![]() And if it whets your musical appetite, you can get a ticket and come inside. When the bar isn’t loud, and the band isn’t playing quietly, you can catch a little bit of music through the door. There’s no music or cover charge in the lounge. There’s a lounge with the bar that’s adjacent to the music room. We wanted to make the actual listening room bigger, so people would have some more elbow room, so it’d be a little safer for everyone involved: staff, musicians, and customers. Plus, we didn’t know if people would want to come sit in a little room and hear jazz again. Then, in June of 2020, when it was clear that Covid wasn’t going away any time soon, an architect friend figured out that if we met all the social distancing regulations, we could only have 12 people in the club at a time! That just wasn’t an option, so we had to expand. Molly: Even before the pandemic, we’d been thinking about expanding. We’re tired, but we’re excited at the same time. People are really excited to come in and hear live music again, and we’re just thrilled to have the doors open and audiences and musicians in here together. Paul: The expansion has been very well received. So I learned how to bartend and I got a job at Smoke the year it opened. I had a bad knee injury and ended up having surgery, and couldn’t dance and couldn’t teach. Molly: I moved to New York City to be a ballet dancer. And when Augie’s closed, I took over the space from the landlord and opened Smoke in 1999. ![]() I ended up spending pretty much every night there. Seeing some true jazz legends in this tiny little, smoke-filled hole-in-the-wall was a very memorable night for me. Junior Cook, Arthur Taylor, and Cecil Payne were playing. Paul: On my first night in New York, in 1992, I went into a spot called Augie’s that was where Smoke is now. ![]() West Side Rag: How did you get into the jazz club business? Between organizing a kitchen delivery and welcoming the latest supply of clean linen, they shared what it’s been like getting Smoke up and swinging again. Paul Stache and Molly Sparrow Johnson are still basking in the glow from re-opening their jazz club, Smoke, after a 30-month Covid shutdown. ![]()
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