When I think of New York City, I think of Café Carlyle at the Carlyle Hotel on 35 East 75th Street.
Even my earliest memories of traveling to New York involved this intimate venue where I saw Bobby Short sing just a few feet away from us as a boy. Around Christmas of 2010, I had the good fortune to return to this lovely space where the piano and drums float through a room full of elegant Marcel Vertes paintings, while the audience sips martinis and dines on a four course meal, all the while sitting on plush red velvet chairs. In the back, a full bar is nestled in the corner. Steve Tyrell, the standard voice you may know from the Father of the Bride soundtrack, was dressed in a suit and black tie and belted out Sinatra and Burt Bacharach songs in a soft Texas drawl. Highlights included This Guy’s in Love with You, The Way You Look Tonight and Bewitched, Bothered and Bedazzled (my personal favorite Sinatra song). Towards the end, he did a Santa Comes to Town song. Woody Allen and Jeff Goldblum’s band also play there and I highly highly recommend it.