It's a Thursday evening. You want to go out, have a few drinks, listen to some chilled out live music, be able to have a conversation and sit down in a relaxed environment. Because sitting is the best. Where to go?
Thursday night is Cafe Koi's 'Jazz 'N More Open Mic' - where local singers and a house band take the stage in a chilled out lounge bar setting. There was a mix of talent overall, generally within the good to pretty good range. The crowd ranged from some in their 20s and 30s, and around half were an older crowd. What I liked was overall everyone was silent or fairly quiet during each set, respecting each singer.
There's table service and we were offered the option to order food as the kitchen was still open when we arrived (the menu looked super tasty but we'd already eaten). They have a bunch of cocktails (2oz for $9 - not bad!), local Wild Rose beers on tap ($6.50 for 16oz pints) and wine, including a plum wine which is super tasty! I highly recommend the 'Nectar' plum wine (2 ozs for $6) or the Lotus Flower cocktail.
We were able to walk right in and grab a table near the front at around 9, and the place was maybe 2/3 full. There's no cover, but they do ask for a contribution during one of the breaks and have a bucket that they leave at the front by the stage.
If you're a fan of jazz, open mic and local music, and like it served with some Asian influenced tapas and cocktails it's a fun way to spend a few hours on a Thursday evening.