The Five Spot
The Five Spot pays homage to the spirit, ambience,and romance of the Catskills in the 1950's, Las Vegas in the 1960's or New York in the heyday of grand nightclubs. It is located at 5 South Bank Street in Philadelphia, between 2nd and 3rd Streets just off Market Street.
The Five Spot will be presents entertainment on a regular basis of a variety that has not been offered in several decades in urban America. The club features live acts 2-4 nights per week, with dancing nearly every night. Entertainers run a wide gamut from postmodern lounge revivalists such as Combustible Edison to traditional big bands and small combos. The music focus is on post war American pop, from lounge to latin to space age bachelor pad music and Easy Listening . In addition, The Five Spot presents cabaret acts, torch singers, well seasoned Catskill comedians and crooners, revues, magicians and authentic working lounge acts fresh from Holiday Inn's across America. DJ Adam Alexander has amassed an extensive library of hi fidelity albums for the patrons' listening and dancing pleasure.
The decor of the club consists of a host of authentic lounge furnishings, from a kidney shaped bar to circular booths, all rescued from a variety of clubs and restaurants in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Yet despite the obvious nods to the past, the venture is not simply an exercise in nostalgia but rather a much needed respite of civility in an oversaturated culture. Club manager and Master of Ceremonies Michael Lipton was born and raised in the Catskills, worked at some of the legendary resorts, and imparts the values of fine service, and quality food and drink to the seasoned staff, which will include among others a veteran bartender from the famed Latin Casino.
Food at The Five Spot will also signal a return to classics seldom seen since the advent of nouvelle cuisine. Dinner as theatre will be invoked with a wide variety of supper club traditions including tableside service and a host of flaming drinks and desserts such as Bananas Foster and Cherries Jubilee. Chef Kenneth Espejo, formerly of Upstairs at Varelli has thoroughly researched the history of supper clubs and revived a number of menu items long forgotten. Owner and general manager Philip Cohen is perhaps best known in Philadelphia as the founder of the celebrated Last Drop Coffeehouse at 13th and Pine Streets, one of the first center city establishments to revive the coffeehouse phenomenon.
Pittsburgh
WJAS 1320 AM
WJAS 1320 AM Pittsburgh plays "best of 40's, 50's, 60's", but studiously avoids the typical Motown/Brit Invasion saturated oldies format. Instead you get liberal doses of Louis Prima, Sam Butera, Julie London, early Wayne Newton, etc. The station does lapse into some odd stuff from 60's and even 70's, but it's as close as you'll get to true lounge. Well worth a listen.
Balcony
For older style lounge, try the BALCONY, Walnut Street, Shadyside (east edge of the city of Pittsburgh proper.) Friday is the Frank Martini hour.
The Lava Lounge
For what may be the most originally strange but fascinating trip into the cocktail glass, THE LAVA LOUNGE, 23rd & East Carson, Southside section, is a can't miss for a lounge lover. The live music is anything goes from blues to surf to camp to...? But the whole place has walls that look like you just walked into Fred Flinstone's place. Cast cave rock formations with gaps, pits, hand-blown multicolored glass bar lights, tons of ancient electronics parts attached to the wall, orange and red fluorescent lights, you name it. Fantastic Dean-Martin-sized martinis and other classics at truly reasonable prices, and served in the RIGHT KIND OF GLASSES!
Frankie Capri is a lounge "artist" that has been playing in the same bar every Fri. night on Pittsburgh's southside for probably at least 15 years. Originally it was a dive bar called the Liberty Belle- but it has now been renovated and called the Lava Lounge. Frankie is a cult phenomenon here- his music was even featured in a local car advert. His act is difficult to describe- he is an Elvis impersonator who performs seated behind what looks like a puppet stage. He plays keyboard and is surrounded by a menagerie of both animated and stationary animals. Most of the animals are monkey and apes. He is an inept but spirited performer- playing perhaps the worst Elvis covers you'll ever hear. He sings into 3 different mikes - one has tons of reverb, one clean, and one with a chorus, harmony type effect. His solos are hilarious and seemingly random bursts of notes. He also sings polkas, wedding songs, and the ocassional top 40 hit (ie, Macerana, Achy Breaky Heart).