Italian Garden
The Italian Garden was a restaurant and nightclub which offered lunch and nightly dinner and dancing at 1923 2nd Avenue North in the 1920s. It was owned by Ernest Romeo, with the kitchen under the supervision of C. A. Roussey.
When the Italian Garden opened in October 1924 it featured music from Nappi's Orchestra. The restaurant pioneered the offer of lunch-time dancing in Birmingham, allowing the city to take "its place alongside the metropolitan centers of the North and East in furnishing noonday entertainment for business folk."
In December the nightclub presented Jack Linx & His Society Serenaders. Romeo soon took over as bandleader as well as proprietor, with his Romeo Orchestra providing the entertainment. In 1925 Romeo's orchestra caused a splash by debuting the foxtrot "The Flapper Wife," a companion to a popular serialized novel then appearing in The Birmingham Post. Dancers requested that the orchestra play it again and again on the night it premiered.
By 1926 Joe Caravella was operating the Birmingham Social Club from the Italian Garden's former address.
References
- "Dull Business Is Doomed By Sprites." (January 31, 1925) The Birmingham News, p. 13
- "Flapper Wife Song Proves To Be Hit With Dancers." (April 18, 1925) The Birmingham Post, p. 1