Vinnie’s Drops Curtain on Live Jazz Bookings

COSTA MESA — There will be no more live jazz at Vinnie’s Ristorante, which since April has been offering weekend performances by some of the area’s best musicians. All future bookings (including shows this weekend by longtime Frank Sinatra and George Shearing guitarist Ron Anthony) have been canceled.

“It just didn’t pay for itself,” explained Vinnie Colandrea, owner of the restaurant at 270 E. 17th St. “The music itself was fantastic. We had incredible people like (flutist) Holly Hofmann, (singer) Carol Rogers, (pianist) Joe Massimino and (guitarist) George Van Eps. Some of them could have packed the Greek Theatre. Here, I couldn’t even fill the room.”

Colandrea also featured music at his second location in Laguna Hills until it closed in September.

Bassist Luther Hughes, who had handled bookings for Colandrea, said word-of-mouth hadn’t been enough to keep the audience building. “When it comes down to it,” Hughes said, “a place has to have extensive advertising to be successful. And unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough in the budget for that. Also, Vinnie’s didn’t have a license to serve hard liquor, which does, of course, help in the overall profit of an establishment.”

Last Saturday’s closing set at Vinnie’s featured alto saxophonist Lanny Mogan of Supersax and guitarist Doug MacDonald.