The Rendezvous opened the year after Prohibition was repealed, in 1934. A smallish bar located in Turners Falls, The Rendezvous kept its doors open and the suds flowing for almost 70 more years. Shortly after the turn of the century, The Rendezvous changed hands and became Yesterday’s for a few years. Then the restaurant/bar changed hands yet again and after extensive remodeling, the space is known once more as The Rendezvous.
Officially open for business on September 1st of this year, the new The Rendezvous, located at 78 Third Street in Turners Falls, is owned by partners Jamie Berger, Emily Brewster, Christopher Janke and Mark Wisnewski. The bar/restaurant (tasty offerings include bruschetta, smoked cheese, veggie paninis and chorizo batard) is affectionately known as The Voo and is intended to be “a place where all different types of people can come and hang out,” according to Berger.
In order to attract a variety of people, the folks at The Voo are offering a broad selection of events and activities that customers can choose to attend and/or participate in. Highlights of the bar’s social calendar include Tuesday night craft night, for aspiring and and proficient knitters, crocheters and embroiderers; Rockit Queer, a monthly rock ‘n’ roll queer dance; game nights (that’s games you play, not the kind you watch, although you can certainly do that too at The Voo); and karaoke-filled evenings.
And let’s not forget about the music. Not even two months into its second life, The Rendezvous boasts an ecclectic lineup comprising some of the area’s hottest acts like Iron City, a jazz/funk group, The Robert and Glenda Homes Lounge Duo, performing campy lounge ditties, rockers Rusty Belle, The Amity Front and Rust Knuckle Raptor, gypsy jazz band Wood Green Empire, numerous singer-songwriters. This Sunday, Nov. 4, Voo hosts two solo sets by Julia Read of Vewy Ware Fwowa, with Spring Chicken on fiddle and vocals, and Harrison Whistler Hobbs of Fear Not the Hammer and Spring Chicken on guitar and words. For a complete schedule of The Rendezvous’ events, go to the calendar section of www.therendezvoustfma.com. •
