By Katie O’Connor
Photograph by Katherine Bish
For us, Brandt’s has always been about its outside; its sidewalk tables are a wonderful place to sit on a balmy summer evening and watch the eclectic parade of Loop denizens wander past, made all the better by a diverse clientele, food that’s just sophisticated enough and a killer gin martini, extra dirty.
But since the debut last fall of the Red Carpet Lounge, Brandt’s after-hours alter ego, the location is all about its interior, and the red glow that emanates from the windows and spreads over the winter-bare sidewalk has ever so slightly worried us: Is the menu gone? What about the killer martinis? Do you have to be a jazz aficionado to go in and sip one?
Turns out, Brandt’s remains basically the same, aside from a new décor: The right side of the space is still occupied by restaurant tables, the menu is intact and the clientele remains diverse. Only the retail market is gone, replaced by the Red Carpet Lounge, a collection of retro couches clustered in front of a long contemporary bar. The martinis are still deliciously dirty, but an expanded list of cocktails features such classics as the sidecar and whiskey sour alongside modern martinis and vodka drinks. A “Bubbly Happy Hour” is also new, with special pricing on full, half and quarter bottles on the lounge’s champagne list.
We’d heard tales of a big, busty singer shakin’ her, ahem, self in patrons’ faces, lending the lounge that sensual jazz ambience. But on our visit the music was of the retro-kitschy sort you’d hear in one of those zippy Target commercials: hip but not sultry. It’s likely that the cover charged on the nights Erin Bode, Kim Masse and Mae Wheeler perform gets you not only the big names but also the bawdy ambience.
In both look and feel, the Red Carpet Lounge might be best described as an Ikea version of a jazz club, a lounge for everyman: affordable, accessible and able to turn up the heat when needed.
6525 Delmar, 314-727-3663, www.brandtscafe.com, open ‘til 1 a.m. on Fri & Sat.
