Fact #186778

The Chicago Tribune reports that "from Twenty-second Street south in Michigan Avenue, Wabash Avenue, State Street, and the cross streets as far south as Thirty-first Street is a rich district of the so-called buffet flats. There, too, can be found hundreds of handbooks, gaming houses, and all night saloons of the most vicious character." A "buffet flat" was essentially a domestic residence in which live music, usually jazz or blues, was performed to small audiences. Bessie Smith is recorded as having frequently played shows in "buffet flats".