The Big Easy

ABFAB! Great food! Great music! Great atmosphere!
I dont need to say more but apperantly Unilocal thinks I do. So check out The Big Easy great late eats. Best desserts & cappuccinos!

I’e been here a few times and enjoyed the small venue, good beer list and small plates available. A wonderful place to show up and see what’s happening in Petaluma!

I missed the NYE show here so I stopped in yesterday evening for dinner and some live music. I arrived about an hour and a half before the show started and grabbed a table and checked out the menu. I decided on the grilled hangar steak and they happily swapped the mashed potatoes with bacon brussel sprouts. They call it a small plate but it was a perfect serving that filled me up for the rest of the night. The steak was great but the brussels sprouts were SO GOOD. I feel like I took advantage of a secret menu because I didn’t see them otherwise but I can’t imagine they just whipped them up by request. But maybe they did, either way they were great. I nursed a glass of merlot and stuck around to hear the Eric Wiley Project which was fun to see. The two main servers were great and I’d definitely stop back in.

Absolutely love this place! So much fun! Good music, and delicious little snacks! The drinks are pretty good as well. The staff is super friendly and accommodating. I did, however, bump into one rude waiter. Didn’t have him again, good thing.

The food is overpriced and they served it cold and with tiny portions. Service was terrible and slow, and the owner is incredibly rude, and the staff is discourteous as well. Guess that’s what you can expect with such a terrible owner. Only good thing about this place is the beer selection, and they charge you out the nose for that too. Never come here, I requested a refund due to the awful food and terrible service and they wouldn’t even give me my money back, after I paid $ 13 for a slider that came cold and overcooked.

It was my girlfriends birthday and we got a few friends together to celebrate. Walked into The Big Easy but wasn’t sure if it was our crowd. The bartender name Porter came over and took care of us by finding us a booth and within minutes all of us had fabulous drinks in hand. He made our stay so fun, the band was cool and we ended up staying and having a great time. Thanks Porter for being you!

Came out to see the Pulsators last night (the best band EVER!) All of my friends & I had a great time here. They only serve beer and wine but that was just what we wanted and the selections were very good! Friendly staff & fun atmosphere! I can’t wait to come back for dinner! They’re menu looked absolutely incredible. I’ll be back for that Cubano sandwich!

Such an amazing place to heng out, laugh, enjoy music, dance and even talk till 2am! The service is spot on, with Porter, the waiter paying special attention to detail and your needs. He deserves to OWN the joint! Roger, the actual owner was also cool, fun, accommodating and funny as hell. I’d go back anytime! I recommend the Big Easy with huge thumbs up! And I’m writing this on 3 hours sleep…

Wow just wow. Went to see a fabulous jazz/​eclectic band a couple weeks ago and swore I was in NYC or SF. Hip! Great music. Great bar and service. Great acoustics. It was one of the BEST nights I’ve had out in P-​town ever. I’m so happy this opened and I hope it thrives!

Stopped by for a weekday drink and got to enjoy some good music and a great vibe. A great addition to the downtown.

I’ve come to really like this club. Good music, good food, good selection of beers, and the shows start early enough that I can actually enjoy a full show and function the next morning… Great for dinner shows.

Venue is cool, and has a decent ambiance… but I’m hoping this is a newer business because they have a LOT to still work on… I will say our server was extremely apologetic and didn’t make us feel like our complaints were annoying (if that makes sense).
1) The food is from its sister business «Speakeasy» which though is close in location, is not even in the same building. Meaning, your order is carried from the Speakeasy kitchen, through the Speakeasy restaurant, THEN outside (where people are hanging out, SMOKING as your food passes it — and it’s not even covered), down the corridor of Big Easy, and then to your table. That’s a long journey from the kitchen to your table… also meaning that if you wanted something extra for your order, or they forgot something… it’s that much longer to get it. And it was just weird that they have to carry it from one restaurant to another. Really didn’t like that my food was passing random people before it made it to the table. Don’t know if this is the cause for the long wait for food — but it did take a LONG time to get our food.
2) Portions are SMALL and vastly overpriced. The «Burger» they have is really more like an oversized slider. The «fries» you get with it is actually about 5 (literally) of them which they serve to look like Jenga stacked together for around $ 16. The steak was about 4 – 5 small pieces for almost $ 20. Literally 5 of the 8 people we were with had to order something else AFTER the entrees came because they were still hungry.
3) Our overpriced food didn’t even come out right. We ordered a Burger with some extras that didn’t make it to the plate. It took awhile for us to find our server, who didn’t even come back for an initial «checkup» to make sure our food was okay. We told her and she went to fix the issue. While waiting, he tried to eat the few fries that were on the plate — which were raw and literally had ZERO seasoning. After about 10 min he got his burger extras, and we then told her about the fries. As an appetizer we’d gotten their fingerling potatoes with aioli and asked if we could get another order of those instead. When we got them, they didn’t even come with the aioli, AND this order was literally COVERED in Cayanne pepper to the point where it wasn’t even edible. Almost felt like this was a dig from the kitchen for complaining about our order. We had these as an appetizer and they were great… the second order came to us after some complaints already… so we did feel this was intentional.
4) The seating. Perhaps this is just being nit picky now, but, we sat at a table, and there are small cement pillars located throughout the venue, they way our table was arranged, one of our people in the party had their chair so the pillar was right behind their chair. When someone told a story, they laughed and threw their head back and smacked their head super hard against the pole. I feel like when making the seating arrangements, the manager should be more aware of placing seats near a pole like that. It smushes people into the table and just isn’t comfortable.
Overall, the music was great, ambiance good, but the food debacle really ruined the whole experience. My boyfriend had to wait a long time for his proper order, the majority of our party had to order again because even after some appetizers and their entrée, they were still hungry. They really need to staff this place with food runners so that the servers can give their tables the proper attention. If you’re going for a show — be sure to eat before hand, and perhaps order a few things to munch on, but not fill you up. A few positives I will end on, they ended up comping a large portion of our bill, which made us feel that we were being just snobby picky guests. And our server was vert accommodating as much as she could have been, considering the lack of restaurant support she had to aid her in her job. And the food, when prepped correctly had some good flavor and taste — but just insanely over priced.

My new favorite place for tapas and wine!
Food is wonderful, everything I’ve had is tasty. From salads to pasta to the tacos, I’ve enjoyed it all.
I’ve seen several different types of music, days of the week, and without a doubt it’s always a good time.
I like the quieter setting, you’re not having to yell over anyone to say things to the person sitting next to you. It’s really nice!

So excited about this place. Great ambiance and the staff is awesome!
I wanted to give this place 5 stars but …
The only problem is that it is SO LOUD! You literally can’t have a conversation with your table mates and have to yell at the waiter/​waitress when placing an order.
We love live music but please turn it down a notch! :)

These guys are doing it right! They are the sister club of Speakeasy across the alley. My wife and I went a couple weeks ago and had a great time. They had a great organ jazz trio playing and the atmosphere was really fun! Great food and beer selection as well. I look forward to coming back soon!

The perfect end to our date night was a stop at this lively jazz joint. Friendly service, awesome jazz and unique but cozy ambience. Wish they had better wine offerings, but other than that we had a very relaxing and fun time here. A new P town treasure for sure!

We had a great time here tonight. Great ambiance and excellent service.

This is an Amazing Gem. Word will get out … totally a «Thing to do» in Petaluma…

I hope this place succeeds. Reminded me of the good old days of Zebulon, a jazz club before its time in Petaluma. What I like about jazz, or an important element: no self professing lyrics, just music coming from an instrument. What I like about The Big Easy club is the ambience, low lights, good size stage & dance floor (if need be), location, center of downtown, Food available from the owners restaurant just a stone throw away. Nice long bar, a splatter of tables & chairs in the main area, decent wine & beer list & waitress service, booths on each side. What I’m not fond of… wine glass needed to be returned for cleanliness, hint, bartender should always check out the glass prior to serving wine, beverages. Hey it happens. Booths have too tall of separation so you can’t see the stage. If the glass can’t be removed perhaps more tables on the main area, I think you can squeeze more people there & it will give it a more clubby kinda feel e.g. Yoshis, Ok ok that’s a reach but you know what I’m saying. If there’s a dance band then remove them, Nice big & clean ladies room, put a dimmer in there, please. Other than that I hope the acts get better with time & people come out & support this classy new venue. It will be on my radar.

I have been lucky enough to watch The Big Easy’s transformation over the past few months and was even luckier to be invited the soft opening.
I love this place! It is a total throwback to the days of gin joints and jazz clubs… only with a much better selection of beer and wine (on tap for guaranteed freshness.)
With low ceilings, concrete floors, and a simple décor it has a real ‘speakeasy’ vibe. The space is well laid out with comfortable wood booths lining each side of the room, and tables in the middle. A bar with 24 taps (for beer and wine) run along the front wall and sits opposite the stage. The lighting is warm and the sound is really good for such a small space.
The Big Easy promises to be a great jazz/​blues venue and even hosts a Hammond organ — the holy grail of jazz organs. Food will eventually be available from Speakeasy (across the alley) as well as from various local chefs through pop-​up dinners (if the rumors are correct.)
The is going to be a great venue and adds a unique setting to Petaluma’s growing downtown music/​bar scene.
See the review I wrote for the Petaluma Argus-​Courier here:
See the extended review at Petaluma360 here: