A jazz pop-up that once packed about 150 people into a coffee roaster on Friday nights has grown into a full-fledged club on West Charleston Boulevard. The Coffee Note, a family-run, all-ages jazz spot, is now open at 7018 W. Charleston Blvd. in Las Vegas, serving craft mocktails, fresh-brewed coffees, teas and baked goods alongside live music most nights of the week, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The venue traces back to December 2023, when Misa Leeflang and Max Cruz launched The Coffee Note as a Friday-night pop-up at Desert Wind Coffee Roasters, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Misa was working part time at the coffee shop when she asked her employer to rent out the space after hours so she and Cruz could create a jazz opportunity there. The pop-up ran for roughly two and a half years and regularly drew about 150 people a night, the paper reports.
From a Coffee Shop Parking Lot to a Full Venue
Demand got intense enough that, per the Review-Journal's reporting, Misa Leeflang said people waited outside in summer heat reaching 117 degrees just to get into the pop-up. That crush of interest, along with the pop-up simply outgrowing its space, led the Leeflangs and Cruz to decide to open their own venue.
Misa Leeflang and Cruz met playing in the jazz band at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, and Misa said their teenage years lacked accessible live jazz venues, according to the Review-Journal. She pointed out that a minimum $60 ticket at The Smith Center was simply expensive for a high school student. Misa and her two brothers, all musicians who attended the arts academy, had previously hosted jam sessions at their family home, a tradition that helped seed the idea for a public gathering space.
A Family Operation Behind the Counter
The Coffee Note is now a stand-alone venue operating five nights a week, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, with Misa Leeflang running it alongside her father, Adam Leeflang, who otherwise works as an adventure tour guide. Adam Leeflang's wife is a pastry chef who oversees the kitchen, while Misa prepares drinks and her brother Kai takes customer orders, per the Review-Journal's account. Cruz handles talent booking for the club.
The weekly lineup mixes styles and formats: ticketed shows on Fridays and Saturdays, swing dancing on Thursdays, no-cover jam sessions on Sunday mornings, and free-form jazz explorations on some Mondays, as noted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Coffee Note features a range of jazz styles, including hip-hop fusion, funk-fusion, straight-ahead and smooth jazz, the paper notes. Misa Leeflang said the goal is to make jazz a casual, intimate experience throughout the week.
Live Sets and a Scene That Keeps Growing
On a recent Saturday night, the Patrick Hogan Trio performed at the club, with Hogan leading his bandmates through Vince Guaraldi's “Graveyard Theme” during a second set; Andre D'Angelo played drums and Nick Schwartz played bass alongside Hogan that night, per a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Days later, on November 8, musicians including Tracey Cheatham and saxophonist Tracy Jordan performed during a jazz jam session at the venue.
Gary Fowler, a jazz professor at UNLV who has performed at The Coffee Note, described the club as cozy and inviting, the Review-Journal reports. Fowler said the venue helps preserve Las Vegas jazz culture while drawing younger people to the genre — a sentiment echoed in earlier reporting from UNLV Scarlet and Gray, which covered the project back when it was still the Desert Wind pop-up. That piece quoted Misa Leeflang saying the project was meant to give people under 21 a place to perform in front of a live audience, and quoted Cruz noting that the Vegas jazz scene always lacked a consistent jam session.
Drinks, Licensing and What Comes Next
The club's own website describes itself as currently alcohol-free while it works on obtaining a liquor license, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that The Coffee Note is in the process of acquiring one. Once that happens, the venue plans to add alcohol to its menu while continuing to host all-ages shows, meaning the family-run format won't change even as the drink list expands. For now, the club's website advertises nightly live jazz at 7 p.m., with ticket prices that vary and one drink included per set — a modest step up from the pop-up days at Desert Wind, when entry ran a flat $10 including a complimentary drink.
