Ring Ring..."Hello?"...It's New Years

I know this is a little late to be discussing New Years (twelve days to be precise) but I wanted to comment briefly on my experience.

Chris’s Jazz Cafe in Philly found itself hosting my own personal New Years’ delight - sort of a last minute decision - but the decided destination none the less.

Conveniently located next to a parking garage on Samson, it looked more like a strip club than jazz club from the exterior. Not such a bad thing, but a little uninviting.
Walking through the door into a dark room immediately gave me the feeling of suffocation - with the first attraction being a wooden bar area (already a flutter with drunken festivity) and a rather unintuitive path to a makeshift host stand.

The restaurant is shaped like an L: the entrance at the top.

Set back in the far left hand corner (the corner of the L) was the wooden stage - protruding into the dining area (the long line of the L).

And we (I mean our party of nine) were placed at the end base of the L facing left to the stage.

A bit secluded, but the sound of the Hoppin John Orchestra could probably be heard at Rittenhouse Square. To say the least, it was very difficult to hold polite conversation (not that much of our conversation was polite).

Our incredibly flamboyant waiter appeared - offering the ladies some incredibly flamboyant cosmo which ended up being way too flamboyant for me. The name escapes me, but it was some combination of pineapple juice, every other juice at the bar, sugar, and WAY TO LITTLE vodka. After one I switched to a regular extra tart (extra lime), belvedere cosmos. And had about six. Which makes me think there was hardly any belvedere....

The menu was a special menu for New Years. CJC did it in four primary courses; the first course offered a couple soups and salads. Next course was pastas followed by third (main) course. There was a surf and turf, a chicken, a pork...pretty creative, huh? Obviously the final course was desert.

Well, though their fair was pretty standard (a lobster bisque soup, a fried mushroom garden salad, pasta with red sauce and mozzarella....), the food was excellent.

The lobster soup was creamy and a beautiful shade of pinkish orange. Not overwhelmingly fishy but subtle. The surf and turf (lobster and filet) was delicious - not too rubbery, not too mushy! And it was served with a fried potato dumpling that tasted heavenly.

So yes. The atmosphere was dark - a little creepy. The food was great. I’m hoping the bar was training a newbie, because it was bush league. But, to the bar’s credit, the mojito that ended up at our table was incredible - blood orange juice always makes everything better though.