Branford Marsalis to Play at Bethesda Blues & Jazz 'Grand Re-Opening'

The historic theater building in which the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club recently opened turns 75 this year.

To celebrate the supper club's March 1 opening and the building's 75th birthday, a "Grand Re-Opening" ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for 6 p.m. on May 17. After the ceremony, reception, cocktails and dinner (at 7:15 p.m.), jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis will take the stage at 8:30 p.m., according to a news release from the venue.

Tickets for the evening are available through the Bethesda Blues & Jazz website (www.bethesdabluesjazz.com) and at the box office (7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda), open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club offers live music, monthly dance nights and a 1940s-era bar and lounge area. For dinner, the club serves "a blend of Continental and Creole/Cajun cuisine [and] dishes such as beignets, gumbo, crab cakes, gnocchi and prime rib are lovingly crafted with only the freshest ingredients," according to the news release.

And, the club already "has made a name for itself in the local jazz scene with its house big band, the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Orchestra, which plays every Monday," the release added.

The theater opened in 1938 as an Art Deco movie house, and was re-incarnated as an Off-Broadway production hub before a flood forced it to go dark in the middle of a run. The theater took a financial hit, struggling to stay open as a rental venue, until it was foreclosed upon in 2010, Patch reported.

Proprietor Rick Brown, of B&B Realty Investments, bought the venue in February 2012 for $2,895,000 and announced his vision to bring the club back to life.

Brown, a native Washingtonian whose father is a jazz drummer and whose mother was a singer, dancer and restaurateur, wanted the club to hearken back to classic supper clubs like the Copacabana.

The club underwent a $6 million renovation by the Bozutto group in 2007. To that, the new operators added a two-level, 1,800 square-foot kitchen and a 35-foot bar to serve beer, wine and cocktails. The theater seating was replaced with two tiered levels of table seating for 300 and 200 theater seats to the rear of the space.

“We were blessed to have the property in very good condition to start with,” Brown told Patch.