Waldorf and Rickshaw set sights on Fox Cinema for new live music venue

“We just got the lease on Fox Cinema on Broadway and Main Street,” said an excited David Duprey, owner of the Rickshaw. “We have the lease. It happened yesterday.”

In a telephone interview, Duprey said that with the agreement signed for five years, the next step is a liquor license and other permits that are needed to open a new space intended for live music.

“And cleaning the place out,” he added. “It’s a little skanky in there, to say the least. So we have to go in there and burn everything.”

Duprey said that he hopes to see people dancing in the new venue by the fall, but that a timeline for the project’s launch is entirely dependent on when the group can secure a new liquor license. He noted that it took him 15 months to get the Rickshaw serving drinks.

“So it is kind of up to the powers that be – the man,” Durpey said.

Danny Fazio, co-owner of Waldorf Productions, matched Duprey’s enthusiasm for the joint-venture. Though he cautioned that the team has yet to hold a creative meeting to begin deciding exactly what direction the club will take.

“We know that we would like to continue the type of programming that we did at the Waldorf,” he said in a separate interview. “But it is definitely a different type of space. So we’re not sure what’s going to happen there.”

The name of the venue will change, but not by much, Fazio continued. Fox Cinema will become Fox Cabaret.

The Rickshaw has proven itself a unique addition to Vancouver’s nightlife by hosting one-of-a-kind events such as an August 2010 show by L.A. punk supergroup OFF! that delivered a wild mix of tattoos, rum, and noise. Waldorf Productions gained the affection of the city’s music and arts scene through innovate and diverse events hosted at the Waldorf Hotel on East Hastings Street. The production company ceased operations there on January 20, 2013.

Fazio said that until the new space at Fox is ready for the public, Waldorf Productions is keeping busy.

The popular Food Cart Fest will happen again this summer. The team will be helping out with the programming for this year’s Khatsahlano! Music + Art Festival. 

“We are also continuing to look for a larger multimedia space,” Fazio added. “We would love to do a big project in a warehouse or something more like that that is more in line with the Waldorf.”

For a tease of what we hope Vancouver can expect from Fox Cabaret, read “Fearless lunacy characterized the Waldorf,” by the Straight’s Adrian Mack.