For sixteen years, the brother-and-sister owners of the jazz venue Zinc Bar on Houston Street patiently eyed the former Club Cinderella space in Greenwich Village. To the jazz world, the forties nightclub was legendary: Thelonious Monk was the house pianist, Billie Holiday sang there, and Frank Sinatra came to watch Holiday, which might have set in motion their rumored love affair. So when the Irish rock club most recently inhabiting the space finally closed, Alex Kay and Kristina Kossi moved Zinc Bar into the underground venue. And today it still looks like a Bogie gin joint, with a stainless-steel bar stocked with vintage decanters and a classic champagne chiller.

And today it still looks like a Bogie gin joint, with a stainless-steel bar stocked with vintage decanters and a classic champagne chiller.

They restored the art-deco etched glass behind the bar and had matching sconces made. Heavy red velvet curtains separate the bar area—where there’s a two-drink minimum on weekends (there’s no cover, but a one-drink minimum during the week)—and the stage area, where there’s an $8 to $10 cover and cocktail servers urge a two-drink minimum. The nightly live music attracts jazz aficionados as well as local old-timers and NYU students. On the weekends, African and Brazilian bands take center-stage. The bar’s wild-card sets take place on Thursdays, some weeks hosting Latin jazz or cabaret, other weeks stand-up comedy.