by Xavier Menchavez on Put me down as: Great Ambiance, Lovely Food, Kick-Ass Bar, Great French-Pressed Coffee, liking the Silent Chaplin Movies. Laid-back-to-the-point-of-missing-in-action waitstaff. Best time to go and not have it be slammed is Sunday at 6PM: Hit that time on my very first visit when looking for dinner after just arriving at the airport. Went back a second time for coffee/dessert during the now-famous Oh-My-God-Heather-Graham-is-Here-on-a-Tuesday-even ing, and had a great time -- liked the live music. Will return as long as we'll go for the early-bird-catches-a-table hour. Would get one more star from me if the waitstaff seemed more attentive.
by Lyle Kuks on martuni's isn't like any other bar in town, but go on a weeknight. our usual girl's night out is thursdays, and martuni's is a perfect place for us, since we love interesting cocktails. me, i'm more of a purist, and like sapphire martini's or not-too-sweet concoctions, but some of my posse like the sweeter drinks. martuni's has something that will make everyone happy. they really do know how to make a proper cocktail. allow me to interject here if i might: some of these reviews with people sharing that they go to martunis and have five, six, seven cocktails over the evening.. are you serious? repeat after me: three martinis is the limit. three martinis is the limit. three martinis is the limit... and even then, you just may be regretting that third one. and really, you're not that cute drunk. honest. ok, back to the bar. it's got that old-fashioned art deco feel to the place, and that it's a piano bar adds a dash of timeless kitsch. add the low lights and old-fashioned waiter and it's a lovely kind of evening, with a mixed crowd of low-key people. on weeknights anyway. this week, we ventured there on a friday evening around 10:30, and it was a totally different vibe. completely packed with yuppies still wearing their work clothes (black, black and more black), and the lights were even lower than usual so it was like walking into a very crowded cave where there was not a chance in hell that we'd have a place to sit down for a long long time. and we heard no piano, and no music. maybe he/she was on a break, but being met with a dark room full of loud TGIF corporate types just wasn't the martuni's vibe we were expecting, so we left. so no more weekend nights for us, we'll stick to weeknights, or maybe just earlier in the evening. (oh, and the person with the large group who left a five dollar tip on a 159.00 bill... please. if you accept the responsibility of settling a bill, then you accept the responsibility of leaving the proper tip. just cough up the extra 20 bucks and tell your cheapskate friends that they owe you a drink. don't stiff the waiter who served you all night, that is just wrong, wrong, wrong. and to then call him rude publicly on Rateclub? now you're wrong *and* tacky. sheez.)
by Nathan F. on Here's the deal: you pay big bucks for an hour show, and then they kick you out. they claim that you "only" have to pay for one five dollar drink, but the cheapest beer is for seven. you do the math. we bought a table for 45 bucks a person, plus eight bucks for a corona plus a two dollar tip which equals 55 dollars for 55 minutes of decent jazz, but a very crowded seat. the decor looks like a simulacrum of a jazz club. Coltrane and Parker and the rest would see this ailing tourist trap as the overpriced, Disneyfied, rich man's jazz hour as it is. for the real jazz, ONLY come here after midnight when the real up and coming musicians play and it only costs five bucks! For the mainstream acts, buy it on itunes and don't waste the money or the time. If this truly is the "jazz capital" then suffice it to say the old cliche: jazz is dead, totally.
