The Cicada Club is located in Oviatt Building, a 1928 structure that housed a men's department store in a bygone era. Clark Gable and John Barrymore were outfitted by James Oviatt (the store's owner). The building is done in Art Deco. Rene Lalique personally designed over 30 tons of decorative glass in the building's lobby. Oviatt's penthouse even had a pool with a strand of imported sand from France, his private Riviera in LA.
Now, add to that musical acts like Ian Whitcomb and his Bungalow Boys (playing at the time of writing) along with a standing house swing orchestra and 'in character' performers such as elevator boys and crotchety bartenders and toss in the 'early to mid-century dress code with ties and jackets required' and you've got a time machine. Transport me back to the days when the Casa Loma Band still played at the Casa Loma Ballroom in St. Louis and every city of any size had a half-dozen ballrooms and dancehalls that supported touring groups as well as local favorites. I'll buy the suit today; I've already got the hat and the frail.
Anyway, if you're lucky enough to live on the West Coast and you're in range of the Cicada Club won't you pay it a visit for me? Any establishment that's put this much effort into preserving a time gone by and is preserving the spirit of a historic building deserves your patronage.
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