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Monday, April 26, 2010

A blue note: Ortlieb's has closed

Kevin Mayberry, an owner of Ortlieb's Jazzhaus, confirmed that the Northern Liberties club closed after business Sunday after more than 23 years -- a little more than three years after he took it over from founder Pete Souder.

"It is what it is," Mayberry told me, adding that he managed to hang in a year longer than he thought it could run.
Posted by Michael Klein @ 8:31 PM  Permalink | File Under: TableTalk | 20 comments
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:22 AM, 04/27/2010
    sad news indeed, a great institution that will be sorely missed.
    — freesamuel
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:47 AM, 04/27/2010
    Hopefully, given the rebirth of that neighborhood, someone will put the kind of money into the place that will make people want to go there. Philly deserves a first class jazz club.
    — Palestra Jon
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:03 AM, 04/27/2010
    Ortliebs was a very nice place...I can honestly say that I will miss it.! My brother used to take me there as a teenager and I have been going everysince..
    — Jerryiz
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:03 AM, 04/27/2010
    Ortliebs was a very nice place...I can honestly say that I will miss it.! My brother used to take me there as a teenager and I have been going everysince..
    — Jerryiz
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:53 AM, 04/27/2010
    I always loved that musk ox or water buffalo or whatever that huge thing was mounted behind the bar.
    — Mr. Simpson
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:04 AM, 04/27/2010
    SAD!! I knew once Pete sold it, that it would not last. Those new guys didn't know what time it was; trying to go "Euro" and alienating the musicians who gave the place the very appeal that led them to buy it. I hope that someone steps in and saves Ortlieb's.
    — 30M
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:13 AM, 04/27/2010
    kevin mayberry is the reason that place is shut down, not the economy
    — Monufrak
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:13 AM, 04/27/2010
    What a loss! That place was a gem!
    — Hayes
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:02 AM, 04/27/2010
    A Jazz club only survives when the management respects the music and the musicians. Ortleib's was a legendary joint that now joins Pep's, the Showboat, Aqua Lounge, Jewell's, The Click and a host of others. It would be great if someone would step in and run it the way Pete Souders used to. In the meantime, I have high hopes for Le Cochon Noir which should be opening soon on Parkside Ave (by the new Lowes.) There is a lot of promise for a great new first-class Jazz and Blues venue. As much as Chris' does a great job, Philly deserves more than one world-class Jazz club.
    — phillyjazz
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:18 AM, 04/27/2010
    I fell in love with this club as a Philly-area college student in the late '90s. Great memories. Sad to see it go. Philly should make this place a landmark and save it.
    — ballark
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:34 AM, 04/27/2010
    I love when people say "It is what it is."
    — Plastic Bertrand
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:14 PM, 04/27/2010
    I was there Friday night. We paid ten dollars cover to see a local group that was adequate, but by no means awesome (much less was it jazz). Having never been there before, I can only assume the stories of it being a great venue were true, but times certainly change...
    — NwK
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:24 PM, 04/27/2010
    I don't think an MBA-owned blues club is an adequate substitute for what Ortlieb's USED to be ....
    — phillyjazz


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About Michael Klein
Michael Klein, the editor/producer of philly.com/Food, writes about the local restaurant scene in his Inquirer column "Table Talk." Have a question? Email it! See his Inquirer work here.
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