lining.

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Chef Nae is Nature Waikīkī’s Nae Ogawa, who gives her chicken liver mousse to Lilley as thanks for curating the wine pairings for her menus. A glass of Chavost Blanc d’Assemblage Brut Nature ($15), an organic Champagne made with a blend of chardonnay and pinot meunier grapes, is dry with high acid, making it ideal with the rich liver mousse. A more interesting pairing is the off-dry Champalou Les Fondraux Vouvray, one of the best examples of chenin blanc from the Loire Valley in France. Its mild sweetness acts like a berry compote that lifts the delicious liver mousse to new heights.

Photo: Thomas Obungen

As we nibble on the charcuterie, we ask for more recommendations from Lilley. Although it’s too early for this year’s Beaujolais nouveau, he has a bottle from last year’s crop that he’s been liking lately. I ask to try a glass. It might have been a little past its prime, but I still taste the fruitiness and youth that make Beaujolais so easy to gulp. We also try an orange wine from Meinklang, an iconic biodynamic Austrian farm, and a red wine blend by a micro producer called 4 Mono Viticultores from Madrid, Spain.

Photo: Thomas Obungen

Conversations about how each of the wines lift or accentuate the different flavors of our bites are the beginnings of lessons about similar grapes and other wines that could work. Now the fun part: trying new pairings that buck the trend, especially when it comes to natural wines.

Otherwise known as low-intervention wines, natural wines have been around forever, but they’ve become mainstream in the last decade. They differ from most commercially available wines in that they start with organic grapes and use no artificial additives. The process is close to the way wine was traditionally made. Most winemakers use additives, sulfates or stabilizers to alter the taste, color, clarity or shelf life. These additives are usually imperceptible on the palate and are widely accepted and legal in many producing regions.

Natural wines may sound great on paper, but they also have shortcomings. Since they do not contain sulfites, they are unstable and have a lifespan of about a year. They are often described as funky or yeasty and contain impurities or have a cloudy appearance. Natural wines typically go against conventional standards for what makes a good wine, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be outstanding.

Whether you’re deep into wine or just scratching the surface, Silver Lining Wine Bar is an ideal springboard to a sea of wines you might not see in grocery stores or wine shops on the island.

Reservations only, Wednesday to Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m., 999 Waimanu St., brixandstones.com, Resy, @silverlininghawaii