The Jazz Spoon has reopened in Forest Park after a 10-month hiatus, returning not as the full-service restaurant it once was but as a wine and cocktail lounge built around live jazz and blues. Owner Vanessa Carter closed the business late last year following her father's death, but the bar reopened its doors last month under a reworked concept that leans into music, small bites and wine flights.
Carter had shut the doors after losing her father, but as Cincinnati Magazine reports, it was the response from Forest Park itself that changed her mind. The outpouring of support from the local community eventually convinced her to bring The Jazz Spoon back, and this time she retooled the business model from a full-service restaurant into a wine and cocktail lounge rather than reopening exactly as it was before.
A New Sound for a Familiar Room
The reimagined Jazz Spoon is leaning hard into live music, offering a lineup of jazz and blues acts on Fridays and Saturdays. Regular performers include trumpeter Mike Wade, along with Miles Ellington Twitty and vocalist LaVieena Campbell, according to Cincinnati Magazine, giving the lounge a rotating cast of local talent to anchor its weekend programming.
Carter isn't new to the stage herself. She played in jazz bands while growing up and learned piano and guitar from her father, a background that helps explain why live performance sits at the center of the lounge's identity rather than as an afterthought. Before running the bar, she spent years in banking and retail merchandising, a very different career path from the one she's built around music.
Wine Flights, Charcuterie and a Few Old Favorites
The food menu has been pared down from its restaurant days but still keeps a few local favorites like birria tacos and chicken wings. New additions skew toward shareable plates, including the Caprese Crescendo and the Three-Part Harmony charcuterie board, per a report from Cincinnati Magazine, both named with the same musical wink that runs through the lounge's branding.
Midweek, the focus shifts to wine. Wednesday and Thursday wine flights run $18 for a flight paired with light bites, Cincinnati Magazine reported, giving regulars a lower-key reason to stop in before the weekend's live sets take over. On Facebook, the venue's own page describes itself as a spot where people can meet up with friends after work or take a break from the day, calling it an experience like none other in Forest Park and promising jazz, blues and Latin rock among its offerings, according to a post from The Jazz Spoon's Facebook page.
Looking Ahead
Carter plans themed parties and more opportunities for local artists to shine as the lounge settles into its new identity. The goal, as she's framed it, is to give Forest Park residents a comfortable local place to unwind without having to go downtown, while keeping a stage open for the kind of jazz and blues talent that shaped her own upbringing.
For Carter, the reopening is also personal. She's said her father's encouragement helped her persevere through the decision to close and then reopen, and that the business now aims to support local musicians and keep jazz and blues alive in a suburb that doesn't have many venues built around that sound.
