The Savoy

Was very happy to attend an opening night party at The Savoy (formerly The Senator) this week.

Happy as I was to be there and welcome the new ownership, I'm not eager to see the programming at The Senator change. It's one of the few great jazz rooms in the City and it holds a lot of memories for me. I've seen Terence Blanchard play there on four separate occasions and it's where, as a naïve 19 year old kid, I sat in the front row and had the absolute pleasure of of allowing notorious ladae's man Ray Brown flirt with me all night. Is it wrong that this is one of my proudest moments? Don’t answer that - I already know.

The changing of the guard at The Senator reminds me of other great rooms gone by, like George's, The Bermuda Onion and Judy Jazz. That, in turn, makes me feel like an old ladae, and nobody likes that.

If you're not an old ladae, you'll love what they've done with the top floor of The Savoy. The redesign is snazzy, hip and cool, cool. Just being there made me want to snap on a pair of strappy sandals and drink a cosmopolitan. Again, another thing that probably makes me old, wrinkled and haggish. Sigh.

The chef, Deron Engbers, whipped up some braised veal short ribs with caramelized walnuts for us to sample and I must tell you, my palate has been able to think of little else since. So succulent we could have drunk it down with a straw. So full of flavour my mouth, well, it rejoiced. I cannot wait to go back for dinner, hunker down in one of those romantic booths with the green curtains and slurp up some more of that goodness.

As for the entertainment at the The new Savoy, they promise not to disregard jazz completely, they are merely broadening the scope. Which could be a very, very good thing. Time will tell. And so will I, after another visit or two.