A return to the scene of one of my earliest Night Stuff columns — in a new location — reminds me why I've always had a soft spot for the bars on my beat.

Long live the Irish Rose Saloon!

IRISH ROSE SALOON

Where: 478 'Ena Road, 947-3414

Hours: 10 a.m.-2 a.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 6 a.m.-2 a.m. Sunday (for NFL football and omelets!).

On the Web: www.irishrosesaloon.com

Got parking? Street only

The appeal: A great drinks-only neighborhood Irish pub thrives in a new location with much of its best stuff intact: zero pretension, regulars who are real people, cold draft pints of Emerald Isle-birthed beer, dancing, live music and The Piranha Brothers.

Why the move? After just under a decade in a smallish but comfortable and usually packed space on Lewers Street, Irish Rose co-owners Bill Comerford and Fred Remington pulled up stakes in 2005, displaced by Outrigger Hotels & Resorts' Waikiki Beach Walk project. The Irish Rose's new home since April is the entirely renovated former digs of Pink Cadillac nightclub.

The crowd: At 9 p.m. on a Friday, a solid crowd of locals — many of them regulars — and tourists ranging in age from late 20s to AARP-ready. After that, the Rose fills steadily with fans of the Piranhas (see below). Patronage is straight-up without airs — a mix of pau-hana revelers from all manner of day jobs (except maybe upscale retail fashion and hair design). A few patrons were occasionally a bit rowdy, but manageably so — mostly taking that buzz to the dance floor. The bulk of the crowd, though? Neighborhood-bar mellow.

What to wear: Consider the dude I saw in a ratty blue T-shirt, orange cords, slippers and a boar's tooth necklace high-fiving strangers, and a couple dressed for a casual evening taking up the last two stools around the bar. Then aim for something in between.

Interiors: Still working on the traditional Irish-pub look that the co-owners' Downtown pub O'Toole's has in spades. But a larger space than its former Lewers Street home gives the new Rose more room for a large, traditional Irish pub-style wood-paneled bar festooned with illuminated Harp, Guinness and Bass signs. A real stage and large dance floor anchor the saloon's commitment to live music and the needs of its dance-loving patrons.

365 nights of live music a year: That's the Irish Rose's boast. From 9 p.m. to closing every night. One of the most entertaining and longest-entrenched of the Rose's live acts is ...

The Piranha Brothers: In January 2003, I called 'em the hardest-working cover band in Waikiki. Little has changed, including their penchant for playing hours-long sets of rock classics and oddities with zero breaks.

You gotta give props to a cover band with the tenacity to follow the expected (The Band's "The Weight") with something completely unexpected (Rockpile's "Teacher Teacher"), jokingly bitch about its workplace's new off-the-beaten-path location on "the Wai'anae end of Waikiki" and still have even the staff dancing.

Piranha soundtrack: "Hoochie Coochie Man," Al Green's "Take Me to the River," Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care."

This week's live music: Piranha Brothers, tonight, Saturday, Wednesday-Thursday; Analog, Sunday-Tuesday.

CLOSING TIME

This week's Night Stuff column marks my last call as The Advertiser's resident after-hours chronicler.

How does one succinctly sum up 5 1/2 years of writing about nightlife in this town? The short answer: One doesn't. At least, I won't.

When Night Stuff was launched June 7, 2002, with a column on some now long-defunct salsa night at Café Sistina, I wondered how and if I'd be able to sustain the kind of weekly "restaurant review-like" column of post-sunset parties, bars and clubs in Honolulu my editors requested.

Would I be pithy? Would I be rich — with enough evening activities to write about and useful advice for readers debating their post-sunset wandering?

I'll leave that for you to decide, kids. Two things, however, always worked in my favor.

The first? The venue owners, promoters, turntablists and other behind-the-scenes folks who bravely laid their nightlife-loving hearts and life savings on the line week after week and year after year to give Honoluluans the solid after-hours scene we now enjoy. Some have gone and some remain. Some instinctively knew what they were doing. Others were clueless from the get-go.

I've admired many of you tremendously for doing what you do.

The second? Loyal Night Stuff column readers like you.

Many thanks for never hesitating to let me know when I was right, when I was an idiot, and when I needed to be kicked in the general direction of the bar with the best live cover bands or Bloody Marys, or the back-alley dive with the best drum-n-bass night or garlic 'ahi belly.

Without you, I'd have been left to my own devices — which might have meant a lot more columns about Irish pubs, cool urban lounges and bars for yuppies, and less about foam parties, S&M nights at The Dungeon or tales of Smith's Union barflies. So many thanks to all.

I won't reveal my next big career adventure here. (Anyone interested can contact me at derekp@pacificbasin.net to find out.) The short story? I won't be at The Advertiser, but I'll still be writing.

The Night Stuff will, of course, go on without me. And I'm very happy it will.

God knows, I'll still need as much free guidance to nightlife as I can get.

See you at the bar, kids.

—Derek

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.