Jacks Sugar Shack Celebrates the Sweet Taste of Success

Jacks Sugar Shack is just a few weeks shy of celebrating its one-year anniversary at its Hollywood location, and there’s much to celebrate. First off, the club has bucked the odds by surviving at the cursed corner of Hollywood and Vine, where businesses seem to come and go at time-lapse speed.

Second, the club has overcome the city’s stingy permit process, getting the nod on a dance permit and a billiards permit, both of which Jacks hopes will be in effect by the April 22 anniversary. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer club.

Not only does the comfortable, three-room “Gilligan’s-Island”-meets-tiki-tacky nightspot continue to offer excellent local and national blues, rock, alternative and country, but it’s also staffed by the kind of people rarely seen operating Hollywood nightclubs: nice, unaffected types.

This may not seem terribly relevant to those who don’t get out much, but it’s a breath of fresh air to those who do. The fact that this attitude (or lack thereof) trickles down to the patrons makes Jacks special on the map of Tinseltown clubs.

It’s not easy to find a scene like last weekend’s, when Little Charlie & the Nightcats played soulful blues to an audience of twentysomething hipsters, thirtysomething suits, moms, pops and seasoned bluesmen.

If you fast-forward to, say, a typical Tuesday night, you’ll find an equally interesting array of music and customers at Ronnie Mack’s weekly “Barndance,” which consistently offers the hippest alternative country and roots music.

Tonight’s tribute to Neil Young is titled “Long May You Run”--a sentiment we’d like to apply to the club itself.

* Jacks Sugar Shack, 1707 N. Vine St., Hollywood. 21 and older, cover varies. (213) 466-7005.

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Club Buzz: The Century Club is hosting a weekly “Star Search” of sorts, with its new “Avenue to the Stars” promotion on Thursdays. For those who enjoy talent shows, “Avenue” promises performances by up-and-coming dancers and singers. The promoters, who originally produced the show at Tatou, claim to have aided the careers of R&B; acts All-4-One and Brandy when it was held at the now-closed Beverly Hills club. . . . A more inspiring way to spend a Thursday night might be “Azucar,” a week-old salsa/merengue dance experience at Club 8240. Tonight, Azucar’s promoters have invited Costazul, a Puerto Rican-born, New York City-bred nine-piece band.

* “Avenue to the Stars,” (310) 553-6000. “Azucar,” (213) 623-7783.