Cupola Events Theatre

I have always wondered about the theatre that was located in the Honolulu Design Center. Recently the crew and I got to perform for a charity event fashion show and I must say that the venue is quite impressive. The whole theatre area has a nice touch and vibe to it. I believe the staff of the theatre and/​or the Center took care of the seating, table, and food arrangements for the event which was nicely presented. The whole theatre area is very spacious and almost ballroom like if you look at it in another way. Hopefully I get to check out more events over here in the future. The whole theatre is a part of the Honolulu Design Center which is located on the second floor. After taking the escalators, you just take a left into the restaurant and bar area and there you are. I think it is a nice venue to organize and hold just about any event. The presentation of the fashion was neat. They had the ramp runway and everything.

This is one of the best places to have small company party or a mixer. Cupola Theatre is located on the second floor of the Honolulu Design Center, next to Stage Restaurant and Amuse Wine Bar. I love the decorations and the atmosphere in the theater. There’s a huge circular couch with some tables in the middle that front a large theater screen and the walls are covered with some pretty legit artwork, mostly pictures and a few paintings. The artwork is for sale. Don’t ask me about the price, I only checked the price of one of the paintings and it hurt my eyes!
Not only is this theater beautiful, but it would be an awesome venue to have an event at because of the food too! They serve some really awesome finger foods, wait, why did I just say «finger foods?» Let’s be real, I was born and raised in Hawaii… They serve some really awesome pupu’s! They have the infamous grilled cheese sandwiches from Amuse and some bruschetta, sliders, mini manapua, and so much more. Not to mention, customer service is great and parking is free so you can’t really go wrong at Cupola Theatre!

Great place for a work party! This place is a full-​on theater with awesome stage lighting and a giant screen. The party I was at numbered about 100 people, and it was a perfect space, not too crowded, not too big. The food was AMAZING (we did a buffet line, which I am not usually a fan of, but I was impressed). The staff were super accommodating and the space is beautiful. Even though they charge $ 15 just for the iPod plug-​in /​adapter, I would definitely come back here to book a large party.

The Cupola Events Theatre is a very nice facility for any small to medium function. The only drawback is that the music and noise from the adjoining bar can make it difficult to hear people speaking in the Theatre. The Theatre is conveniently located and parking is very convenient.

Just hosted Unilocal Town Hall for a group of 125+ business owners and we had a blast at the Cupola! It was essential that the venue have free parking, wasn’t located in Waikiki, could host both food and drinks, and have a full AV set-​up. You’d think this wouldn’t be difficult to find but man, it was tough! I had called to get quotes at several other venues but they all had really high food and bar minimums. We thought about doing the event at a venue that wasn’t quite as posh, but I felt that if we were going to do it, we should do it right!
I worked with Irwin and Trina on the event and they were really great at getting back to me in a timely manner about the menu, AV, etc. Our budget didn’t allow for us to host both food and drink so in the end we decided to do hosted pupus and no-​host drinks.
On the day of the event the set-​up was perfect with 200 seats set-​up stadium style. Everything on our list was in place and I didn’t have to ask for anything. Even though we didn’t have a huge budget everyone really enjoyed all the food! Our pupus consisted of noodles, spring rolls, grilled cheese, and a few more items. If you have a larger budget the kitchen at Stage prepares everything so you know you’ll have wonderful food for your guests.
Everyone loved the event and the professional and modern feel of the venue made a huge impact. I thought it was a really successful event that hopefully helped to create a more community feeling among business owners and Unilocalers.

The theatre is located right next to Stage! Its on the second floor of the Honolulu Design Center.
Basically, the place is an empty shell. Its has a «lofty warehouse» feel to it. Whatever event you need to have done, can be done in here. I attended a wedding reception here and the perfect size for 80 or so people.
What amazed me the most was 1) the food (I didn’t think that food was going to turn out great but it did!) and 2) the staff!
The main entrees served were Salmon, Chicken, and Beef.
The Salmon had a sauce (Miso I think), and it was good. The fish was NOT overcooked or dry which is how I experience a lot of salmon when its a buffet.
The Chicken was Teriyaki… also very sweet and not overcooked.
The beef… not sure if it was a brisket or even prime rib… but nice and tender!
Desserts were good too, the bread pudding was my favorite of all the choices. There were also fruit selection, a cheesecake brownie, wafers, and a mousse/​pudding that came like a mini pie.
Overall…food was awesome. The staff was also very attentive, friendly, and helpful. Their guest interaction was really good. Ive been to many functions where the servers were slow moving and dull.
The overall experience was really good. Definitely a place to consider if planning any type of event.

I went to the TEDxHonolulu event here and I’d like to say it’s a very nice place for sophisticated events. It could be because of where I was sitting but sound was hard to hear.
Unilocal 365 Challenge #131/​365

My hubby and I held our reception here and had a wonderful experience! It made reception plans sooo much easier because we just picked out the menu, the seating/​table chart, and the amenities we wanted (valet parking, stage for band, bartender, projector/​slide show, etc.) and the staff set up everything for us.
We wanted something really laid back for our reception– and they were really flexible and could cater to the needs to the food we wanted and the bar set-​up we needed. We even requested round tables for kids and bistro tables for adults and they accommodated everything. All we had to do was decorate!
The food was great– but the most popular item seemed to be their cupcakes (strawberry shortcake). We also ordered blueberry cheesecake and red velvet. which were also delicious.
Throughout the event, the staff was friendly, detail– oriented, and made sure our guests were well taken care of. We love Belmar and the event coordinator Trina, and the whole staff.
We’ve been here in the past for private concerts, networking events, and now our own event– and we’ve never been disappointed! We highly recommend this venue for any special event!

We went to check out the Thursday Martini Night’s at the Cupola Theater. The whole theme is 4 $ martinis and 5 $ pupus. We just went on 9÷2÷10 and our luck because they were showing the USC vs UH game on the big projection screen on the wall. There were about 7 huge round tables along with two sets of couch areas. They had tons of waitresses and because it wasn’t super packed service was pretty good.
The 5 $ pupus were all of the standard happy hour specials at «Stage» and I must say the vegetables won tons came out nice and crispy. The cheese pizza turned out to be a decent thin crust pizza about 8inchs wide.
There was a wide selection of house martinis on sale for 4 $. But I must say these martinis are a bit small. From what I saw about half the size of a average martini. After someone in my party said the drinks are a bit small to a waitress she replied «it’s 4 $ what do you expect» which I considered a bit rude. Do yourself a favor and get one of the standard 5−7pm happy hour drink specials for 5 $. They are double the size of the 4 $ martinis.
All in all its cool to try different martinis although there wasn’t much to do or look at once you get into the theater. Free parking in the lot and they have a doorman at the entrance of the theater checking ID’s.

Once a month they host Netplay. Its great! They put out some classic games: trouble, operation, scrabble, jenga, monopoly and even a Wii console. Why is it so great? Because you can just walk a few feet to get wine, a few steps the other way for food, or just snag a server.

Obviously, since this place is a space to rent for your [fill in the blank] event, the rating will change based on what you need. It’s not a bad place, but the location is quite strange and a little inconvenient. It’s in the Honolulu Design Center nestled between Amuse (wine bar) and Stage (restaurant), and all three are swallowed up by Inspiration (overrated, overpriced furniture store). I don’t like the fact that you have to navigate through other establishments to get to it. It can potentially be a nice place to have an event if you design it well and mesh with the surrounding stores… which didn’t happen tonight.
If you happen to be at the Amuse bar it’s a little disconcerting to have hip hop music blaring from Cupola while you’re kicking back and relaxing with a glass of wine (beer maybe, but not wine) and having all these mokes in their MMA shirts rumble through to get to their party set up there.