The Van Dyck Restaurant & Lounge

The Vibe
With a corner on the local jazz beat, The Van Dyck expanded its musical offerings to pop, folk and rock performers. Herbie Mann, Chick Corea and Maynard Ferguson have shared the stage with Cyrus Chestnut, John Pizzarelli and Richie Havens.

The Van Dyck has undergone improvements to restore the look and feel of its glory days, while enhancing its listening and dining environments. Architectural details have been restored, private dining and meeting spaces created, and a resident microbrewery creates several of the bar’s finest brews, piped straight to the taps.

One thing hasn’t changed at this historic restaurant and music venue. Guests will still find a vibe that is uniquely The Van Dyck.

Here are some of the legendary names who have performed at The Van Dyck.

Thelonious Monk

Recognized as one of the most inventive pianists of any musical genre, Monk achieved a startlingly original sound that even his most devoted followers have been unable to successfully imitate. Born in 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Monk’s family moved to New York City when he was four. He took up piano at age nine and by his early teens was playing local gigs and amateur hour competitions at the Apollo Theater.

In 1941 drummer Kenny Clarke hired him as house pianist at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, an early bebop haven. The after-hours jam sessions there and at Monroe’s Uptown House and Dan Wall’s Chili Shack, among others, attracted the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell. There, Monk’s harmonic innovations proved fundamental to the development of modern jazz.

Monk was famous for his use of space and silence, creating a new architecture for his music. He led his first recording session in 1947, already thirty years old and a veteran of the jazz scene for half of his life.

Monk endured career-long criticism and personal and professional hardships as a musical pioneer, but today is widely accepted as a genuine master of American music. His compositions constitute the core of jazz repertory and are performed by artists from many genres. He is the subject of award winning documentaries, biographies and scholarly studies, television tributes, and had an Institute created in his name, The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.