Every venue is going to promote itself by using the famous names that have made up their clientele over the years.

Jazz After Dark on Greek Street, Soho, has seen enough illustrious names pass through its doors to mix it with the best of them. When she visited London during her twilight years, Greta Garbo herself dined at the newly-opened club in the late eighties, while he of the apes, the firearms and the ‘cold, dead hands’, Charlton Heston frequented Jazz After Dark too. Another for the annals of the place is Bill Murray and, err, Alison Moyet. Then there are the more recent visitors.

“We had Amy Winehouse sing here, she was amazing,” says Briege Noonan, who has responsibility for bookings and promotion. “We also had Pete Doherty and Babyshambles – very good.”

Is it just us or have Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse played ‘impromptu’ or ‘secret’ gigs in pretty much every small London venue? Just as well Jazz After Dark has Greta Garbo and a programme of consistently excellent acts to fall back on.

Jazz After Dark first launched in 1985 as a high-class, late night cocktail bar, restaurant and jazz and blues club. A stately, modern interior – no bodily fluids, low beams or graffiti here – this is one of the most attractive looking live spaces in the capital. It’s still small and dark - but not grimy - and it’s decorated with the work of the artists who have drank there over the years.

Indeed, the visual attraction of the place reflects that there are other things on offer at Jazz After Dark aside from music. There are over 20 types of cocktail and a formidable reputation for food. Noonan talks up the á la carte menu of world cuisine from Spanish mixed grill to Egyptian mezze.

Despite there being maximum potential for customers to gorge themselves, Noonan cites “the lively, fun, laid-back atmosphere” and the eclectic nature of music at Jazz After Dark as among its best features. The coming weeks see a mixture of jazz moods. Stephanie Dawson (25 September) are a duo peddling a “chilled out repertoire of dinner jazz”, while The Professor and His Blues Scholars (26 September) showcase some blues and soul from a bygone era. A touch of funk and reggae is thrown into the fray on 28-29 September with good-time seven-piece, The Big Girls Blues Band.

Noonan regards 20-35 year old professionals as the venue’s usual clientele, all of whom seem to contribute to those restaurant review websites: Jazz After Dark has a preposterously good array of write-ups from punters.

Indeed, the food and drink at the venue might even threaten to override the blues, jazz, Latin, reggae and funk to be found on stage. It is certainly an aspect of the venue to draw punters in – the food is perhaps more affordable, and certainly more promoted, than other jazz haunts such as Ronnie Scott’s.

The live music in Jazz After Dark perhaps lacks the big-name draws of Ronnie’s, preferring to keep the acts small and interesting and able to provide the most appropriate background music as the hordes feed themselves in a venue that can often become very congested. However, Noonan is allowed to dream about who might suit a night performing in the club.

“Prince and George Michael would be ideal,” she says, “but unfortunately it’s not in the budget.”

Jazz After Dark was relaunched in 1998 after spending ten years as Le Mirage Jazz and the Blues Café. The venue is – thanks to its emphasis on food and drink as much as its devotion to jazz and blues – strong in its identity now, and worth a punt for those who err on the side of the funky.

Jazz After Dark, 9 Greek Street, W1V 5LE, 020 7340545

www.jazzafterdark.co.uk

Tube: Tottenham Court Road, Northern and Central lines

Founded: 1985

Atmosphere: Hungry joviality… smooth

Pint: £2.75 a bottle