Goodnite Gracie Jazz and Martini Bar

I’ve only been here once, and it was on my birthday, so of course it was going to be good… but this place is GREAT! Good music, great atmosphere, and an all around good time.
Had I been paying for my drinks, I might have thought they were a bit pricey and the crowd here can vary.
It is a unique place, not for the younger club crown, but it is definitely worth a stop if you are looking for something new or unique.

This was my wife’s and mine favorite place in Ann Arbor 5 years ago. We were there at least once a week. Recently I took my wife back there to celebrate her birthday. I made a reservation for 15 people and about 20 showed up. The staff was very accommodating, even going out of their way to make sure our needs were met. The one disappointment was finding out our favorite band no longer played there. Still, DJ Sabor filled the shoes and everyone had a great time. Drinks are expensive, but I would not say they are overpriced. Would have had 5 stars if there was live music and not a dj. (No offense to the dj)

I’ve lived in Ann Arbor for three years, and my experience at Live/​Goodnight Gracies last weekend was far and away the worst I’ve had in the area. The space itself is fairly generic, and the drinks seem overpriced for Ann Arbor.
The real issue, however, was the terrible operations and rude staff. Live and Goodnight Gracies are connected inside by a staircase, allowing free movement between the clubs (so we were told). I went upstairs to find a friend, and when we came back down to rejoin our boyfriends and jackets, were told that we could not re-​enter the downstairs. We asked if we could just grab our coats and boyfriends so we could leave, and were told no; if we wanted to talk to our boyfriends, we should call them. Of course, the club was loud and crowded and they couldn’t hear their phones. When I asked the bouncer for the name of a manager on duty to speak to, he told me he didn’t know the name of his boss and I should go ask the bartender. I went upstairs to do so, and the bartender told me she only knew the first name of the manager (I did get a clue: «he has cornrows»). I went back downstairs and my friend had finally managed to get the attention of our boyfriends. We asked them to grab our coats and come around to the front exit so we could leave.
Before we left, I once again asked the bouncer for the name of the manager. He yelled «I LIED TO YOU» in my face and said that he was the person in charge, he just didn’t want to tell me. When I asked him for his name and the name of his boss, he yelled in my face that if I wanted to talk to someone. I could talk to him. Rather than just giving me a name (what terrible thing would I do with it), he decided to escalate the situation by screaming. This is not someone who should ever interface with customers.
I will never go to Live/​Goodnight Gracies again, and really can’t imagine how it can stay in business when it is so poorly run that they separate customers from their belongings and none of the employees know the name of their manager. If you make the decision to go to Live, you might want to look up the non-​emergency police number in Ann Arbor before you do, in case they take your things hostage as well.

[edited to add: I went here in May, and had written this review the next day but never posted it. So just know that it might be better now!]
I read all of the reviews before going so I was a little surprised that my experience was totally different than almost everyone else’s here. Maybe the atmosphere is different based on the day of the week? We went on a Saturday night. First of all, the canned music that was playing when we arrived was very bad, like ‘80s crapola (not good 80s, crapola 80s). Where was the jazz? The live music didn’t start until 10:00 so for our first hour there, we had to listen to that. When the live music started at 10:00, it was so loud that we had to yell at each other to communicate. I am just telling you this because if you want to go here to talk to your friends, it will be near impossible, but of course this depends on the band.
Also I was a little surprised because I thought there would be more of a younger crowd (based on the pictures on their website) BUT my 26 year old friend was definitely the youngest person there. (Instead, picture 50 year old ladies with bad perms and tight dresses.) I’m not saying this is a bad thing, because this actually made for a more interesting night.
The martini menu was many pages long and so many of them sounded delicious. I enjoyed mine! I don’t think that I would want to pay 10 dollars for it, though. (We had the 5 dollar matini special.) Our waitress was a little spacey, but pleasant. Service is very slow! They were also out of several of the appetizers.
All in all, this place is decent but I probably won’t be going back.

I went here after dinner at Connor O’Neils. I thought the drinks were over priced for the quality. I’m kind of a martini snob and the girl making the drinks behind the bar wasn’t doing a very good job. I really dislike ice in my martini and she served mine full of ice, barely strained.
They only had one bar tender working downstairs on a Sat. night so there was a huge line for drinks! It took forever to get served.
This isn’t for first time I went here and I’ll go back because its one of the better places to go in A2 but they need to work on a few things.
The music is always great, I love the jazz/​blues feel and the atmosphere is fun. Its nice to go someplace in A2 that isn’t crawling with sorority girls that are wasted. If you want that go upstairs to Live and you’ll get all you can handle. At least that’s how it was Sat.
one bonus is if you come in before 11pm there isn’t a cover but expect to pay extra for drinks. $ 10 martini’s $ 12 mid-​range bourbon on the rocks. They didn’t even have any top shelf bourbon– that was very frustrating for my my guest.
As stated by a reviewer before you’ll see so many 27 – 35 year old men with slip on dress loafers with wearing a striped button down shirt. It was kind of entertaining.

Good times! I really liked the set up of this place. It was small, intimate, and dimly lit with fun live jazz music. They have an extensive drink menu w/​lots of tasty martini drinks. I tried the Nectar of the gods, a Raspberry Cosmo, and the Key Lime martini. Thank God I wasn’t paying, the martinis were $ 10 each and the bill was over $ 100. Oh well, it was worth it!

Went here last night with high expectations. There’s no cover charge, which I suppose is good because their martinis are $ 10 each! I’ve never been to a martini bar, but I guess I was expecting $ 8 each at the most, but we ordered two and it was twenty bucks. It seems they’re all the same price, as we ordered four between the two of us, but I can’t be sure as no prices are on the menu. They have all kinds of fancy liquors and wines and cigars, which is cool if you have the money I suppose. Had to go to the bar because after half an hour, no waitresses had noticed us. When my friend went to the bar to order, the bartender asked her preference of vodka, she said she didn’t care, and I’m pretty sure he used 5 O’clock. Their menu features Absolut prominently, but her drink tasted like 5 O’clock, and she spotted it behind the bar. That’s a dirty trick if you’re charging $ 10 for a drink, even if the customer doesn’t state a brand preference. My chocolate martini was good, as was my grapefruit martini… they were out of grapefruit vodka but somehow still made me a grapefruit martini. It was good anyways. The band was ok, more bluesy and I was expecting jazz at a jazz club. Clientele was mixed between college kids and older people. Tables were generally small and hard to come by.

Gracies is a unique place in AA; feels like a martini bar with a tavern touch. The bands are usually very good (blues, jazz) and the ambiance is very low key. The martinis are delicious… You can relax on the couch or sit at a high table. There is no cover.

I love this place, and wish it hadn’t taken me over two years to find it! Downtown but a little off the path, which is nice. The atmosphere is latent with unique individuals if you actually take the time to look around, the live music is always good, the drinks are yummy and though maybe not the cheapest in Ann Arbor, somehow you don’t mind paying because you feel like you’re somewhere special.
Definitely a must go in Ann Arbor. The only slight downside is that it is below Live at PJ’s, and sometimes you can hear the crappy music from upstairs. I will not be venturing up those stairs. I would complain about the smoke but since it’s in every other bar and restaurant in Ann Arbor it seems wrong to dock them for that. Oh the smoking ban won’t come soon enough.

I love this place. Okay, granted, I’ve only been there once but that evening was exceptional! It was dark and felt like I was in NYC or some other truly urban setting. Lathe Al-​Saadi played and OMG! Such great music, both entertaining and genuinely ‘good’. My husband is a jazz musician and he was thrilled with the blues. … just loud enough so you felt enveloped but not so loud you couldn’t talk at all.
The drinks were splendid and my husband even had a good cigar. It will be a spot I hit every time I’m in Ann Arbor overnight.

I just wrote about the Royal Oak location, but thinking about the Ann Arbor one just made me happy, so I figured I would write a review. I really like Gracie’s. It can get really crowded, which kind of sucks, but if you get a seat or happen to go on quieter night, then you’re golden.
The inside is really cool. It’s in the basement, which I usually dislike, but it’s the perfect setting for this place. They have regular tables, a large bar with seating, and then cute, intimate seats along the edge. They have a small area up front for the band/​performer, and sometimes you’ll find people dancing around up there as well. Because the place is so small, every seat in the house is a good seat (it’s just getting a seat that’s tricky).
They have a full bar, but this is a martini bar, and that is what they do best. The martinis don’t come cheap, but martinis in general don’t come cheap. The martinis don’t come weak either. A few of them can really do a number on you. My favorite is the Key Lime Martini, which has a graham cracker crust around the rim (I generally don’t like sweet drinks).
The acts they have come in are all good. This place is an excellent choice for people watching. The staff is always friendly. It’s a little, underground gem.

There’s few better places than Gracies to hang out and feel cool while enjoying some quality jazz or blues. Its appropriate that this place is in the basement, as it has that underground cool feel.
The downside? The bar is cramped and hard to get served at when the place is busy, and ‘cheap’ and ‘Gracies’ have never been used in the same paragraph, much less sentence. But hey, the world needs places slightly more upscale than 8 Ball. Gracies is one of the good ones when it comes to that.

This svelte jazz bar puts me in a sociable mood. My choice of social lubricant is the Godiva chocolate martini. And every conversation over the warm candlelight is always fabulous. People who come here tend to be easy on the eyes.

This place was horrible. the service was non-​existent, by non-​existent i mean no drinks, no one would take our order. I heard such great things and i was highly disappointed.

I used to LOVE coming here to see Lathe Al-​Saadi on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Get there early, grab a couch spot and start ordering martinis. The bartenders are always friendly and the waitresses do their best to navigate around all the little round tables. As the night goes on, you can enjoy watching the ‘older generations’ get up and dance to jazz/​random rock covers. Only thing I can’t stand is the smoke. It’s a dark basement with low ceilings and the smoke has no where to go! Cough!