Comments (0) Best Local Jazz Club - 2010
Smoke
Yes, Smoke, a little south of Harlem at 106th Street and Broadway, can be kinda pricey ($30 per person for dinner and show). But the food, which has gotten rave reviews in some quarters, is a lot jazzier than cheeseburgers and pretty good. It's the music, though, that definitely merits the raves. Say you're looking to soak up some tunes for you and your honey on a mid-week evening. You're liable to find a tight trio at Smoke—and no cover charge. Same with Sunday's "jazz brunch," which on a recent weekend featured Natalie Joy Johnson (lately in Broadway's Legally Blonde) belting it out. The music is wide-ranging and delicious, and the setting is intimate but neither cramped nor dusty. There are also less expensive late-night jam sessions ($10) and cover-free jazz brunches on Saturday, if that's your day of rest. At Smoke, you can pretend you're a '50s movie star taking in the New York scene, and no one will sneer at you.
