Sticky. Sweaty. Humid like a Third World sweatshop.

And that was just the amorous, young backward-baseball-capped boy and multipierced girl locked in a game of tonsil hockey in a corner of the nondescript courtyard fronting Scruples. The heat off Kuhio Avenue post midnight was only slightly less temperate.

So I was pretty happy — and only slightly insulted — when a Scruples server took one look at my air-conditioning-appreciating visage, smiled, and said, "You look like you need a beer."

With the disintegration of Wave Waikiki earlier this summer, Scruples, at age 23, is now one of the oldest nightclubs makai of the Ala Wai Canal still in its original location.

A self-proclaimed "beach club" for much of that time, Scruples underwent an interior renovation in March that has cleaned and subtly modernized it without abandoning its patron-beloved unpretentious vibe. Scruples now bills itself as "a casual Waikiki nightclub." And that it is.

A dance floor that rarely emptied for the couple of hours I stopped by was proof enough that the club's faithful come to move and little else. And I seriously dug Scruples' retro-cool, "Saturday Night Fever"-ish multicolor illuminated dance floor.

The crowd grew as the a.m. hours slowly crept toward sunrise. Patron Emilene Martinez said Scruples peaks past 2 a.m.

"There are clubs around here that are open 'til 4 (a.m.)," said Martinez, referring to Zanzabar, and Fashion 45 across Kuhio Avenue, and Tsunami's a block away. "But Scruples has the best crowd and best music. ... new stuff and old."

The music choices were at least refreshingly oddball in their mainstream Top 40 appeal. There was even a Latin set.

Photos of longtime owner Fred Piluso with visiting A-, B- and C-list celebs (look, there's Jamie Lee Curtis! Jean-Claude Van Damme! Mario Lopez?) decorated a couple of walls. A plaque above a raised velvet-roped VIP booth proclaimed the space was waiting Godot-like for "Magnum P.I." buds Tom Selleck and Larry Manetti to show up again for open aloha-shirt carousing.

I'd be surprised if the "Lost" cast got that kind of devotion after 18 years off the air.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.