---31/52--- Angelo’s

I’ll let Billy Joel set the scene...

It's nine o'clock on a Saturday,
The regular crowd shuffles in...
There's an old man sittin' next to me
Makin' love to his tonic and gin.

I never considered myself to be much of a piano lounge kind of guy, but that all changed about 5 years ago. And when I say piano lounge... I don’t mean the kind with dueling pianos and screaming bachelorettes ... I mean a dark and divey place with a piano and microphone... The kind of place that, night after night, tends to attract the same crowd of underground musicians and old timers. And the kind of place that may or may not have had mob ties at one time or another. Angelo’s was opened in 1989 by Angelo Mortellaro, but the structure it occupied was actually built in 1922 and was home to several other businesses, including a tiny grocery store at one point. But somewhere around 1963 it settled into the piano lounge vibe and never looked back. Although Angelo passed away in 2016, his legend lives on. And lucky for me, the bar also lives on in the capable hands of one of my close friends who recently purchased the joint. Win.