Lucky Star Closes
Hello Dancers,
Sadly, Lucky Star Restaurant and ballroom in San Diego closed yesterday. Edith and I spent many many enjoyable hours there dancing, eating, socializing, listening to the music, and looking at all the nice looking people and decorations. Pictures and more about Lucky Star are below.
So, for now, mid-week ballroom dancing catering to San Diego's Fil-Am dancers seems to be only Thursday nights at Point Point. Please join DJ Mel, DJ Leo and me as we host dance parties at Pt Pt this Thursday (Feb 7, 6-10PM), the special Valentines Day nighttime dance party (6-10PM Feb 14th), and every Thursday night.
Now, back to Lucky Star, 3893 54th Street (54th & University):
FILIPINO NIGHTS:
DJ Eric DeLeon began "Filipino Night" on Wednesday nights in early 2010, and he kept it going until September 2011. DJ Jun Ancho managed to restart it in June 2012, and there have been many big dance nights including last Wednesday January 30, 2013, which may have been the grand finale, when about 60 dancers enjoyed a birthday celebration for Pan. So, for nearly three years San Diego's Fil-Am dancers have enjoyed cha cha, night club two step, hustle/swing, salsa, tango, merengue, etc., and of course, line dancing at Lucky Star. And, we enjoyed the food, including the lobster dinner specials.
This morning I got the sad news of yesterday's closing from DJ Jun, and then I talked to Roger, the son of the owner who I knew as "Mr. Phong". Roger, Mr. Phong, his wife, and staff like Randy and Lim were there every Wednesday night.
HISTORY:
Mr. Phong opened Lucky Star in July 1999 to be the best ballroom-restaurant experience in San Diego, and it certainly was (as you can see in some of the YouTube videos, like links I paste below). Over the years he made many improvements, most notably a second large adjacent 1100 square-foot ballroom. Lots of fancy lighting and sound systems. This past August we were happy to see all 700 chairs were replaced with nice new silver-colored ones. The 25-piece Moonlight Serenade Orchestra played for dancers every Thursday (see YouTube video).
Why did Lucky Star close? Business costs were much more than income. Roger mentioned a few high costs: Various license costs and utility bills went up over 10-fold since Lucky Star opened. And that's not even mentioning labor, lease costs and taxes. On the other hand, with the downturn in the economy, customers became fewer.
FUTURE:
What does the future hold for the building and the dance floors? Roger doesn't know. He will try to find some other company to take over the lease, but nothing is firmed up yet.
PHOTOS, VIDEOS and LINKS:
(If the photos below do not appear in this email, click on the warning at the top that says something like "click here to view images that are blocked to protect your identity". Don't worry, I already know who you are.)
I'm still a few months behind on posting all my recent photos, but from the many dozen (e.g., in Group's photo albums) here are four of my favorites from the past three years:
Sept 22, 2010, Jun and Rosie made a cute dance couple.
December 1, 2010, line dancers included Nina, Angie and Edith.
July 11, 2012, here are folks dancing a night club two-step in the smaller ballroom next to the main ballroom. We liked the smaller more cozy atmosphere of this ballroom, but it was far from the kitchen, so management preferred that we be in the main ballroom.
VIDEOS:
I found no YouTube videos of Filipino nights, but here are some from other nights which all had about twice as many people as we had on Filipino nights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM2Osi-FJLM
This is probably the best video of Lucky Star, walking us in from the entrance all the way onto the dance floor. It's a professional video for the Moonlight Serenade Orchestra which played Thursday nights at Lucky Star. You see maybe twice as many people as were there for Wednesday Filipino nights, and they are older people. I spotted two or three people in this video who I also knew from Filipino nights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKYTimz7O7M
Here's another video with the Moonlight Serenade Orchestra apparently in 2010. Very similar appearance to Wednesday Filipino nights except we had a DJ and the people were different.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dTEl-pPNls
Lighting was dark during this dance on a Friday night (May 7, 2010). It was a young lively crowd that night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3NpcWaU1Wg
Here's somebody's party back in 2009. We often got to enjoy the decorations left over by one of these parties.
Click here for more Upcoming Dance Events.
Hoping to see you on a dance floor,
Best wishes,
Bert (and Edith)
619-224-3095
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments on my posts are welcome. But, I review them first, after you submit the comments.