I was invited on Monday to make a visit to Dimitriou's Jazz Alley in downtown Seattle. This was spurred by the fact that the show was complimentary, instead of the normal (so I was told) $25+ entry fee. So on a drizzly night I literally ran out of work, shot [safely and carefully] home, and made my way into the heart of Seattle. There, I joined friends Hilary, Ruth, and new friend Tina to hopefully enjoy my first jazz club experience.
Unknown to me, it was Brazilian night and composed of an opening by pianist Jovino Santos, followed by the group (lady?) Montserrat. While not what I expected (I thought saxophones were a requirement of jazz), the show was pretty good minus the fact that Montserrat sung entirely in Spanish. But she worked the crowd extremely well with her cute charm and slightly imperfect English. Luckily good music is universal and strong instrumentals along with Montserrat's strong voice made for some good listening. My friends kept egging me on to shimmy up to her on stage and see if she would dance with me (I'm not entirely sure that she wouldn't), but I didn't want my first jazz club experience to end with me being escorted out.
So that part of the club was nice and good, but I feel like I need to rag on the food. Upon cracking opening the menu, it became clear that I would not be having dinner here; entrées in the $30 range? Basic Caesar salad for $12.50? No thanks. But as I was anticipating eating dinner here, I was forced to look for something to get. Heck, even a basket of bread was $5! I finally decided on an appetizer of $9.50 meatballs, thinking it was probably the best thing from the appetizer list to tide me over 'til afterwards. Technically, they were called "soutzoukakia", a lamb and beef Greek meatball combination.
Imagine my disappointment when a plate was plopped down in front of me with four regular size meatballs sitting there. Fortunate for me my compatriots had been smart enough to eat beforehand, so they did not take any of my meatballs (despite my polite attempts of offering fourths of one, all the while secretly hoping none would accept). Now, they were good meatballs, but that's kind of tempered when one considers that each one cost over two dollars. Maybe if they were the size of softballs...
In addition, we all partook in a pretty good (and somewhat reasonably priced) chocolate cake with fruits and chocolate ice cream before we left. Three of us ended up at Borolo Ristorante's Happy Hour afterwards, where our combined filling meal cost $27 -- equivalent of one Jazz Alley entrée. So I guess the lesson here is to always know what you're getting into before you get there. Great place to go on a [fancy] date (I'd imagine), but don't come here for dinner as casual fun. Or maybe you aren't cheap like me and you don't even know why I'm ragging on this. Either way, it was a good musical experience at a good venue and something I would definitely do again.
Oh and sorry, no pictures of the club, the performers, or my meatballs.
Unknown to me, it was Brazilian night and composed of an opening by pianist Jovino Santos, followed by the group (lady?) Montserrat. While not what I expected (I thought saxophones were a requirement of jazz), the show was pretty good minus the fact that Montserrat sung entirely in Spanish. But she worked the crowd extremely well with her cute charm and slightly imperfect English. Luckily good music is universal and strong instrumentals along with Montserrat's strong voice made for some good listening. My friends kept egging me on to shimmy up to her on stage and see if she would dance with me (I'm not entirely sure that she wouldn't), but I didn't want my first jazz club experience to end with me being escorted out.
So that part of the club was nice and good, but I feel like I need to rag on the food. Upon cracking opening the menu, it became clear that I would not be having dinner here; entrées in the $30 range? Basic Caesar salad for $12.50? No thanks. But as I was anticipating eating dinner here, I was forced to look for something to get. Heck, even a basket of bread was $5! I finally decided on an appetizer of $9.50 meatballs, thinking it was probably the best thing from the appetizer list to tide me over 'til afterwards. Technically, they were called "soutzoukakia", a lamb and beef Greek meatball combination.
Imagine my disappointment when a plate was plopped down in front of me with four regular size meatballs sitting there. Fortunate for me my compatriots had been smart enough to eat beforehand, so they did not take any of my meatballs (despite my polite attempts of offering fourths of one, all the while secretly hoping none would accept). Now, they were good meatballs, but that's kind of tempered when one considers that each one cost over two dollars. Maybe if they were the size of softballs...
In addition, we all partook in a pretty good (and somewhat reasonably priced) chocolate cake with fruits and chocolate ice cream before we left. Three of us ended up at Borolo Ristorante's Happy Hour afterwards, where our combined filling meal cost $27 -- equivalent of one Jazz Alley entrée. So I guess the lesson here is to always know what you're getting into before you get there. Great place to go on a [fancy] date (I'd imagine), but don't come here for dinner as casual fun. Or maybe you aren't cheap like me and you don't even know why I'm ragging on this. Either way, it was a good musical experience at a good venue and something I would definitely do again.
Oh and sorry, no pictures of the club, the performers, or my meatballs.
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