“If you want to make half a fortune, you start with a full fortune and you open a restaurant.”

This wisdom, from Thomas Sorensen, owner of the Honolulu Design Center, which houses INspiration furniture and Stage Restaurant, is not meant to be overly pessimistic, but rather to note that missteps do happen.

That may have been the case with Cupola Theater, opened a decade ago as an adjunct of Stage, designed as a place for groups to host meetings or presentations, with a link to the restaurant kitchen.

Despite spending thousands on a state-of-the art audiovisual system and a retractable roof, “the room really never worked out financially,” Sorensen said.

Time to regroup.

The space is now a sparkly, elegant private dining room renamed Cupola Gallery, with art pieces from INspiration lining the walls.

The 3,000-square-foot space could accommodate 150 in a standing cocktail party, or 22 sitting at an extra-long dining table, with the rest of the room for entertainment, dancing or lounging on several well-padded couches.

Sorensen said it is the largest private dining room in the state.

Minimum food and beverage fee is $3,000 — which can be applied to a multicourse dinner with wine pairings, something more casual for larger groups or something in between.

Dusty Grable, general manager at Stage, said the new space is a chance for chef Ron DeGuzman and the rest of the Stage crew “to play in an environment that is really unique and special.”

The first formal event was May 11, a dinner for Sorensen’s invited guests to sample the menu that DeGuzman served earlier this year at the James Beard House in New York.

The first public event will be Tuesday, a five-course dinner featuring chardonnays, pinot noirs and zinfandels from Hartford Family Winery of Sonoma County, Calif. DeGuzman’s menu includes prosciutto and mango with goat cheese, duck confit with blueberry gastrique and a zinfandel-braised brisket.

See the menu at 808ne.ws/hartforddinner.