Getting a Jump on the Week

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  The crowd is young and the hours are early at Sun Daze, a Sunday afternoon promotion that brought underground vibes to the quaint Old World Village when it opened last week.

Kenji Kallin and a few friends are putting on the ‘90s-style tea dance (possibly the first at which patrons are frisked before entering), an 18-and-over gig that runs from 4 to 9 p.m. Kallin’s thinking is that the time slot allows party people to spend the bulk of the day at the beach or the mall yet doesn’t mean lost sleep if work or school awaits the next morning.

Kallin ran Does Your Mama Know, an after-hours club in Hollywood from 1992-95, , and on Sunday he filled two small rooms flanking Old World’s German Restaurant with similar house sounds and rare groove. Groove Radio (103.1 FM) deejay Orlando maintained the pumping beat with the music of Karal, Phantom and Daft Punk. L.A. deejays Fabian, Andrew D., Dave Panek and AFGwill be spinning discs in coming weeks.

The operation’s larger room, roughly three times an average kitchen, is crowned by a low-hanging, austere black chandelier. Shiny tarps blacken its walls. In the smaller, round Mountain Room, a big alpine cowbell hangs from the ceiling, although nothing but dancing white go-go boots are easily visible in the thumping darkness.

A patio linking the two rooms is perfect for cooling off, and it drew a steady stream of smoking, flirting 18- to 23-year-olds into the light. It’s a kick to stroll over cobblestones past the village’s homey church to encounter a body-pierced crew in baggies and hot pants.

Older German Restaurant patrons spooning goulash didn’t seem disturbed by the music next door, but that’s partly because management insisted that it wasn’t cranked too loud. That didn’t put much of a damper on the decibel level, but Kallin’s hoping to get around the restriction. If Sun Daze succeeds wildly, he wants to have the restaurant closed on Sunday afternoons. He also hopes to expand into a third, even larger dance hall, at Old World.

Plans call for food to be served on the patio. In the meantime, several Old World eateries--including a bakery that serves sandwiches--stay open late. A bar and small lounge adjacent to the club’s larger room offers draft beer for $1, well drinks for $2 and such German brews as Bitburger and Dinkel Acker for $3 and Weihenstephan for $5.

BE THERE

Sun Daze, 7561 Center Ave., Huntington Beach. 4-9 p.m. Sunday. Cover: $5; free with flier before 5 p.m. (714) 895-8020.