Dizzy's at the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center

It is comfortable, spare, and inexpensive. Instead of talking, patrons listen. And if it's running on the idealistic fumes of his youth, owner Chuck Perrin doesn't care. Dizzy's, the performance space he has operated since April of 2000, has refocused San Diego's sputtering jazz scene and is fast becoming a destination for original performance of all kinds.

Located at the southern tip of Seventh Avenue, Dizzy's restful interior counters the flux of it's East Village surroundings. To the east, the ballpark expansion rages. To the west, the hustle of the Gaslamp rules. But beneath the open beamed ceilings and within the aging brick walls of a former warehouse, Perrin has factored out alcohol, television, neon, and other distractions common to local music venues, creating an atmosphere as friendly to the audience as it is to the performer.