Alexander's Jazz Bar

From Chester Wiki

[edit] Review

My, what a very, very cool place. Do you know what this place reminds me of? Being on holiday and being cool. Not bad, eh? I think that a part of this is the fact that I love Rufus Court, Chester, and Alexander's is the main attraction in Rufus Court (although Bollicini is getting more popular so I hear).

For those of you who haven't been, Rufus Court is basically a little, erm, court set off a main road near to the Odeon in Chester city centre. Situated in it are various little craft shops, a smoothie bar and, of course, Alexander's and Bollicini. This all makes it a very relaxing place to visit to while away the afternoon hours, or for a few drinks in the evening.

The main thing that sets Alexander's apart from all of the other bars in Chester is the fact that it's a jazz bar. Yes, you heard me right, a jazz bar, in Chester! Unbelievable, I know. It also doubles as Chester's premier comedy venue (in fact, Chester's only comedy venue) and this is the night which I decided to visit.

Saturday night is comedy night. Doors open at 8pm, it's £10 to get in and by half eight the place was full. The night I went, there were 3 comedians for us to enjoy, with the shows starting at about ten and going on until 12, and do you know what, they were all really, really funny. The headline act was a man (boy!) called Dan Nightingale, who is apparently one of the country's up and coming stars, and I am inclined to believe the hype. Audience participation is encouraged, but don't expect to get one over on the stand-ups. A few tried, and were easily put back in their place.

Drinks are fairly pricy, but that's a good thing for keeping out the riff raff (how posh am I?) and there is a pretty good choice. With Leffe and Stauprownen (I cant spell it) on tap, and bottles of Peroni aplenty.

One problem is that you can't book unless you are eating, hence the fact that we had to arrive at 7.45pm to make sure that we got a fair seating place as there was a group of about nine of us going. From our vantage point we could see people who were eating though, and the food looked nice enough, with a lot of people seeming to opt for a massive sharing platter thing with all sorts on it.

As you can probably tell, I had a great night. The comedy was excellent, the atmosphere friendly (and cool of course) and the bar was never too busy that you had to wait too much. Oh my god! I almost forgot to mention. Alexander's also happens to have the best beer garden in Chester. It's massive, with picnic tables and right next to the Walls. Basically, what I am saying to you is this. If you fancy somewhere different on a Friday or Saturday night rather than Rosie's, then you can do a lot worse than this little jazz bar. You're in for a good night.