Cool new jazz club offers a little bit of everything

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jul 30, 2004 by JEN MULSON THE GAZETTE

Check out the chops on those cats, Daddy-O. It's just like we're hangin' in The Apple.

You better get hep to the scene and the lingo, gang, before you head out to Cedars Jazz Club, a brand spanking new bar.

It opened just over a month ago off Sinton Road near Interstate 25 and Fillmore Street, and is connected to an extended-stay apartment complex named Fillmore Crossing, formerly the Ramada Inn. The martini bar/cigar lounge/art gallery/tapas restaurant is the baby of local chef Victor Matthews, owner of Black Bear Restaurant in Green Mountain Falls.

It was definitely an older crowd the Saturday night we visited. Think black berets on balding, older men and funky, cat-eyed glasses on their wives. Envision men with bleached-blond, feathered hair ala Siegfried and Roy lounging at the bar.

We fell into the plush, black leather chairs and sofas scattered near the bar and found ourselves bathed in red light. It all felt vaguely "Blue Velvet," the bizarre David Lynch film.

The crowd skewed older, but young people dominated the staff, from the door guy to our server who almost dunked a few fingers in our lemondrop martinis as she awkwardly set them down. The rims lacked the requisite sugar coating we've grown accustomed to over the years, and we were blue.

Fortunately, we were placated by the four-piece jazz quartet Sidework, fronted by vocalist Jana Lee, playing away on the edge of a good-sized dance floor. And our inner demons were soothed by the dark coffee tables feng shui-ed out with glass trays of large candles surrounded by smooth rocks.

The nonsmoking section with hordes of tabletops loomed on the other side of the dance floor, and a handful of paintings were propped up on easels.

Yes, it's one-stop shopping, people. Have yourself a cold one, a quick whirl around the dance floor and on the way out, buy yourself a piece of art from the OpticalReverb Gallery, where a new artist is featured biweekly.

Also check out their cigars and a tapas menu filled with such delectable-sounding mini meals as Black Whiskey cheddar cheese, shrimp cocktails with capers and dill remoulade, and octopus salad.

Toward the end of the quartet's set, two grinning older couples took to the dance floor. They twisted away with flying elbows, gleefully oblivious to their outdated moves, and prompted us to cross our fingers and hope we would do the same someday with our own significant others.