New Club Seeks to Capture Glow of Sunset Pub
The Sunset Pub’s blend of blues, rock and reggae in a cozy setting was apparently too good an idea to let die.
The pub, which closed in December after an eight-year run in Sunset Beach, will be reincarnated Friday with the opening of the Newport Roadhouse, a Costa Mesa nightspot that will feature nearly the same musical format, many of the same acts and two of the same key operatives as the old pub.
Gabriel Tellez, who managed the Sunset Pub, is now general manager of the Roadhouse, at 1700 Placentia Ave. Mark Coultas will handle bookings, as he did at the Sunset Pub. Both will work under owner Steve Schiro. Schiro had previously operated the 175-capacity restaurant and bar under the name Popeye’s.
The remodeled club will feature music five nights a week for the rest of this month, then expand to seven nights in March, Schiro said.
In addition to the Sunset Pub’s rootsy fare, the Newport Roadhouse will have local alternative-rock bands each Friday night. The rock soirees, dubbed “New Klub on the Block,” will be booked and promoted by Craig McGahey, whose previous once-a-week club was known as the Rat Trap.
While the Newport Roadhouse is twice as large as the 92-capacity pub, Tellez said it appears to be a suitable spiritual successor.
“It’s small enough that we can still keep that intimate feel to some extent,” he said. “It was important to me that we keep that closeness and fun-ness that went with the pub.”
The nightly cover will be $3, Tellez said.
Tellez tried to buy Popeye’s from Schiro in October after learning that the Sunset Pub was losing its lease. They could not come to terms, he said, but Schiro approached him in January about transplanting the pub to new quarters. Unlike the old pub, where bands set up on the floor, the Newport Roadhouse will have a stage 2 feet high.
Because of the stage and the expanded capacity, Tellez said, the Roadhouse may be able to attract touring acts in addition to the roster of Southern California bands that were featured at the pub. Pub veterans will fill out the schedule for the coming two weeks: the Blue Diamonds, Friday and Saturday; Kazi, Tuesday; Jawge & the Unknown Band, Wednesday; Wade Preston, Feb. 21 and 28; The Regular Guys, Feb. 23; Roughneck Posse, Feb. 26; Bruno & the Repeat Offenders, Feb. 27; and Debbie Davies, March 2.
The alternative NKOTB club (after the initials of New Kids on the Block) will debut Feb. 22 with Big Drill Car and Delicious Mind Garden. D.I. and Ragabash will play March 1. The cover will be $7, McGahey said.
McGahey’s old club, the Rat Trap, was established in 1989 at Sargenti’s in Costa Mesa. Then McGahey shut it down so he could concentrate on moving his Costa Mesa rock-fashion clothing store, London Exchange, to a new location.
With the business resettled, McGahey said, he again has time to promote rock shows, this time NKOTB at the Newport Roadhouse.
