You knew that rum was the next boutique vodka, right? I’d been waiting for a bar like this to hit Hawaii for some time. I learned to love sipping rums (akin to single malts) on a trip to Venezuela 20 years ago when we got to sample the local goods — stuff you could never find stateside.  With its connection to the sugar biz and its tropical street cred, Hawaii nei is a logical locale for RumFire, dropped into the Sheraton Waikiki a few years back as part of its spiffing-up process. The joint is sleek and popular with the Honolulu party circuit cool kids. The rum list, which contains over 100 types, is impressive — I def plan on doing some sampling. Better still, the Sheraton is breaking out of its anti-food stance, bringing on board Colin Hazama as the chef. He formerly worked at Hoku’s at the Kahala Resort, a noted eaterie, and has past experience at Gary Danko in SF and Alan Wong’s. The press release proclaims his “charred sea scallops, wok-fired ono and flambé desserts.” Sounds yum, can’t wait to check it out. The space itself, as the picture shows, looks nice — modern, sleek, nicely woody, and a huge improvement over the extremely tired Espirit Lounge was there before. Bring it on, Sheraton. Nice to see the place progressing.