Capacity is about 200. It looks better with the lights low, but it's a comfortable place to hear music, and that's why you're there anyway. Sundays are jam session nights. Weekends rotate, and the national acts tend to show up later in the week. The usual jazz club mixture of hard-core fans, couples, college students, curiosity seekers and paunchy hipsters who can't wait to tell you they once heard Miles at the Vanguard in 1965.
Regulars give the place a friendly air that extends to newcomers.
The Bird of Paradise features a surprisingly upscale drink list. With a new Cajun restaurant, Zydeco, under construction upstairs, the club will serve an abbreviated menu of gumbos, simple seafood, sandwiches and salads. Expect food service sometime next month. 312 S. Main, Ann Arbor. All content copyright 2000 Detroit Free Press Inc. and may not be republished without permission.