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Jamie Zawinski, owner of long-running SoMa club DNA Lounge and its next-door pizza oasis, DNA Pizza, has "accidentally" signed the lease on another nightclub. The new project will take over the illustrious former location of Qi Ultra Lounge at 5th and Folsom (previously occupied by a colorful cast of SoMa bars over the years, including Cherry Bar, Annie's Social Club, and Covered Wagon Saloon), directly below three stories of an SRO, the CW Hotel.
According to Zawinski's blog, the new nightclub will be called Codeword (in honor of the CW Hotel upstairs), and share space with a second location of the club's all-night pizza outpost, DNA Pizza (the menus will be identical). The space will be divided into two separate businesses with individual entrances, but connected internally, á la the original DNA. The club will primarily host dance parties, with the possibility of live music down the road.
Zawinski says he'll get the keys to the new spot on June 1, but "it would be foolish to predict an opening date," given the current absence of a kitchen. In what was once (and mostly still is) a gritty neighborhood, the new pizza place and dance club is located directly across from an enormous, shiny new apartment building where one-bedrooms are going for $3,718/month, with another development in the works directly next door. Whether or not the new neighbors want to live across from a late-night dance club remains to be seen.
Stay tuned for more information on Codeword's progress. In the meantime, Zawinski has put a call out for help designing a new logo for the nightclub—there's no mention of compensation, but if there's a remote possibility of being paid in pizza, he should have plenty of offers.
