It has taken some collaboration – and some fine tuning – but Bridgeport Restaurant Week and Jazz Expo has become a reality. The seven-day celebration of cuisine, music and the local food movement kicks off July 21, with seven restaurants participating over the course of the event: Brickside Bar & Grill, Meagher’s Irish Pub, Mia Margherita, Mountaineer Grille, Oliverio’s Ristorante, Provence Market and Wonder Bar Steakhouse.

 

Patrons will be treated to $30 three-course dinners paired with jazz tunes, some courtesy of “Stockholm Swingin” artists Sean Nowell, Lars Ekman, Leo Lindberg, Fredric Olsson, Paul Tynan and Joe Abba. Those musicians, who hail from New York City, Sweden and Nova Scotia, recorded their acclaimed CD at the world-famous Glenn Miller Café jazz club in Stockholm, Sweden.

 

“Our headliner band is headed up (Clarksburg native) Kirsten Wyatt’s husband Sean Nowell,” said Bob Workman of Bridgeport Farmers Market, one of three entities sponsoring the series. “We had him at the very first jazz event we ever did – back in 2009 at Bridgeport Conference Center. We always wanted to bring him back and when he told us he had these guys from Sweden playing with him this summer, we thought that was just perfect. It just kind of fell into place.”

 

Other jazz artists offering dining pleasure entertainment include Davin Seamon, Rus Reppert and The Mendoza Brothers Quintet of Bridgeport and Phil Wyatt of Clarksburg. Others from throughout North Central West Virginia are Seth Maynard, Mark Cappellini, Greg Thurman, Adam Loudin and Rich Norwood. Pittsburgh- and DC-based artists are also on board.

 

Besides the jazz, the other signature quality of the dining series is that a portion of the offerings will be prepared with locally-grown or raised foods, bringing awareness to the farm-to-table initiative, Workman said. In addition to Bridgeport Farmers Market, the event is being sponsored by Bridgeport Arts Council and the West Virginia Jazz Society.

 

The series will crescendo with a July 25 Bridgeport Arts Council Jazz Expo, featuring 20 jazz artists from organized into four ensembles playing simultaneously in four different venues throughout Bridgeport:  Provence Market, The Veranda at Via Veneto,  Mia Margherita and Brickside Bar & Grill.

 

 

On Saturday, July 26, Sean Nowell and the NYC/Stockholm Jazz Collective will appear in a headlining show beginning at 8:30 p.m. at Brickside Bar & Grill in Bridgeport.

 

It all winds up Sunday, July 27 with the Country Roads Cook-Off at Bridgeport Farmers Market at Charles Pointe.

 

It’s a series of exciting events with benefits for restaurants and patrons, said Eric Spelsberg, West Virginia Jazz Society, Inc.

 

"We think what we are doing as promoting Bridgeport within the world of jazz, not the other way around,” he said. “Bridgeport is an emerging international community ripe to be developed as a dining and entertainment destination.  Live jazz music and great food are the key components of the marketing equation."

 

Mary Kay Greer of Bridgeport Arts Council is pleased with how plans have played out and hopes the community will support the efforts.

 

“We have a lot of great jazz in our area and a lot of great jazz outside of our area. This is a great way to pull people in for the week and let them try something new,” she said. “We have some fabulous restaurants and a great farmers market. It’s great to put all things together and do something like this. I’m really excited.”

 

Patrons are welcome to visit as many restaurants during the weeklong event as they desire. Each individual restaurant is preparing its own menu for the special event and will also have their usual offerings. Whether or not reservations are needed depends upon the dining establishment. Check with individual restaurants to secure dining availability.