Friday, September 3rd, 2010—Bar 236

Day 236—Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Arthur's Tavern
The old donation bell hasn’t rang in quite some time and happily tonight it rang twice.

First off, it looks like I’m going to be making some more friends from the land down under. Claire and Mick Campbell generously sent in twenty dollars and told me they were going to be in New York City in a couple of weeks at the end of September. So they’re going to be joining me on the crawl and I’m looking forward to meeting some new Australian mates! Thanks Claire and Mick, we’ll be seeing you two soon!

The second donation was from Nicole Salazar who sent in a generous ten dollar donation. She said it was for the “continuation of the 365 day bar crawl.” Thanks so much, Nicole, due to fine folks like you, I continue to crawl!

Okay, it’s not as late as last night, so we’ll venture a little further away from where I work. I’ve been to all kinds of bars so far, but tonight while looking for a place to go to I realized I hadn’t yet been to a jazz bar. And if you’re going to a jazz bar, why not go to the oldest one in town? Arthur’s Tavern in the West Village has been in the same location since 1937 and people call it, “The Home of the Bird,” because jazz great Charlie Parker used to regularly play gigs at the tavern. If it’s good enough for “The Bird,” it’s good enough for me, let’s fly on over there.

And here we are at the legendary Arthur's.

Wow, it's packed in here. Nice and dark and lit up with Christmas tree lights. A festive mood indeed.

Bartender Kiddra serves up a beer.

Peace, cheers and beers.

An unflashed view from where I sit at the bar.

Some of the bottled beers available and the Wicked Witch. Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

There's tables off to the side, and as you can see, the joint is packed.

Here's an enlarged clipping from the New York Times about Arthur's hanging on the wooden wall opposite the bar.

And another one from New York magazine hangs beside it.

A shot outside the tinsel covered window.

Rich was seated next to me at the bar.

And his friend John joined him later.

And now the band takes the stage, it's just about showtime, ladies and gentlemen!

And here's tonight's featured act, Sweet Georgia Brown. Here she's signing some CD's before the show starts. Georgia has performed on Broadway and has sang with Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Fathead Newman, KoKo Taylor and Stanley Turrentine.

And here we go, it's showtime.

People immediately get up and start dancing.

Georgia is putting on one hell of a show and getting the crowd moving.

A great performer, singer and a wonderful set at Arthur's Tavern.

And as I walked home, I stumbled upon this storefront...FIRE! Goodnight, everybody.

Review
Arthur’s Tavern is a New York landmark and has been on the block since 1937. The space is small and packs them in seven nights a week due to the live music and the fact that there’s never a cover charge for the entertainment. The front area houses a bar and tables off to the side and in the back, the bands play in the piano bar area with people dancing in the limited dance floor.

There’s a full bar here and it’s a two drink minimum during music sets. While it’s billed as a jazz nightclub, there’s all kinds of music featured here. Live jazz runs from 7pm to 10pm Tuesday through Saturday, there’s Dixieland jazz, Siunday and Monday catch the best rhythm and blues from 9pm to 3am and more R&B Tuesday through Saturday, 11pm to 3am.,

When you get lost between the moon and New York City, the best that you can do is to fall into Arthur’s Tavern, enjoy the music and have a drink or six.

Arthur's Tavern
57 Grove St. (Near Seventh Ave. South)
212-675-6879

And Now, For Fat Al...The Byrds!