Hurry to Their Blues Heaven

Babe’s and Ricky’s Inn is one of L.A.’s best-kept secrets. The tiny blues bar at 57th Street and South Central Avenue looks unassuming from the street, but is always filled with a cross section of music lovers. The people are warm and the atmosphere is intimate.

South Central Avenue was once Southern California’s mecca for the blues. Over the last three decades the other hot spots have disappeared. Only Babe’s and Ricky’s is left.

Many of America’s greatest jazz musicians have jammed here--Albert King, B.B. King, Larry Davis, Little Nelson and Bobby Bryan, to name some. Walls are covered with photos of the Who’s Who of Blues.

On any Sunday or Monday night, the shoe-box-sized bar is filled to capacity with jazz enthusiasts from all over Los Angeles. People drive from Pomona and both valleys to sit, stand, dance and eat chicken dinners in the nostalgia of a place that looks the same as it did 28 years ago when Laura Gross opened it. For a recent two-day 72nd birthday party for Gross, people flew in from all over to hear a stunning array of musicians.

Friday and Saturday nights feature the bar’s house band, the Balls of Fire. On Monday nights, jam sessions are held with name musicians spontaneously appearing, instruments in hand. You never know who is going to step up to the microphone.

For a $2 cover charge, it’s a bargain that can’t be topped anywhere.