Commissioners like the sound of a dueling-piano bar at Costa Mesa’s Triangle

It looks like a proposed dueling-piano club can raise the curtain in The Triangle after the Costa Mesa Planning Commission voted unanimously Monday to sign off on the concept.

The commission’s decision is final unless appealed to the City Council.

The new venue, Keys on Main, will be in a vacant 8,554-square-foot, ground-level space in the downtown commercial complex at the corner of Harbor and Newport boulevards.

Keys on Main President George Hasenohrl told the commission that he has traveled regularly to Newport Beach since he was a kid and can recall visiting The Triangle during those trips.

The area, he said, is “kind of like a second home.”

“I really appreciate that everybody’s excited about the business,” he said. “We’re excited too.”

Dueling-piano clubs feature two entertainers playing pianos together on a stage. Shows are heavy on audience participation and can include a wide variety of musical genres: country, rock ’n’ roll, jazz, even hip-hop.

Hasenohrl said the goal is to open the Costa Mesa club in late October or early November. It will be the fourth Keys on Main. Others are in Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.

Costa Mesa’s location will be open from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Alcohol and limited food service will be offered.

City staff had recommended setting the closing time at 1 a.m. to reduce potential conflicts with The Triangle’s Time Nightclub, which is open until 2 a.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.

Commissioners balked at that, though, saying they didn’t think it would be fair to handcuff the piano bar with an earlier closing time.

“If people want a piano bar, I’d think that you’d want to give it every opportunity to succeed so that we don’t have another vacant space at The Triangle,” said commission Chairman Stephan Andranian.

Residents and commissioners did raise concerns about how the new venue might affect traffic and parking in and around The Triangle, which already can be problematic.

Though Commissioner Isabell Kerins said, “I can’t wait to have it here,” she added, “I wish this was separated from the building itself because the building has some major, major, major issues with regard to parking and circulation.”

Some speakers objected to The Triangle’s recent permitted practice of coning off a northbound lane on Harbor to accommodate passenger pickup and drop-off.

“They need to have their drop-off and pickup point on their property, not on a public street,” said resident Beth Refakes.

City staff recommended that the commission eliminate the practice as a condition of approving Keys on Main. Commissioners, however, decided to allow it to continue for up to six months after the piano bar opens.

During that time, representatives of Keys on Main and The Triangle’s property owner, Irvine-based Greenlaw Partners, will work with staff and the Costa Mesa Police Department on an alternative that will go to the commission for review.

The commission also turned aside a staff recommendation to ask Greenlaw Partners to consider lowering valet parking prices at The Triangle.

Currently, it costs $10 for onsite valet parking before 9 p.m. and $20 after that.

Andranian said he objects to the idea of the city telling a private entity “what they can or cannot charge for a service.”

Commissioner Carla Navarro Woods, though, expressed some reservations about the rates, saying the service “should be pretty inexpensive and affordable” to encourage wider use.

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