Dinner and a show. Remember date night? Scarfing down a cheeseburger deluxe at the local diner before snuggling at The Way We Were in the local cinema. Now it’s an afternoon Oppenheimer followed by a steak sandwich with yam fries at the Yates Taphouse. Or perhaps we go more upscale and enjoy the Pescato del Giorno at Zambri’s before catching Pink Martini performing at the Royal Theatre. Either way, one must follow the other. Or maybe not…
TV and movies like to depict the funky little nightclub carved into some barely gentrified late 19th-century brick warehouse district. A place filled with mostly middle-aged working adults entertained by local musicians and comedians showing off their almost always impressive but undiscovered talent. There’s the low lighting, the cabaret seating (rows of tiny tables with two chairs), the spotlighted brick wall backgrounding a modest drum kit, a stand-up string bass, a real piano, perhaps a sax or two, and a scattering of microphones. All patiently awaiting their musicians as the audience orders drinks delivered by servers in tight-fitting black attire, one hand balancing a glass-organ worth of beverages on their trays. If you’ve been to Hermann’s Jazz Club, then you’ve lived this scene right here in Victoria.
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I purchased two show tickets online ($25 ea.), accepting and then declining to include dinner reservations, for ticking that box made no difference to the price, and I was going to be in attendance anyway. Doors open at 5:30; the show starts at 7. I and my “date,” Carroll, arrived just before 6. There was no line. My name was checked against the manifest, and we were escorted to our seats, marked with a card bearing my name: two high stools at a bar near the back that offered an unimpeded stage view over the heads of everyone seated before us. Excellent. We order drinks—Carroll: the house white ($11/9oz); me: a Hoyne’s Dark Matter ($8.50/pint)—then watch the already half-full room fill up. A sold-out show. One hundred plus people, buzzing in conversation, attended by just four waitstaff run ragged delivering drinks from the bar and plates from the kitchen, tripping amid tightly packed tables. Already, I’m thinking, “We should have lined up before 5:30.”
I order the Chicken Saltimbocca ($26.) Carroll chooses the Fish Tacos ($14/two). At 7:10 an instrumental trio takes the stage delivering a jazzy tune that slowly settles the crowd ahead of the appearance of the headliner, local chanteuse Lorraine Nygaard. Somewhere during her first song, our meals arrive.
Hermann’s Saltimbocca layers thin slices of chicken with prosciutto, parmesan and two fried leaves of sage, drizzled with a white wine sauce. It is served on a bed of sautéed bell peppers and accompanied by a large brick of white wine mushroom risotto. The presentation is not particularly appetizing, but I’ve been waiting an hour. No fault to the staff, who are run off their feet, but doing their wonderful best. I dig in. The flavours contradict the clumsy presentation. The risotto is rich and earthy with big chunks of mushroom throughout. The Saltimbocca contrasts soft moist chicken breast against a crisped prosciutto skin, umami flavours with slight salt and the herbal hit of the sage, and, of course, the pleasure of enjoying a meal in the presence of a live jazz ensemble performing Burt Bacharach to an appreciative, if mostly grey-haired, crowd.
Hermann’s Jazz Club | 753 View Street, Victoria
250 388 9166 | info@hermannsjazz.com
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