St. Louis Jazz Cafe closes

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson is reporting today in a blog post that the St. Louis Jazz Cafe has closed, effective immediately. The club, located downtown at 1500 St. Charles in the Terra Cotta Lofts building, had been open for just four months.

Operation manager Tim Simms is quoted in Johnson's story saying that although the abrupt timing of the shutdown was due to noise complaints from neighbors - the Terra Cotta Lofts is a residential building - the cafe had been losing money due to lack of a late-night crowd. A commenter on the post, which you can read in its entirety here, said that "the place was packed on Fridays and Saturdays (”noise”) and empty the rest of the week (”losing money”)". According to the story, the cafe's owners hope to reopen in a new location, but there was no indication as to a time frame.

Even in good times, the restaurant/bar business can be a tough way to make a dollar, and given the state of the overall economy this year, and the inherent problems with this particular location, I suppose this doesn't come as a great shock. Still, the loss of any local jazz venue is unfortunate for listeners and players alike. Here's hoping that the St. Louis Jazz Cafe's proprietors are both sincere about their expressed desire to reopen, and successful in finding a new, more suitable location.