Local Note is a place of big swings — in more ways than one.
The club, which opened its doors in late July, is banking on a bold prospect: bringing a jazz-only venue to Evanston. With a cozy capacity of just 50, the intimate, dark-paneled space dissuades chatter and encourages active listening. Spots are guaranteed through reservations, though walk-ins are welcome when they happen: Passersby can only reach the club through the adjacent alley. At the time the Tribune visited in mid-August, the entrance was still unmarked, speakeasy-style.
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Is that business model idealistic, in 2026? Maybe, admits Local Note founder Kurt Schauer. But the Evanston resident believes “the pendulum is starting to swing back to analog.”
“People are just really getting burnt out from digital all the time,” he says. “They want that one-on-one experience. That’s what we’re creating here.”
Schauer is, by his own concession, an unlikely venue owner. He’s a novice to the live-music business, and while he’s “been interested in jazz for a long time,” he doesn’t claim to be a connoisseur. But as a 35-year industrial designer in the retail sector, he has “a feel for ideas and concepts, and how things should look and work.”
“I’ve always been interested in having a small little club that could curate some great music and offer that back to the community,” Schauer says.
The concept that would become Local Note was dreamed up a few years ago over a firepit with his buddy Stephen Bollinger, a former restaurateur who is now the club’s operations and strategy lead. They were inspired by beloved bar-restaurant Prairie Moon’s Wednesday jazz nights and monthly jams, and wondered if the community could support a venue with deeper programming.
Part of their impetus for opening the venue was, they confess, selfishly motivated. Evanston’s nightlife is mostly student-oriented — unappealing, to say the least, to Gen Xers like Schauer and Bollinger.
“At our age, what do you do after 10 o’clock?” Bollinger says. “This is that spot.”
To make inroads into the Chicagoland jazz community, Schauer and Bollinger poached Chris Anderson, currently the booker at new-project haven Fulton Street Collective. As it happens, the hire harks back to his professional roots in Evanston — first as a bartender at Pete Miller’s, then as a booker at Nevin’s Live, both now defunct. After Nevin’s, Anderson managed the Green Mill for more than a decade, where he passed many an evening shushing chatty guests.
“I think what jazz musicians appreciate the most is people listening to their music. A lot of their gigs are in restaurants and bars, where they’re background. To make your living in something that half the time nobody cares about is incredibly frustrating,” Anderson says. “What we hope we have created here is a place where (audiences) don’t want to talk. We want them to be on the venue’s side; we want them to be on the band’s side.”
The “local” tag in the club’s name isn’t just branding. For now, Anderson says, he’s booking “with preferential treatment to North Shore musicians.” And the cocktail menu, currently heavy on bar classics, will soon shift to rotating offerings that emphasize seasonal produce. A mocktail list is also forthcoming to meet the ever-increasing demand for nonalcoholic options, though the club remains strictly ages 21+. (Sorry, Northwestern undergrads.)
As the club’s cache grows, Schauer and his colleagues are moving cautiously. Though the opening was covered by Evanston media and Northwestern’s student newspaper, Schauer says the team has avoided dedicated promotional efforts to date, “because of the limitations of the space.”
“We have to be smart about this,” he says. “We don’t want to do these blasts because we can’t handle 200 people trying to get in here. It’s not going to work.”
It’s a delicate balance. But so far, so good: The club is booked through December, with plans to kick off a monthly jam session after Labor Day. Forthcoming headliners include local stalwarts like singer Abigail Riccards and guitarist Steve Night (Sept. 10), pianist Jim Trompeter and his quartet (Sept. 11), and Green Mill saxophonist Pat Mallinger (Sept. 25).
Another proof-of-concept trial will come shortly, when Local Note will, for the first time, contend with the surge of Northwestern students returning to campus. They’re toying with adding a late-night jam session, leaning on the proximity of the university’s prestigious jazz program.
“I think it’s really important to spotlight what we have right here,” Schauer says. “I’ve said this to the crowds before: I would match up this talent with any talent you see in any major market. It’s that good.”
Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.
If you go
Local Note is open Thursdays 6 p.m. to midnight, Fridays and Saturdays 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., and Sundays 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., closed Monday to Wednesday, at 1716 Sherman Ave., Evanston; cover $15, $19 booking online (ages 21+); localnotejazz.com