Perhaps it IS his authoritative gesturing or continental articulation as he utters directives about the "beautiful people" to his staff, but I am positive I finally caught up to nightclub impresario Giorgio Taye.
By Shawn 'Speedy' Lopes
slopes@starbulletin.comTaye, whose star-powered Indigo, Virtual Experience and W Honolulu Hotel events have upped the ante for the Honolulu nightlife in recent years, has teamed with nightclub magnate George Kail to produce Maze, a 10,000-square-foot venture on the second floor of the Waikiki Trade Center. Rumored to be the be-all, end-all to Waikiki nightspots, it was the talk of the local club scene weeks before its opening.
As tall, slender and exotic as one would expect a former model of Egyptian/Ethiopian heritage, Taye is also relatively young for an established promoter. He believes he is 30, although he cannot confirm his true age. "My father is an Ethiopian Jew, and I don't know how to transfer the Jewish calendar to the Western one," he explained over the phone the day before.
His partnering with Kail, he believes, was a natural if not destined pairing. Both have backgrounds in fashion and share a penchant for stylish, swanky affairs. Taye ushers me into the club, buries my palm in a generous coil of drink tickets and leads me through a side corridor and into the infinite deep blue of Maze's VIP room. The Paradox Lounge, as he calls it, is meant to represent the artsy ambience of New York's warehouse district. It is 9:30 p.m., and the VIP party scheduled till 10 is in full swing."Why don't you have a look around the club, and we can talk some more later," he suggests before dashing off to tend to business.
While there are no sightings of Cameron Diaz, Christian Slater, Nicolas Cage or Prince Albert of Monaco as at previous events, people-watching is interesting nonetheless. It's apparent that most are attired in their Friday night best, although several attendees interpret Maze's "absolutely fabulous" -- their words, not mine -- dress code to mean surf T-shirts, shorts and garish sequined ensembles.
This comes as a relief to me. Outfitted in black jeans and a plain-collared shirt, perhaps I am not so underdressed after all and this is not the exclusive, hoity-toity shindig I'd feared it would be.
For every wineglass-dangling yupster in neatly pressed slacks and designer T, there is a casual, aloha-shirted pau hana player. For every diva who sends back her chocolate martini, there is a rock 'n' roll beauty in faded jeans and crop top, completely at ease with her bottle of Bud Light. The beautiful people are here, yes, but thankfully, so are the average Joes.Through the lounge's glass doors, one enters Maze's Red Room, which, as its name suggests, is done up in a deep crimson. The steady bump-and-boom of deep house echoes throughout. While jostling for position at the bar, I notice an odd stickiness on my palms and elbows. Fresh red paint. Nice. In the 10 minutes it takes me to wipe it off, my drink tickets had expired, and I pay the full six bucks for my Royal Merlin. Serves me right for showing up "fashionably late."
I notice the patronage spilling over through a third set of doors and into the venue's third and largest room. As with the Paradox Lounge and Red Room, Maze Arena is virtually a nightclub unto itself. Here, the chalky smell and taste of artificial fog creeps across the dance floor as back lights and laser beams light the way. The DJ is front and center, and the featured sounds -- trance, in this case -- are the main attraction. As the rhythm crescendos, a host of hands shoot up, and whoops and hollers resound.
I decide to make my exit just around midnight, although truthfully, I am not looking forward to stepping back into the harsh fluorescence of the real world. Over the past 2 1/2 hours, I had grown accustomed to my fanciful surroundings. Maze is actually quite an experience, a Honolulu night-lifer's Shangri-La, I think. And like Disneyland or Las Vegas, it should be visited at least once in a person's lifetime.
Where: Waikiki Trade Center, 2nd Floor Maze
When: 9 p.m. every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until 2 a.m.
Cover: $10
Call: 921-5800
Dress code: Absolutely fabulous
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