Pier Bar’s liquor
bid is rejected

But denial of longer bar hours
won't halt the Today Show's airing

By Leila Fujimori
Star-Bulletin

Plans for a rip-roaring New Year's Eve party until 4 a.m. at Aloha Tower Marketplace and the Pier Bar have fizzled -- the city Liquor Commission has denied extended hours to serve liquor.

The bar wanted to provide a festive atmosphere for NBC's Today Show, which will wrap up its millennium celebration coverage in Hawaii after 2 a.m.

NBC won't pull out because of the denial, a spokeswoman for Aloha Tower Marketplace said. The party is likely to still draw people who want to say "hi" to mom, and stragglers from the 15,000 expected there for the concert and fireworks show, she added.

"I hope there'll be a crowd," said Henry Kapono, who has agreed to perform for the Today Show's nationwide audience at the Pier Bar. Without the liquor, though, he said, "it'll be a sobering experience."

Thomas Mendonca, the commission's supervising enforcement investigator, advised commissioners against granting special licenses because it would set an undesirable precedent.

"You're on a slippery slope. . . . Where is the barrier going to be?" he asked.

Mendonca also said that if one establishment were granted permission to extend hours to 4 a.m. from 2 a.m., it would require that the whole class of licensees be afforded the extension.

The commission also denied requests from Don Ho's Island Grill, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, Havana Cabana-Honolulu and Hula's Bar to extend their liquor service hours.

Commissioners acknowledged opposition from the community and the Honolulu Police Department to the bars' special license requests.

"We are not prepared to handle special licenses," Sgt. Lester Hite said. Police had allocated manpower up to midnight at Aloha Tower Marketplace and to other special events on New Year's Eve. He said police must attend to added fireworks, "crazy people" and any possible terrorists.

Commissioners were concerned about public safety and liability. But in support of local businesses, Commissioner Chu Lan Kwok voted in favor of the bars' requests.

The commission did grant the Pier Bar a special general license to hold a concert at Irwin Park, the parking area of the Marketplace, until 2 a.m.