Knickerbocker Café- A Cool Place

Knickerbocker Café- A Cool Place

After undergoing a three year, $1.5 million renovation, the Knickerbocker Café continues to book nationally well-known music acts. Located on Railroad Avenue in the heart of downtown Westerly, the club reopened with much fanfare in May 2009. Now, acts such as the Mystic Jammers, “The Beehive Queen” Christine Ohlman (of Saturday Night Live fame), Susan Cowsill and Eric Burdon & The Animals are scheduled to play there over the next week.

Once integral to the area’s music scene, the “Knick”, as the locals call it, languished as a men’s bar for a generation prior to the rehabilitation. The concert hall sat empty.

Originally opened in 1929, the Knickerbocker has reopened with all the charm of a 1940s dance hall. During the renovation, a variety of equipment and memorabilia was discovered in the basement and incorporated in the redesign. The floor and trim is in the Art Deco style. Period wall sconces, complete with musical note decorations adorn the walls and star shaped chandeliers have been reinstalled. The original stage backdrop banner now hangs on the back wall and most of the neon is vintage World War II. Old photographs and playbills line the wall, promoting concerts of days gone by.

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The café has played host to the likes of Count Basie, The Coasters, The Shirelles, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughan and of course Roomful of Blues, a Westerly original. By embracing its musical past the Knickerbocker is now forging a new future.

“The club itself is a different type of venue, there’s nothing like it in southern Rhode Island. I tell people that we are a nightclub, not a bar,” Patty Algiere, general manager of the Knickerbocker said.

The period furniture seats 250 people. The stage is at eye level and the entire hall has a particular sense of intimacy.

“Greg Piccolo [of Roomful fame] handles our bookings so we’ve been getting more exposure to national acts,” said Algiere. “But we also think it’s important to support local bands like Sugar and Never Enuff.”

“We’ve also started a ‘Blues Train’. The Westerly train station is right across the street. We’ve arranged it so that people can come from Providence, see the show and still catch the last train out of town,” she said.

Because of the management of the Knickerbocker’s board of directors and Johnny Nicholas [of the Texas All-Stars], the Knick has enjoyed a successful rebirth. For information on the historic venue, visit theknickerbockercafe.com.