It is spare, inexpensive and comfortable. Instead of talking, patrons listen. And if it's running on the
idealistic fumes of his youth, 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 fororiginal performance of all kinds.

Dizzy's restful ambiance counters the hustle of the Gaslamp that rages a few blocks away. Perrin has factored out video screens, neon, and other distractions common to local music venues, creating an atmosphere as friendly to the audience as it is to the performer. "People come into Dizzy's because it's not like anyplace else," he says.

To Perrin, the concept of Dizzy's is not a new one. His Midwestern college education was funded by three different coffeehouses he established in the 1960's. "They were basically what Dizzy's is now, a collective for artists, musicians, film and theater people, as well as gathering places for people who had opinions about things," he says. "The feeling of empowerment that ran through that is what I've tried to recapture.