Blues & Jazz Club Targeting 2013 Opening

The much anticipated Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club is targeting a late December opening, but might end up debuting in January 2013, club director Ralph Camilli said last weekend.

Camilli was at the Taste of Bethesda on Saturday, where the club had a tent serving jambalaya and other options from its under construction spot in the old Bethesda Theatre on Wisconsin Avenue.

In his quarterly update to the County Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee on Thursday, County Economic Development Chief Steve Silverman said club owner Rick Brown told him the opening would likely come in 2013.

The county has not made any economic contribution to the project, Silverman told the committee.

The theater, at 7719 Wisconsin Ave., was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 in part for its Streamline Moderne architecture.

Camilli, who managed well known Washington D.C. clubs The Cellar Door and Blues Alley, said the club hit some speed bumps before beginning construction on the auditorium, which underwent a major renovation in 2007 that changed it from movie theater to space for theatrical productions.

Flickr photo by PLCjr


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