Katerina Carson has been running her North Center area Chicago jazz club for 13 years and is an important player in the local jazz scene. Here, you can hear Latin, funk, blues, flamenco, gypsy and other varieties of world music, including great finds like the virtuosic Greek-Balkan guitar duo Andreas Kapsalis and Goran Ivanovic, who performed the night we visited. Red walls, bead-fringed red lampshades, mismatched chairs and black-and-white glamour shots of old movie stars lend the club the vibe of “Sunset Boulevard”-style faded glamour or a New Orleans speakeasy. It’s a comfortable, welcoming place where Brazilian samba and French chansons fill the air between sets, locals gather at the copper-topped bar, and couples share martinis and dinners of tavern meatballs (Carson’s family recipe) and other Greek specialties.

Photo credit: Chicago Studio Club