Located at 7th Avenue and 48th Street, it was primarily noted in the bebop and progressive jazz era as a venue for traditional musicians.
Its bandstand was a long runway behind the bar that proved convenient when the club abandoned jazz in later years to feature strippers.
Noted songwriters Jim Holvay and Gary Beisbier (who penned hit songs for the Buckinghams in the late 1960s) were part of an R&B band called The Chicagoans who played at the Metropole Cafe in fall 1963.
The bands alternated sets, each on stage for an hour, over a 12-hour stretch from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. During their individual sets, go-go dancers wearing skimpy bikini outfits were stationed across the runway stage behind the bar, which was usually frequented by older men who might have wandered into the club throughout the day and night.
Other resident performers at the club included Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Cozy Cole, Charlie Shavers, Zutty Singleton, Claude Hopkins, J. C. Higginbotham, Tony Scott, Max Kaminsky, Sol Yaged, Maynard Ferguson (in 1964) and Buster Bailey.