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OCEAN'S 11" is right- ly synonymous with Sinatra's Rat Pack and Vegas, but this week, "Ocean's 5th" is the key to the week's biggest ongoing club event as the Ocean Club celebrates five years of success at Restaurant Row. Ocean Club rides rising
tide at age 5By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com"I attribute all of our success to our employees," said Beau Mohr, general manager and vice president of operations, during the official fifth-anniversary celebration on Tuesday. The club was filled as Mohr and Entertainment One Pacific President Gene Gunn presided over a brief ceremony.
Five years may not seem all that long when you consider that the Wave Waikiki is "legal" at 21 and that Rumours passed the 20-year mark without formal commemoration last year in the first week of September, but how many other full-service nightclubs have thrived for five years at Restaurant Row?
Studebakers, you say? That was Gunn's club, too.
Where: Restaurant Row OCEAN CLUB
Hours: 4:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. Tuesdays to Fridays, and 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. Saturdays; available for private parties Sunday and Mondays
Admission: Free until 8 p.m.; $4 from 8 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays; $5 from 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; free validated parking.
Minimum age: At least 21 on Thursdays; 23 other nights.
Call: 531-8444
"Studebakers was open almost eight years, and it was time for something new," he said of the decision to close a successful club and build another one. "Studebakers had a wonderful run and the economics changed here, and it was time to come out with something new. It just was. It seems too simple but that's really the truth."
What seems more amazing is that the club, dubbed "Oceans" by local folk, has been immune thus far to the ravages of Hawaii's long-stagnant economy. Nightclubbing would seem to be a luxury when many residents struggle to cover basic expenses, but business has been booming even after the suicide attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center last fall.
"Last year, January and February were our best months ever, and this January and February are better than that. We've had a lot of great promotions the last few months, too," Gunn said.
Studebakers' decor was neo-1950s drugstore, red Naugahyde and chrome, and defined by the Studebaker coupe parked near the entrance. Ocean Club is darker and more tropical and dominated by large, brightly colored fish.
"That was one of the best ideas we had," Gunn said of the fish -- billfish, a school of small mahimahi, and the giant bass that "swims" over the crowd just inside the entrance. "We've been offered a lot (of money) at a lot of different times, but they're not for sale. I wanted one for my house, but my wife said no."
Gunn doesn't expect Ocean Club to be hurt anytime soon by the pending prohibition of smoking in restaurants and nightclubs. Ocean Club is classified as a nightclub, so it would be spared for a while.
"If they don't make any exclusions for special groups, it won't have any negative effect. Europeans and Japanese smoke a lot more than Americans do now, but we don't have a lot of visitors here. As long at it's everybody, then we're good to go -- and my carpets will last longer."
And as for the future?
"It looks great. We're really happy," Gunn said. "Our goal is for Ocean Club to last at least a decade."
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