Grace Potter took the stage in early August to delight her many fans and Tarrus Riley played to a sold-out house that many said was the best reggae concert since Peter Tosh played here more than two decades ago.

And the owners of Nectar’s, the new nightclub in the building that once housed the legendary Hot Tin Roof, said this week that they are ready to sign on for another season.

“We’ve really connected with the local community,” said Noel Donnellan, who with his partner Christopher Walsh, owns the Burlington, Vt., club by the same name. “And they seem to have, in response, come out and supported us as well. Coming in we felt that was the most important thing to do.”

Their philosophy and business model is borrowed from the original Nectar’s, the place where the band Phish got its start: Foster the local music scene and gain the support of the community.

And general manager Alex Budney, who fast-tracked a connection with the local music scene by dropping in on the Island several weeks before the club opened its doors in late June to familiarize himself with local businesses and musicians, took the game plan one step further by forming a band of his own.

Mr. Budney joined forces with Island guitarist Brad Tucker (of Ballywho fame), to form the Mooncussers, who became regular performers at Nectar’s throughout the season. “I came down here as a musician just as much as a person who came down here to work,” said Mr. Budney in an interview at the empty club on Wednesday this week. “On that angle, I just got people aware of what we’re doing here, [and] how the vibe is different.”

Despite their optimism, the outlook for the nightclub was a bit tenuous at first. Under the ownership of Barry Rosenthal and Mona Rosenthal, Outerland, as the club was formerly known, had only a three-year run before closing its doors amid mounting debt last fall.

The Nectar’s partners leased the building from the Rosenthals for a year.

“We did come on the scene late as far as booking [bands],” said Mr. Donnellan. They began to book musicians in mid-May, barely six weeks before opening the doors on the new Nectar’s. The state of the economy and a slow start to the summer season, which was plagued by rainy weather, didn’t help. “We had no idea what to expect,” he said.

But the veteran nightclub owners used their experience in the business to bolster confidence in the enterprise. They began by reaching out to local talent, and by carefully filling in holes in their program schedule. Local shows are more the norm in the club’s Burlington location, so attracting national talent was a bit of a venture into unfamiliar territory. “There is . . . an appeal for [national] bands to come,” said Mr. Donnellan. “This place alone has a lot of history to it, as the Hot Tin Roof. So people do want to play here, and it’s just a matter of routing them through their tours to see where they are at that point and when we can fill them in.”

Nectar’s finally opened its doors on June 26, and settled right into a diverse musical routine. “We brought in a lot of acts that appeal to all age groups,” said Mr. Donnellan. “We don’t open the doors just to reggae or to hip hop . . . We tend to bring in acts that will really appeal to everybody across the board.”

He added: “Hip hop was an experiment for us out here.”

That wasn’t the only difference. At $15 to $35, ticket prices for shows, even those with prominent national headliners, were a fraction of what they had been in previous years, making a weekend concert that much more appealing to Islanders put off by the inflated costs of so many summer events. “We weren’t sure but I think 80 per cent of the people that came through that door were locals,” said Mr. Donnellan. “And they knew the music. It wasn’t a curiosity factor. They came because they knew what they were going to get and it was well priced,” he added.

“Our ticket prices are . . . pretty much a direct reflection of what the show cost,” said Mr. Budney. “We’re not looking to make money on the door, we’re looking to cover the expenses of getting the acts in here.” Instead, their profits come from bar sales. “Our mentality is, if you get the people in here, people are going to drink and that’s where we make our money,” Mr. Budney said.

Though they managed to cover expenses, both owners admitted that the logistics of getting musicians onto the Island were challenging. “Ferries and hotels, that’s the most difficult thing,” said Mr. Budney. “Coordinating ferries and stuff is really difficult for vehicles let alone a tour bus in the middle of the summer. And then housing depends on the size of the entourage.” Popular musicians are the most problematic. “The bigger the act, the bigger the entourage,” he said.

“As we work more and more with the taxis and the Steamship Authority and the local hotels, it became a little easier,” said Mr. Donnellan. “They understood our challenges and they were really helpful in working with us.”

And when it comes to profits, Mr. Donnellan said appearances can be deceiving. The more popular entertainers drew sizeable crowds, but after factoring in bills and payments to employees and artists, the nightclub basically broke even its first season. “That to us was what we expected,” said Mr. Donnellan. “At this stage it hasn’t been profitable, but we’ve seen that it can be.”

The club hasn’t yet closed its doors on the first season, with acts tentatively scheduled through late November. But the owners say they are negotiating with the owners of the building and definitely hope to return next year.

“We’ve seen that with both the support and with the proper planning, it certainly can be [profitable],” said Mr. Donnellan. “We really believe the potential is here. It’s a good fit for a lot of reasons, not just the profitability.”