The cellar under the Harbor Street fish hall was built to store ice. Since 1988, on Thursday nights, it has been the Ice House, a jazz club with 80 seats, a tiny stage and one rule: if you bring an instrument, you get a turn.
The house band starts at nine. By eleven the stage has usually been taken over by whoever turned up, which on a good night means two retired session players, a music student and a saxophonist who drove in from the valley.
Some weeks it is magic. Some weeks it is a man with a trombone who should not have come. That is the deal.
Delphine Ash, who has run the Ice House since 2009
Entry is $10, cash. The ice is long gone, but the cellar is still cold. Bring a sweater.
