- Good, are you coming this way tonight?

All right, I'm gonna sign you up now.

- [Narrator] It's a blues jam night at Blue Note Grill, Kinda like a pickup basketball game.

- Pretty much.

They're like, "Hey, who's hosting?"

And I tell 'em me or Gabe or whatever, and it's like, all right, I'll be there in five minutes or I'll be there in at around 08:00.

- [Interviewer] You've been playing here for some time.

Tell me what you enjoy about coming here.

What keeps you coming back?

- I don't know, it's a good community, man.

It's kinda hard to find.

I've been in a bunch of different states and checked out whatever blues jams they have, but we've got a good community.

[gentle guitar music] - It's a awesome atmosphere.

Lovely people, the staff, you meet awesome musicians.

[upbeat music] - It's the longest running blues jam in the triangle.

We've been doing it since 2010, 2011.

- [Narrator] And doing it well.

Bill Whittington had no idea where his investment in Blue Note Cafe might take him.

It's been a rock and ride, sometimes literally.

- We're thankful to be here.

We've didn't think we were going through COVID but we are here.

I think what's unique is we've had this community develop around us.

We have tons of regulars that come, music lovers and what kind of makes us unique is that folks come here for the music.

The band isn't a fly on the wall, they're not playing while everybody's going about their own business, they're here to see the music, listen to the music, and dance to the music.

- Everybody is here just to hear good music, eat food, enjoy the atmosphere, and that's what we are about.

[upbeat music] - [Narrator] Blue Note Cafe has a variety of music possibilities that play out on various nights of the week, but usually, you'll hear something bluesy woven into every show.

♪ Ride Sally ride ♪ - [Narrator] On this night, the blues is jamming.

- The folks who wanna play come in, they sign up on a list.

Our coordinator slash MC puts a band together.

So, you'll have a drummer, two guitar players, a bass player, a harmonica player, if we have one, put 'em up here, and they work together what they're gonna play.

They do three songs and then when they do their three songs they sit down and another group comes up.

- [Narrator] While the beat goes on, the dancing never stops and neither does the food service.

The popular barbecue and ribs keep things so busy that Bill is frequently called to action.

It's hard work, and that's fitting.

The whole operation has a blue collar every man and woman kind of feel, and it's located down the third baseline of Old Durham Bulls Athletic Park for crying out loud.

When Bill was looking for a new location back in 2015, he knew he wanted an old time feel like a Memphis or a New Orleans vibe.

- And I went and toured a brand new building and it looked nice and everything, but for me, it was like, I asked it's like, well, it's nice, but you have anything with like mud and dirt and dust and... - [Speaker] A little grungier.

- Yeah, yeah, a month later he calls me, so he's like, "I got a place you might be interested, you wanna look at it?"

So, nine o'clock the next day we're in here walking through and it was an old machine shop.

It had everything I wanted.

It was greasy, it was dusty, it was dirty, it was brick.

- [Narrator] It was perfect for what Bill wanted.

And for more than a decade, the beer, barbecue and blues here is still knocking it out of the park five nights a week.

- The Blue Note Grill is at 709 Washington Street in Durham and it's open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 10:00 pm.

To order their food online or to find out who's playing the blues that night, give them a call at [919] 401-1979, or check them out online at thebluenotegrill.com.