Club Scene
Monthly party comes with own color scheme
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Red is a once-a-month nightclub at Ward Centre, in the space formerly occupied by A Pacific Cafe.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser Red 9 p.m. Wednesday Ward Centre, second floor (formerly A Pacific Cafe) $5 |
The color red stimulates the senses, ignites the body to move, energizes.
Red is the most exciting color in the spectrum, symbolizing love, beauty, strength and power.
So it makes perfect sense to color-theme one of the island's latest hot spots.
More cocktail party than nightclub, Red overtakes the space once occupied by A Pacific Cafe in Ward Centre, turning the upstairs restaurant into a fashionable festivity not unlike the W or Spy Bar. But with a twist.
"We're different purely by nature of style," said Kauila, the club's first-name-only owner, a former script coordinator on "Baywatch Hawai'i." "I am not interested in packing the room where a crowded zoo is the goal. I'm not passing out fliers in the mall or on the streets of Waikiki or letting just anyone walk through the Red door, although everyone is welcome for a cover. It costs money to maintain an image."
The Asian-inspired decor, everything tinted red, creates the mood and reaffirms your existence: You're an adult. You have a full-time job. You wash your own laundry.
"The place still had its fixtures (from the restaurant), so I just added to it," explained Kauila. "I kept the Asian theme simple and visible, modern and open. If I see one more metallic mannequin or unicorn head or gargoyle as a club prop, I think I'm going to spit. It's not fresh, not modern and not my style."
No monkey bar, no lava lamps, no hypnotic strobe lighting set to trance music for kiddie ravers. Red is the new definition of sophistication.
"We weren't trying to open 'another club,' " Kauila said. "That whole club scene is so played out, so we wanted to steer far from that 'look.' What I wanted was a private party setting."
The lounge opened invitation-only on June 27, quietly nudging the unfolding Wednesday evening to action: Get out, do something, who cares that tomorrow's Thursday, celebrate now.
Fashionably trendy, the crowd mingled, not moved, through the hollowed-out space. Some grooved to the pulsating beats spinning off the turntables at the back of the lounge. Others, colorful drinks in hand, glided through the rooms, kissing cheeks and shaking hands.
Despite its opening-night success — and requests for another one, soon — Red will be a monthly endeavor for now, whetting the appetite of socialites bored with passe nightclubs and all-ages-welcome events.
"We are not a ready-to-go hotel restaurant or waterfront venue," Kauila said. "We're independent creators, touching a room with a little magic and friends and music and entertainment. We just want to have some fun."
The idea to open Red began with a simple request.
Todd Lawrence, the general manager of Brew Moon, asked Kauila if he would be interested in throwing a party with him. Just a party. Lawrence would take care of the business end; Kauila was responsible for the aesthetics.
"I had to think it out because ... I didn't want to make a mistake I might be sorry for," Kauila said. "After much thought and advice from my friends, I thought as long as I was doing it for fun, I would be fine."
He named the lounge after his late grandmother, whose nickname was "Lady Red." Her sparkplug personality perfectly reflected the feel Kauila wanted to achieve with Red.
"She was a deep-down party girl who loved to entertain her friends and attend as many parties as possible," Kauila recalled. "And as with all true divas, she was always fashionably late and made a spectacular entrance."
The goal: To strike the right balance between sophistication and fun.
"I learned early on that the real adhesive is the balance in the room," Kauila said about luring successful, accomplished people to mix and mingle. "The right mix of people bouncing energy off each other and not canceling it out, that's my goal."
