Garage Restaurant and Cafe

This is the place to go if you want a Village jazz experience, but don’t know where to go in the Village. There’s live music every evening around dinner time to 2:30am. and a lively scene around the bar just to your right as you enter. Seating is on four levels inside and, weather permitting, you can sit outside and watch the passing Village scene.

The food, leaning toward pastas and seafood, is creative and uniformly good, but for me, the highlight is the Weekend Jazz Brunch served from 11:30am to 4:00pm, and features up-and-coming jazz groups. The food is a kind of up-scale munchie brunch.

I have never had to wait for a table when I just walked in, but they do take reservations which I make if I want my special table or am going with a group.

There is no cover or minimum and there is a special attraction on Monday nights with a big jazz band on until 10 o’clock followed by a smaller trio of band members playing until 2:30am. I am told that the band consists of Broadway theater musicians who are free on Mondays because the theaters are dark that night.

For New Yorkers, the rest rooms are clean (there are two for women) and for the price of a beer (or in my case. a Coke), you can rest your weary … feet.

The bar, restrooms, and main floor of the restaurant is handicapped/wheelchair accessible.

Went for Sunday jazz brunch, spinach and mushroom omelet was ok, Malpeque oysters were good, bloody mary was reasonably good, jazz and ambiance were the best things about the place.

Roaring fireplace inside. Perfect for keeping your date warm. Live music, delicious food. A little pricey and sometimes a bit loud.