By Rik Roe for Curtains Up
A Juke joint is the vernacular term for an “informal establishment featuring music, dancing, and drinking”. The term “juke” is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly.
Classic juke joints were often found at rural crossroads, and catered to the rural workforce that began to emerge after emancipation. Plantation workers and sharecroppers needed a place to relax and socialize following a hard week. Set up on the outskirts of town, often in ramshackle buildings or private houses, juke joints offered food, drink, dancing for weary workers.
A far cry from those humble and modest beginnings, the modern day version of the juke joint is personified at Pete Varvaro’s restaurant “Smoke Meat Pete”.
Boasting and hosting a bevy of live “Blue” music 7 nights a week, Pete’s is hard to be outdone, especially with the cry of local talent that prevails each and every night. From experienced professionals, to garage bands, and the option of jam nights that merge the two, the Blues are harnessed and catered to by all that stand on the stage and sing or play a note.
Although famous for the food, and the hometown atmosphere, Smoke Meat Pete’s is more readily filled come-evening due to the Talent (capital “T”) that attracts people from all corners of the surrounding cities, if not provinces, for the want of “the Blues”. These “Blues” brings out people from amateur to hardcore, all to regale in the talent that appears on Pete’s stage, and there are always surprises to be heard and seen.
The menu is great, the bar is great, the people are great.
The music is better.
This is the magnet that draws and keeps the people coming. The positive part of the equation in what was once termed a negative word: “Juke-joint” can now be said with a smile and vigor, and not just as a whispered and guarded secret.
You can have your world class Smoke Meat, some of the best fries in town, inside or on the patio. You can, have a cold or hot drink, and enjoy the company of the regulars that always seem to be around. You can sit outside have a cigar, and enjoy the afternoon sun, or under the evening sky, all while the rhythm of the Blues fills the air.
Loud and proud, you can hear classic Montreal musicians such as Jimmy James, Kenny Dupree, and James Green, all hosting regular jam nights. Nights that showcase their personal talents, and encourage the exposure of others to join with them and “Jam” with the house-band, giving them a chance to play publicly, and without judgement.
On any given night you can even have Pete come out from behind his counter, and strap on a guitar to have fun and enjoy his music with his staff, friends and clients. You’ll also have Sylvia come from behind the cash and belt out a swansong that’ll have you stop, and just listen.
All this for the simple price of admission, uhmm, well, there is none. Food, drink, and music. All consumables, and all readily available at this Ile Perrot stronghold. Although the motto of the resto is “You can’t beat Pete’s Meat”, it should be you can’t beat His “Blues”.
