By Jason Genegabus

I’m supposed to be on vacation this week, yet I spent nearly seven hours in front of a computer today (so far).

Guess I asked for it, though, after promising to update this blog in my column last Friday.

Anyway… if you didn’t make it to Chinatown last weekend, there was no doubt NextDoor failed to live up to its promise of reopening in time for August’s First Friday festivities. As dozens of people stood in line to get into Bar 35 and hundreds more wandered along Hotel Street, the doors at NextDoor remained closed.

That morning, I got a voicemail from co-owner Chris Kahunahana, explaining the situation.

“NextDoor is officially not open, as of today,” he said. “We’re gonna be continuing without a liquor license, basically.”

Hmm.

Last month, I was told NextDoor’s liquor license wasn’t in any danger, even after the Honolulu Liquor Commission had placed the club on a three-month probation.

The HLC also confirmed this week that the liquor license belonging to Next Door Partners, LLC is active for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2009.

So while renovations were the original reason NextDoor shut its doors, it now appears the club will have to reapply for its liquor license, according to Kahunahana.

“We’ll be reapplying and reopening with a liquor license in three months,” he said. “But we’ll be a BYOB venue until that time.”

I’m still a little confused. Are renovations pau? Will the club now remain closed until November, or will it reopen sooner? Is there an ownership change in progress at NextDoor?

Unfortunately, when Kahunahana returned my call this afternoon, he was in an area with terrible cellular reception. After two dropped calls, I suggested he call me back a few minutes later from a location with better service.

That was almost three hours ago.

For those interested in NextDoor’s regular club nights, here’s what I know:

>> Kaleidoscope: The Tuesday weekly has moved to The Loft for now, and celebrates its second anniversary tonight with no cover and a live set by The Malcognitas.

>> Acid Wash Wednesdays: Appears to be cancelled after some of the DJs involved tried to take the party to Indigo. Threats of a lawsuit have prevented the Acid Wash name from being used elsewhere.

>> Illmatic: No word if the monthly 90’s hip-hop night will resurface, but the upcoming Little Brother free show scheduled for Aug. 16 has also been moved to The Loft.

>> Camera Obscura: No official word on where this monthly party will move to during NextDoor’s extended hiatus. The Mercury Bar is a possibility.

>> Showdown in Chinatown: Again, no official word yet, but I’m expecting this monthly local film night to return to its former home at thirtyninehotel for now.

Got any scoops on other events at NextDoor? Leave me a message in the comments, or e-mail jason [at] starbulletin [dot] com.

***

UPDATE: Turns out I got some bad info from the HLC. This arrived in my e-mail this morning (Wednesday, Aug. 6) from Anna Hirai, assistant administrator at the Liquor Commission:

“I made an error … Next Door Partners did not renew (their liquor license), but will be coming in shortly to re-submit.”

So there you go. NextDoor did lose its liquor license, but not until after the club had already announced it was closing for renovations. And it looks like they lost it over paperwork – NOT due to noise complaints, or any other type of violation.

But still. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Related Post:
“Next Door Announces Closure“

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Nightlife, Music, Clubs/Bars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.