Pausa Art House - Tapas and Live Jazz

Becky and I went out to get something to eat and to listen to a friend's jazz band last night at the Pausa Art House Jazz Club. We had a great time. The band was The Rick Strauss & Dave Schiavone Quintet. Becky and I have known Rick for over fifty years and we've seen Dave play sax at bars back in the 70's too. In addition to Rick on guitar and Dave on sax there was also a standup bass, drummer and a young guy on piano. They played a lot of jazz standards plus many of their own compositions from over the years. They sounded great and we enjoyed every moment of the show.

We sat at the end of the bar in the front room. That is where we always sit when we are at Pausa. Lazara, the club owner, likes people to be quiet in the stage room when there is a performance going on. People sitting in the front room of the club and at the bar talk and hang out. That's how we like it so we always sit in the front room. There are a couple of video screens displaying the performance in the backroom that can be seen from the bar and the tables in the room. There are a couple of seats at the end of the bar facing the backroom and that is where we usually sit. You can see the stage fine from those seats. It is also not too loud there although Lazara usually gets the sound perfect in the room. When we are out seeing live music we do like to be able to talk to each other and anyone else. We go out often enough to see live classical music where you can't talk during a performance. We actually have two shows coming up next week. A chamber music concert on Tuesday and then the Buffalo Phiharmonic on Saturday. We will be quiet there. But not at a jazz show.

We had some wonderful food last night for dinner at Pausa. Wine and tapas to start. I had a glass of an amazing Spanish red wine. We started off with a plate of Trio Espanol which was Spanish Mahon cheese, chorizo espanol palacios and marinated olives. The cheese and sausage was wonderful and I actually ate and enjoyed the olives which I don't usually do. It must have been that Spanish wine. The cheese was spectacular. I talked with the chef about it and she said they from the Mahon area of Spain. I had spent some time in Port Mahon and remember eating the wonderful food in that town and especially the cheeses. At the time I had never had or heard of tapas. Eating that cheese last night brought back memories of Port Mahon and my time in Spain.

Then we had a plate of Carmen Sandwiches which was ciabatta bread panini with prosciutto, sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil along with kettle chips. We loved the sandwiches. The chips too. Becky had a glass of Spanish white wine and then an NA beer. I had a couple of Rare Vos lagers from Ommegang Brewery.

When we first walked into the club we immediately heard someone call our names. We looked over and saw our old friend Teddy whom we hadn't seen in many years. She had been married to Rick. We actually knew her longer as the old girlfriend of my friend Dan. Teddy was also a friend of Becky's sister Karen. We really didn't expect to see Teddy there since she has been separated from Rick for many years but there she was. Then she started introducing her friend to us who she had come to the show with and coincidently I had worked with Raya some thirty years ago at the downtown library. We had first met her about ten year before that through a mutual friend. I ended up talking with Raya later in the evening while Becky chatted with Teddy. I should have taken a picture of Becky and Teddy together to send to Karen. She would have gotten a kick out of it.

Overall we had a great night out and got home around 10 pm. A late night for us. We are looking forward to going back there again. The last time we were there was for Becky's art show which didn't have a real opening reception because of Covid. The show was in October 2020 and I wrote about it here... Pausa Art House.