Smoke Jazz and Supper Club
Summary
We came here on a date night to do the dinner and jazz thing. We purchased our tickets online, then head over. With the tickets, there’s a required minimum of 1 drink per person if you’re not having dinner, or if you are having dinner, there is a required 1 entree per person sans appetizer.
On this night, it was the Harold Mabern Trio.
The cocktails were ok. It’s been a while, so I don’t quite remember exactly what these were. The red was definitely a spritz of some sort.
The buttermilk fried chicken was a crispy fried organic Bell & Evans chicken, with rosemary gravy, bacon braised collard greens, and hush puppies. The chicken was actually pretty good. It was tender, and the crust was crispy and had a lot of flavor. The crust was closer to KFC original than extra crispy for what it’s worth.
The breaded crispy pork chop was a pan-seared schnitzel-style center cut pork chop, with baby arugula, pomegranate, shaved apples, lemon, and jalapeño mac ’n’ cheese. The pork chop was pretty decent. I didn’t care much for the other condiments that came with it. The breading around the pork chops was pretty good in that it was just a thin breading around the outside. It wasn’t as crispy as you think it is, but good enough.
All in all the food here was pretty decent.
The music set was for about an hour, so it’s encouraged to come maybe 20 minutes before showtime to have a meal before it actually starts. I found it much more enjoyable to eat with the lights on before the music starts than during. I thought the set list was fairly shorts, but fun in a way.
Price wise, it can be perceived as expensive as you’re paying for the tickets AND the meal. But it was something that we wanted to try just to experience.
Final Verdict
Pretty good jazz and decent food. It’s far from core Manhattan, but worth it if you’re around the area and want to try something in the veins of Jazz and dinner.
Yelp Jabs
I arrive 30 minutes before my reservation. I couldn’t wait inside. Had to wait outside until the previous show was over. The trip uptown, cabs, etc, was not worth. It’s overpriced. The music wasn’t that great, I was bored. It’s ok.
Surely, this person has listened to jazz before and knew what to expect, right?
We got the shrimp cocktail which came with 4 shrimps (hehe) & this calamari could be like a $5 calamari from the cheapest restaurant. Ugh. Terrible.
Often, I always wonder about dining IQ. Do you go to a pizza restaurant and order the seafood? How about a steak restaurant and order the salad? Calamari and cocktail shrimp are probably the last thing I would think of ordering from a place like this. Stick to the safe traditionals.