It's no secret that for most people, opening a restaurant is sheer lunacy because of the high failure rate for that line of business. It has occurred to me over the years that the compulsion to surround oneself with food and company, however, is just as powerful of the maternal/paternal instinct and the drive to eat itself.

I have to admit I am not immune to the gravitational pull of launching a restaurant, but my simple concepts will have to wait until the last of the news jobs dry up. For now I like it just fine on this side.

One of the newest to leap into the food fray is a person whose name has been more closely aligned with night life and entertainment. While Pipeline Cafe's Chip Jewitt has graduated to high-end fare at Aria Restaurant (more on that at a later date), Greg Azus has taken over ownership of the nightclub, with a lot of ideas to keep the show running in these economic hard times.

First and foremost was to take the cafe part of the name more seriously and add food to the music, comedy, club mix. I had almost forgotten Azus is a foodie, which I deduced from having met him at a Roy's Hawaii Kai wine dinner a while back. A taste of the food was a reminder. I don't think he would put anything out that he wouldn't be willing to eat himself, and he turned to chef Brian Peters for help. Peters' experience has been at Rodeo Cantina, Don Ho's and working as a caterer for the “;Lost”; crew.

You don't see fresh in a bar/club environment too often, but you can get a good meal here, complete with greens and vivid produce, at a decent price before a show and at lunch time. There's a lot of variety for employees working in Kakaako, where there aren't many lunch options.

Just remember it's not set up to be a restaurant, so you have to be proactive about seating yourself and walking up to the lunch counter by day and upstairs at the sports bar at night. You'll also be dealing with denizens of the night, who might not be fully functional by day, like a surly cashier who looked as if she had gone to bed at 5 a.m., had to be at work by 10 a.m. and wasn't too thrilled about it.

Tables are set up downstairs for a lunchtime crowd, while upstairs at night you can grab a high bar table or get comfy—if you can, knowing that a dart game is just overhead—in a booth shaped like a catcher's mitt.

FOR LUNCH, order off the cafe's regular pupu menu or try one of the quarter-pound burgers available only by day, at $6.25 for a cheddar cheeseburger to $6.75 for a mushroom burger featuring shiitakes.

Spinach and lobster quesadilla ($10.75) could have used more filling, but I was impressed by a fruit salsa of cantaloupe, onion and cilantro.

After having had the experience of paying $20 for pasta elsewhere earlier in the week, I was far more impressed by Pipeline's moderately spicy Cajun chicken fettuccine, essentially delivering a comparable dish, with a fresh dice of zucchini, yellow squash and red bell peppers, for only $9.50. It's becoming more and more difficult to cook up something similar at home at that cost.

In the evening there's a pupu menu to accompany drinks, meant to share, or to be the start of a meal. Nibble on spicy garlic soybeans ($5.75), spicy chicken wings ($6.25; it's $3 during happy hour from 4 to 9 p.m. weekdays except on nights there's a concert or special event) or nachos “;Pipeline”; style topped with jack and cheddar cheeses, tomatoes, olives, jalapenos, sour cream, salsa and black beans ($7.50), with chicken or beef for an extra $1.50.

Crab and artichoke dip ($9.75) are served with tortilla chips, and I might be alone in this regard, but I wanted to see more artichoke than the crab that was there.

A dish of pan-fried opakapaka ($10.75) is brushed with miso and served atop greens sauteed in a soy-ginger sauce. There's a grilled opakapaka sandwich ($7.25) available at lunch time as well.

You can also get two New York steak and vegetable kebabs for $7.75. The 2-inch steak cubes were dry inside, perhaps a matter of getting the timing right, so a better choice for me was the trio of miniature burgers ($6.75) topped with cheddar.

Buying Pipeline has been “;a big leap of faith in this economy,”; Azus said over the phone, “;but I feel good about it.”;

And for this cynical critic, it looks smart. He now has control over a venue for the acts he brings in, and once people know they can grab a bite to eat, they won't have to look far for a place to hang out before the shows.