Close Up
Bar · Lower East Side ·
Intimate jazz club with world-class musicians, cocktails, and bites
Intimate jazz club with world-class musicians, cocktails, and bites
"Close Up might be the most appropriately named bar or restaurant in NYC, because you’ll never be more than 15 feet away from the musicians. This relatively new spot on the Lower East Side serves creative cocktails in an intimate concert space, and draws some pretty big names on the weekends. If you’re a jazz aficionado, you’ll love Close Up for the music. If not, it's still a great place to take a date—as long as you respect the unwritten no-talking-while-music-is-playing policy." - neha talreja, bryan kim, hannah albertine, matt tervooren, will hartman
"If you’re a serious live music fan, or testing out if your summer fling might be in it for the long haul, you should know about Close Up on the Lower East Side. There’s a small bar up front where you can wait for the live music to start, but a night here is all about the performance room. The bar is well-named—the tiny back room is small enough to make even the biggest name (and they do get some serious acts on the weekends) feel as private as a studio session with a personal bartender. This does mean it’s the kind of jazz bar where you can’t really talk while the performance is going on, so it’s best used after you’ve already gotten dinner at one of our favorite spots in the neighborhood." - bryan kim, will hartman, willa moore, neha talreja, molly fitzpatrick, sonal shah
"An artist-driven jazz club in the Lower East Side serving Venezuelan bites, Close Up frames live music around a distinctive Latin-leaning snack menu." - Emma Orlow
"On the Lower East Side, Close Up—opened in June 2024 by filmmaker Daniel Gaynor and business partner Solomon Gottfried—deliberately feels like an impromptu get-together: it is unapologetically music-forward with a front bar and a separate dimly lit room for bands where voices are hushed so the music takes precedence; the space has presented longtime players such as drummer Andrew Cyrille and experimental acts like trumpeter Peter Evans (including a recent “doom-metal” set), and this year alone has hosted more than 550 performances with two one-hour sets, a late-night set, and a jam session six nights a week." - Megan Krigbaum
