Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Columnist Jerry Fink: Customers floored by Cafe Michele renovations

Jerry Fink's lounge column appears on Fridays. Reach him at [email protected] at (702) 259-4058.

They're dancing at the Cafe Michele.

When the nightclub/restaurant opened on East Flamingo Road in the Mission Center mall about three weeks ago there was no dance floor, which had customers grumbling.

They might have been impressed with the fact that there is an excellent restaurant and a romantic patio; that the lounge has a VIP Taittinger Room (sponsored by Taittinger champagne) and that internationally renowned blues guitarist Corey Stevens will perform there (11:30 p.m., Tuesday through next Friday).

But the customers couldn't dance, a major faux pas for a club that claimed it wanted to cater to locals.

After listening to the complaint, maitre d' Adam Carmer and entertainment consultant Vince Toma didn't waste any time putting in a small floor (8 feet by 12 feet), with plans to either increase its size or to add a second space for dancers in another area of the room. The restaurant is even considering putting in a dance floor on the patio.

Maybe you can't have enough dance floors, but what good is a place to dance if the band is lame?

Carmer and Toma wisely chose one of the best bands in Las Vegas to ignite the dance fever that's been packing the lounge. It is no coincidence they hired Chuy's Company -- it was house band for the venue in the early '90s, when the place was Cafe Michelle (different spelling, different owners).

Chuy Gomez has been a fixture in Las Vegas clubs for 28 years. His enormous fan base follows him to his gigs around town -- some even travel to Mesquite or to Laughlin when he performs at clubs there.

Between 1992 and 1995, when Cafe Michelle closed, Chuy (everyone calls him Chuy) performed at the venue five nights a week. He pulled in a diverse crowd that spanned the range of classes, from blue-collar workers to the blue bloods of society, from mobsters to political power brokers.

Chuy's ability to entertain the masses was honed in his native Tijuana, Mexico.

Inspired by a guitar-playing uncle who sang at family gatherings, Chuy learned to play guitar by ear when he was 10. He and his first band were discovered when they were rehearsing on the rooftop of the drummer's house.

"A Cuban guy walked by and heard us and offered us our first job, in the Hernandez Olympico Club," recalled the 54-year-old Chuy, who was 15 at the time.

From there, the band went to La Bola Club.

"It was a little bar with women prostituting themselves," Chuy said. "Then we went to the San Suci, also a prostitute bar. I made $6 a night, six days a week.

"Then we went across the street to Mike's Bar, where there was dancing. We were a hip-hop band. We played the Top 40. We learned all the songs of the English invasion."

Tijuana was a musician's paradise in the '60s.

"It was the capital of music in those days," Chuy said. "There were eight bands on each block -- this side of the street there were eight bands; the other side of the street there were eight bands. The whole of Revolucion Avenue had like 100 bands -- it was like the Strip here."

Between 1960 and 1970, Chuy received his education in music in Tijuana, learning to play every kind of music to please the diversity of fans who crossed the border.

"I had a great time," he said. "Young girls that couldn't drink in the states would end up in the clubs of Tijuana. I was the same age as them, so we had a ball."

Then Chuy graduated to Mexico City, where he opened for such entertainers as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Paul Anka, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, The Doors, The Byrds and numerous others high on music's social register.

"At first I opened for the entertainers in clubs, but then, in '68, big stadiums were opened for concerts," he said. "I was still their opening act."

In 1974 he moved to Las Vegas.

"It was too unstable in Mexico," he said.

He went to work for his brother, Ramiro Gomez, who owns the Western and Mexican Center store in Boulder City.

"For a year and a half I was a salesman while looking to get onto the Strip," Chuy said.

Eventually, he began working his way into the clubs. His first gig was Railroad Pass.

"The owner bought us our first P.A. system," Chuy said.

After a few more gigs in and around Vegas, Chuy and his group toured the country for eight months, occasionally performing in Canada.

When he returned, he performed in some of the top venues in town, such as the MGM Grand. Recently, he has been heard at The Rio, Mandalay Bay, The Venetian and Bellagio.

"What works for us is that we play a variety of music," Chuy said. "We do Latin, standards, Top 40, current stuff, country. We do everything. We cater to everybody."

In between the elite hotels and casinos, Chuy has performed in his share of dives. It doesn't bother him.

"If you love this, to do music, you don't discriminate because of low or high class," he said. "I love people. Different classes, it doesn't bother me. I'm from Mexico. I sing my songs to every class."

Lounging around

Jazz saxophonist/vocalist Tommy Alvarado headlines at Blue Note Las Vegas tonight and Saturday, with sets at 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

Vocalist Christy Coffey will be at the Greek Isles through Sept. 1, performing in the lounge from 7 p.m. to midnight.

Catch Joe Louis Walker, blues vocalist/guitarist, Aug. 29 at Boulder Station's Railhead for the weekly Boulder Blues series.

A free jazz concert on the steps of city hall will be hosted by the city of North Las Vegas beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday. Featured musicians at the first Courtyard Concert Series will be The Cunninghams (with the Jimmy Wilkins Quartet) and The Spellcasters (featuring vocalist/trombonist Brian O'Shea).

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