Food & Drink International - Winter 2017, Volume 2 - 14
The National Hotel: by tim o'connor Jazz Jam Live music has made The National Hotel one of the hottest spots on South Beach. W When Van Dyke Café closed in early 2014, Miami's South Beach lost one of its last vestiges of live jazz. For two decades, the corner café's red awnings and jazz club made it one of the most recognizable and hottest spots along the Lincoln Road pedestrian mall. Its closing left a vacuum in the area - and created an opportunity for another location to pick up its mantle. After three years, Jazz has returned to South Beach through two programs at The National Hotel: Jazz Nightlife and Jazz Brunch. Both programs feature live jazz music from local musicians. Jazz Nightlife begins at 8:30 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays at The Blues Bar, a cocktail lounge and tapas restaurant that evokes the vibe 14 of 1940s Miami. "People are loving it," hotel General Manager Yaser Mohamad says. "We hand-pick the musicians with lots of auditions." The hotel's musical director, David Attelan, auditions each potential performer and then schedules the music each night to create a formula of differing sounds and styles that gives food & drink international * winter 2017 volume 2 * www.fooddrink-magazine.com guests a fresh experience every time they come. "It's becoming a dinner with a show," Mohamad says. Attelan himself performs every Sunday during Jazz Brunch at Tamara's Bistro, a Mediterranean countryside-inspired restaurant. Unlike the nighttime program, which blends jazz and blues music, the brunch is pure jazz. Tamara's Bistro pairs the music with a buffet featuring classic French and America cuisine such as charcuterie and cheese, waffles, salads and a trio of desserts: mango sorbet, crème brulee and candied pecan cheesecake. The live music programs have