Forest Park's Jazz Spoon Reopens as a Wine and Cocktail Lounge

The Jazz Spoon reopened in Forest Park last month as a wine and cocktail lounge, dropping its full-service restaurant format for appetizers, small bites and a two-night live music calendar built around jazz and blues.

Owner Vanessa Carter closed the bar late last year after her father's death. She had spent years in banking and retail merchandising before running the venue, and the loss left the business's future in question.

"It was difficult," Carter said. "My dad was just a hard worker. He owned his own barbershop for over 50 years. I always hear him saying, 'Don't quit.' He would not have wanted me to just give up altogether because of him."

Community demand pulled her back. Customers who recognized her at church and around Forest Park kept asking whether the bar would return.

"People would see me at church or out in the community and say, 'Hey, aren't you from The Jazz Spoon? We're so sad you closed. Will you ever come back?'" she said. "There were so many people who missed it. We had to meet what the community was looking for and what I knew my dad would want."

What does the new concept change?

The pivot trades a full kitchen operation for a lounge model: a redesigned interior, appetizers and small bites on the menu, and live jazz and blues on Fridays and Saturdays. Carter kept two proven sellers from the restaurant era — birria tacos and chicken wings — anchoring the smaller menu with items that already had a following.

The positioning is deliberate. Carter said there was nothing comparable in the immediate area.

"We redesigned the interior to give more of that lounge feel," she said. "There wasn't really anything like that around here. A safe, comfortable place for people to have a drink and a bite after work without going downtown."

The music programming doubles as both identity and staffing strategy. Regular performers include trumpeter Mike Wade, whom Carter calls one of the bar's top draws, along with Miles Ellington Twitty and vocalist LaVieena Campbell. The menu carries the theme with items like the Caprese Crescendo and the Three-Part Harmony charcuterie board.

Filling the weeknight gap

Weekends have drawn regulars and new customers since the reopening. The remaining challenge is midweek traffic, and Carter is attacking it with a priced entry point: Wednesday and Thursday wine flights at $18, paired with light bites, targeted at after-work customers from nearby offices and suburbs.

Carter's operating approach draws on her corporate background. She credits retail merchandising with teaching her how to engage customers and keep the concept fresh, and she frames staffing as central to the operation.

"Anybody who's ever worked with me knows how important staff is to me," she said. "It's about how we train, the respect we give. And from retail, I learned how to engage customers, how to keep things fresh and keep people coming back."

The concept also extends a family thread: Carter played in jazz bands growing up and learned piano and guitar from her father, who taught her the genres the venue now books.

"I just want to keep pushing, the way my dad would have wanted," she said. "To bring back what the community started to love, and to keep the music going."

Next on the calendar are themed parties and expanded performance opportunities for local artists, as Carter works to convert a strong weekend reopening into steady weeknight business.