SAN DIEGO, Calif. — A hookah lounge that operated for years without proper permits and repeatedly disturbed residents of the Logan Heights neighborhood has been ordered to shut down permanently.
The Secret Yard hookah Lounge endangered public safety for years and operated in flagrant violation of the law, City Attorney Heather Ferbert said Monday.
The establishment on Imperial Avenue remained open into the early morning hours when other bars in San Diego were closed, and it had over 200 calls for service between October 2021 and 2024.
Ferbert said the business served alcohol without proper licenses and illegally hosted DJs and dancing.
In 2023, a bouncer and his family member were charged with attempted murder of a customer, and in 2022, customers of the Secret Yard were linked to a homicide.
“The clientele that were coming in and out of this establishment were buying and selling guns, drug use and it just kind of begins to creep and get worse and worse from there," said San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl.
The lounge has been boarded up for some time, and as part of a new civil enforcement action, its operators are barred from reopening with similar violations anywhere in the City of San Diego.
The venue's owners have agreed to pay $100,000 in penalties and $12,500 in investigative costs and take down all social media promoting the now-shuttered club. If the operators of the Secret Yard violate the terms of the settlement, they will be ordered to pay $1.2 million in civil penalties.
Chief Wahl said the police department had to devote a large number of resources to calls at the Secret Yard. He warned anyone thinking of operating an underground nightclub to think twice.
"If you’re running an operation like this where you are degrading the quality of life in a neighborhood, we're coming after you," he said.
