A Jazz Membership With a $350,000 Steinway

The very first thing you discover after descending the limestone steps to the basement jazz membership Libretto in downtown Paso Robles is a gleaming nine-foot grand piano dominating a small stage. That is no strange piano: it’s a 2012 Steinway & Sons Mannequin D, considered one of solely a handful of Steinways in a group thought-about to be the perfect on the earth. An instrument so uncommon, it should draw the likes of jazz nice David Benoit to this small wine town on California’s Central Coast, only for an opportunity to play a couple of tunes.

In 2021, Libretto proprietor Corey Jordan, a former music producer for movies, and spouse Katelyn Smith took the $350,000 initially earmarked for a liquor license (don’t fear, they nonetheless promote wine) and put it towards the piano. Because the membership’s opening, it has grow to be one thing of an underground jazz icon—a Smalls of the West Coast—attracting Grammy Award–successful jazz, classical, and blues artists similar to Benoit, Emmet Cohen, GKO, Taylor Eigsti, and Gloria Cheng, who’ve carried out right here for audiences as intimate as 50 folks.

Some would possibly query Jordan and Smith’s resolution. However “it was a greater funding to make,” Jordan says. “It marks us as one thing particular. We had a run in 2024-2025 with 26 weeks of a unique Grammy award winner each different week.”

From Lassos to Luxurious

As soon as a cattle city, earlier than its rolling hills turned to vineyards within the Seventies, Paso—because the locals name it—continues to evolve culturally. It began with the opening of the Vina Robles Amphitheater showcasing huge pop acts simply over a decade in the past. Bruce Munro’s Sensorio, an enormous immersive artwork set up of fiber-optic mild and music, landed in 2019 and continues to develop with new installations and authentic music.

“Individuals come for the wine, however then they keep and uncover these different hidden gems,” says Mattie McDonald, wine membership supervisor for Booker Wines, who labored with Jordan to deliver artist GKO to play in its wine caves for membership members. “I like to check Paso to a speakeasy,” she says. “You don’t know till you recognize.”

Certainly, I used to be stunned by how a lot had modified after the pandemic on this sleepy city: extra boho-chic motels, a newly opened 151-room Hilton boutique lodge known as the Ava, and a variety of latest eating places and bars. The city of about 31,000 residents now has two Michelin-starred eating places—the restaurant at Justin Winery and the 12-seat Six Test Kitchen at Tin City, a former industrial park turned fancy meals vacation spot with craft breweries, distilleries, a mushroom farm, and Etto Pastificio and Pasta Bar. As well as, Michelin-starred chef Charlie Palmer has come to city to roll out three new spots on the Paso Robles Inn and sister property Piccolo, together with a steakhouse set to open subsequent 12 months. Nevertheless it’s Libretto that introduced the jazz.

Born from the Pandemic

The concept got here after Jordan and his spouse moved again to Paso from Los Angeles, through the pandemic lockdown, and opened the espresso bar AMSTRDM. Craving leisure as Covid wound down, Jordan moved his personal grand piano into the espresso store so he might play jazz for his neighbors at outside tables whereas serving cappuccinos and Cabernets.

Quickly after, he started inviting buddies like Jeff Babcock, a studio musician who performs in Jimmy Kimmel’s band, to offer live shows, and the thought of a separate jazz membership was born. 

After signing a lease for Libretto within the outdated Opera Home (in-built 1919), Jordan purchased the uncommon piano beforehand utilized by the Los Angeles Philharmonic; he known as in a sound engineer, received donations of tables from native eating places and wineries, and commenced asking musicians to play there.

And not using a liquor license, Libretto began as a members-only membership. As curiosity grew, and Jordan added public tickets for weekend reveals on its web site. It has since launched a conservatory providing grasp lessons to native college students from world-class musicians. It was by no means meant to make any cash; that’s what Jordan’s two espresso outlets and roasting firm do, he says. 

As an alternative, it’s a ardour undertaking permitting Jordan and his neighbors to take pleasure in world-class music and musicians to take pleasure in a fantastic instrument and a slower tempo in a quaint downtown paying homage to Gilmore Ladies’ fictional Stars Hole, earlier than heading on to bigger cities. 

Once I visited Libretto in April, Benoit, recognized for songs similar to “Drive Time” and “After the Love Has Gone,” stopped by to play a few of his personal compositions, in addition to a couple of songs by Vince Guaraldi. Within the cozy area, with its uncovered brick partitions and leather-based cubicles, Libretto had a supper membership really feel, with waves of music washing over you from the massive Steinway just some yards away. 

The following morning, I spied Benoit and his spouse having breakfast at AMSTRDM and positioned my latte order with Jordan, who had traded his dinner jacket for an apron.

“We care for our artists and put them up in an condominium above our restaurant,” Jordan stated. “They may come down and say, ‘Whoa, you’re making my oatmeal?’ However we did what we needed to do to succeed.”

With full live performance lineup and wine excursions on faucet for subsequent spring, and extra luxurious motels within the pipeline, it’s solely a matter of time earlier than Paso is absolutely on the radar of luxurious vacationers, says financial growth supervisor Paul Sloan.

“We’ve undoubtedly upped our sport in creature comforts, arts and tradition,” Sloan says, “however we’ve nonetheless received that small city appeal.”