Pipeline Café Shuttered

Honolulu’s Pipeline Café closed for good Jan. 31 because of code violation repairs and a down economy, after more than 10 years of hosting concerts and other events.

Club owner Greg Azus, who took over the facility in 2008, told the Honolulu Star Advertiser Jan. 20 that circumstances left him with no other choice.

Azus said city fire inspectors discovered in December that sprinklers installed during a 2003 expansion, which reportedly was done without a building permit, don’t have an adequate water supply. Officials cut the venue’s legal capacity from 591 to 299 until that problem was fixed.

“The time it would take to get that work done was estimated at six weeks,” he told the Star Advertiser. “We could have stayed open; we just would have still had the minimum occupancy. But to pay the rent and get that [work] done at the same time would have been [financially] impossible.”

A public auction of Pipeline Café’s fixtures, furniture, equipment and other items is scheduled for Feb. 5, according to Pipeline’s website.