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Barfly Jason Genegabus |
Smooth Kalihi secret
Club Lao Star offers a great place
to party without any hasslesI'M ALMOST ashamed to admit it, but some of my friends are really starting to show their age.
Gone are the nights of hitting the club five or six times a week, and I'm hearing a lot less about their experiences praying to the porcelain gods after a hard night cruising with Ron, Jose and Jack (at some point, true party animals get on a first name basis with their liquor).
But the majority of these people are still under the age of 30, and while they're starting to slow the pace a little, the weekends remain as a time to go out and get down with the get down.
Club Lao Star
Hours: Open 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily
Location: 508 Waiakamilo Road
Phone: 843-1668
ANOTHER GRIPE I've been hearing lately is that there's nowhere to go and kick back in a club atmosphere without having to deal with lines to get in, lines at the bar, crowds of drunken party people and the occasional rude and/or overly physical bouncer.
So this week, the Barfly takes you to a Friday night spot that most folks aren't aware of -- where the beer is cheap, the music bangin' and the crowd nice and mellow. Tonight, make your way to Kalihi for an evening at Club Lao Star.
I recently got turned on to this joint a few weeks back, and finally had a chance to stop in for a few drinks last weekend. Making its home amid a strip of liquor-serving establishments on Waiakamilo Road, the bar is in an area that looked to be heavily patrolled by Honolulu's finest, so be sure to line up a designated driver for the evening.
Parking can also be a problem, since the small lot fronting Lao Star serves a neighboring bar as well. Your best bet is to look for street parking -- or better yet, catch a cab if you can afford it.
ONCE YOU get inside (despite what the name says, this place is a bar and not a nightclub), save yourself some time and head to the back of the room where the bar itself is located. This will give you a chance to scope out the crowd and find a place to sit at one of the booths, while keeping things uncluttered near the front door where the DJs have set up shop for the night and customers are throwing darts just a few feet away.
Now, I'm not sure what the best thing about this place is -- that you can get a $2 beer on a Friday night here, or that the guys spinning on Fridays are the same ones you'll hear on the radio and see in the club on other nights during the week.
They might be competing while on the air, but on Fridays, DJs Twiks and Lex One team up to provide the same beats you'd hear at some of the bigger and more popular places in town. Twiks spends his Saturdays spinning at Blue Tropix for 102.7 Da Bomb's live broadcast, while Lex holds it down on Hot 93.9's Saturday night mix show each week. Working at Lao Star on Fridays gives the two an opportunity to play all the club bangers they want, but they also have the freedom to toss in tracks that normally wouldn't see the light of day in other venues.
IF YOU'RE out and about tonight and looking for someplace off the beaten path, check out Club Lao Star. You don't have to make a night out of it (we still went to close down Pipeline Cafe last weekend after knocking a few back here), but time really flies when you're drinking cheap beer and bobbing your head to the same music you'd hear in the club. Be sure to keep this place in mind during football season, too -- "Monday Night Football" is shown live here, making it a great place to sneak off to and avoid pau hana traffic while enjoying the game.
How much for a Bud Light?
The Barfly drank $2 Bud Ice bottles during his visit to Club Lao Star. Spend a dollar more and you can get a Bud Light, but why do that when you can take that same dollar and buy a jello shot to go with your beer instead?Got things to do?
Two pool tables and a few dart machines provide the usual distractions; there are also Megatouch game machines strategically located throughout the room.What about the grinds?
Pupu specials vary depending on the night you visit; be sure to ask your server for a rundown.And the help?
While the two servers working on the night the Barfly dropped in were nice to look at, they were much more concerned with their regular customers than someone showing up at the bar for the first time. This might have bothered me someplace else, but the allure of $2 beers on a Friday night made me a bit more agreeable to walking the 50 feet or so it took to order from a bartender.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Barfly appears every Friday in Star-Bulletin Weekend.
E-mail Jason Genegabus at jason@starbulletin.com with suggestions of neighborhood bars to visit.
