She’s been a sensation since she’s been born, and now Blue Ivy has made her public debut.Walking into the Philmore on Broadway is akin to walking into a posh Manhattan supper club circa 1928.
Or, to be more precise, it’s how we imagine a place like that might have looked.
The Philmore is both elegant and comfortable with subdued lighting, two full bars, fine local art on the walls, an expanded and fully refurbished balcony area and lots of places to lounge about.
The Philmore is the brainchild of local artist and businessman Joel Fremion.
Fremion co-owns the building in which the Philmore is housed, and when Catablu moved from that address to one in Covington Plaza, he and his partners decided to take a more active role in its potential.
The Philmore is ostensibly a jazz and blues club, but Fremion and business associates Phil Terrell and Steve Shine think they have come up with a business model that will keep the Philmore open for years to come.
Detroit-based dance band Intrigue will perform there at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Initially, Fremion says, the Philmore will host only one such event a month on average.
Jazz and blues clubs have come and gone in Fort Wayne, and one trait common to their operation won’t be emulated by the Philmore: The Philmore won’t be open to the public every night or, even, every weekend.
“If we’d tried to be open every day, we’d be closed already,” Fremion says.
Instead, the Philmore will double as a banquet facility, a corporate events center and a wedding reception hall.
Fremion says upscale Fort Wayne restaurants such as Catablu and Club Soda have been in need of a venue of the Philmore’s caliber – a place where they can host events that don’t fit (or fit inside) their respective restaurants.
This way, the Philmore can take as much time as it wants to find its audience.
“This is a pretty safe business plan,” Fremion says. “There’s a niche audience out there but it may take time for them to find us. It’s not just people in Fort Wayne that we want to draw in. It’s people in Kendallville and Auburn and Angola.”
Fremion says the Philmore plans to focus mostly on bringing in national acts.
“We want to bring in entertainment beyond what is already offered here,” he says. “We want to give people a reason not to have to drive to the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis or some Chicago blues club.”
Ticket prices have struck some people as a little steep, Fremion says, but that’s because it is not widely understood that dinner (catered by Catablu, Club Soda, Eddie Merlot’s and others) is included in the cost.
In that context, $30 seems like a bargain.
Fremion says work on the building’s exterior, which will include the addition of outdoor seating areas and an event tent, will soon commence.
The concerts the venue has hosted up to now have been gratifyingly successful, he says.
