1920s-1956
908 12th Ave.
Operated most famously in the 1920s and early ’30s by barbecue wizard John H. “Doc” Hamilton and known during his tenure as Doc Hamilton’s Barbecue Pit (see below), the 908 Club also had at least two other lives as a nightlife venue, one in he 1930s, when pianist Oscar Holden reigned supreme, and another in the early ’50s, when Dick Ruffin owned the place and Gerald Brashear, Cecil Young and Ernestine Anderson played there. Impresario Norm Bobrow reports that the walls were festooned with caricature line drawings of celebrities who frequented the club, which included politicians, judges and professors, and that the menu featured items with whimsical names taken from bebop lingo and Nat Cole, such as frim fram sauce and shi fa fa. the upscale club was housed in a chalet-style building that was also known briefly in 1933 as the Mardi Gras, not to be confused with the club of tthe same name on East Madison Street. The 908 Club was shut down by Mayor Clinton in 1956.
Jackson Street After Hours (print only). No known online links.