Darryl Settles's Corner Bar & Kitchen finds a landing pad

Darryl Settles's latest venture, Darryl's Corner Bar & Kitchen, has opened on the border between Lower Roxbury and the South End. This is the location of the long-time Boston landmark restaurant, Bob the Chef's, and, most recently, of the Stork Club.

Here is how Mr. Settles describes the core concept behind his establishment: "When we first started working on the Darryl’s Corner Bar & Kitchen concept we knew we wanted to be a Great Bar with a great kitchen as opposed to a Great Restaurant with a great bar. The distinction is important."

In anchoring his establishment around a bar, rather than a restaurant, Mr. Settles asserts that the "Corner Bar has always been an important part of our community, whether as a meeting place for revolutionaries or respite for the working man."

With the gentrification of the South End and Northeastern's salient into Lower Roxbury, it seems revolutionaries are scarce on the ground. (Lucy Parsons, anyone?) With the unemployment rate nearing Great Depression levels in Roxbury, the class of working men and women is getting much smaller, too. Perhaps students and the white collar class will make up for the missing proletariat and revolutionaries.

Despite the conceptual emphasis on the drinks, Darryl's Corner Bar & Kitchen does not neglect the kitchen. Here is a three-page pdf of the menu (sans prices).

Mr. Settles has been working his publicity machinery well. A google search for the bar's name yields a solid 50 hits of press announcements and reviews. The Bay State Banner has published a feature article.

That corner of Columbus Avenue and Northampton Street ("the intersection of friends, food, and music") is a quick 7 minute bicycle ride and a brisk 20 minute walk from Mr. Settles's first choice of location for his bar and restaurant, so residents of Fort Hill have yet another convenient choice for drinks and dinner.

A little more than six months ago, Mr. Settles investigated 85 Centre Street on Fort Hill as a possible location for his bar and restaurant.

Iseut via UniversalHub brought Mr. Settles's Fort Hill designs to our attention, providing the impetus for this blog. The first twelve posts conclude with this coda. Those posts chronicle some of the kerfuffle Mr. Settles's proposal provoked on the Centre Street side of Fort Hill. It is bizarre that these posts, from a infant blog with a grand total of 40 posts, aspiring only to cover a tiny part of a middling city, consistently show up high on the first page of a google search on the words Darryl Settles.

Despite our previous opposition, we are very pleased that Mr. Settles's has found a congenial location for his bar and restaurant. We are sorry that some on Fort Hill were disappointed that that location was not at 85 Centre Street. But, we are confident that Darryl's Corner Bar & Kitchen will flourish "at the intersection of food, friends, and music." (So far, the church at 85 Centre Street has remained a reasonably quiet and considerate neighbor.)

The timing of the opening of Darryl's Corner Bar is auspicious for the jazz festival that Mr. Settles founded ten years ago, The Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival, is set to start next week on 15 September and is to run for the next ten days.

The festival is located on Columbus Avenue between Burke Street and Massachusetts Avenue, right on the front steps of Darryl's Corner Bar. [This image is owned by the Berklee College of Music.]

Got Faith? Legend's on the Hill morphs back into a church.

Mission Hill boasts the Mission Church and now Fort Hill has its own Mission Church, too.

The Fellowship Mission Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc. erected its new, well-lighted sign at 85 Centre Street this afternoon. They seem to be one of three churches in the metropolitan area affiliated with the Mission Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a diocese of the larger COOLJC.


A quick peek in the door shows a a spic 'n' span buff-colored interior with a wooden lectern already in place. So far, there were no chairs or pews, though.

This announcement comes from their Facebook wall:

Fellowship Mission Church now has an address! 85 CENTRE ST. Boston (behind Rox Comm College) Come & be blessed - Fri 8pm prayer 4 power & prosperity! Sun 11am Worship & Praise - You will leave more blessed than when you came! See you there!

85 Centre Street was the proposed location of Beehive developer, Darryl Settles's latest entrepreneurial venture, Legend's on the Hill. When neighborhood opposition grew Mr. Settles withdrew consideration of his various proposals. It seems, denied a nice profit on a commercial-land venture, the property's owner has thrown his lot in with Elder Marshall on a spiritual venture.

It has been an interesting couple of years for this lot of land, from disused building to neighborhood store to disused building to putative church to proposed bar-restaurant and back to a church, again.

As noted earlier on this blog (4th & 5th paragraphs of this post), churches are not always the best neighbors. It will be interesting to see whether Fort Hill's Mission Church will be a good neighbor, whether they will successfully evangelize the neighborhood or whether the congregation will come entirely from off the hill, and whether the residents will reminisce about the good-ole days when the building was quiet and disused.

Next posts: Got Milk?

Darryl Settles withdraws 85 Centre St Bar and Restaurant Project.

In a Monday evening email to City Councillor Chuck Turner, State Representative Gloria Fox, City of Boston Neighborhood Coordinator Keith Williams, and various neighbors of 85 Centre Street, Darryl Settles wrote that he has decided, after much soul searching, not to go forward with his project for a bar and restaurant at that location. He thanked the neighborhood for its time and consideration, and wished it the best in its vision discovery process.

It has been a tense month. We are glad this episode in the on-again, off-again development saga of this parcel seems to be over. We, too, wish the best for Mr. Settles.

The concerns of the neighbors on Centre Street should be your concerns, too.

We’ve been told that the proposal for a bar/restaurant at 85 Centre Street has been withdrawn. If we get confirmation of that, we’ll post it.



This is not the first time for 85 Centre Street.

Even if the most recent proposal has been withdrawn, we still think it important to round out the reasons why this proposal is a bad idea. Every decade or so it seems a new proposal for a bar/restaurant crops up at 85 Centre Street. It was the Society of Vulcans at one time, and various private social clubs at others. Each time it seems the neighbors on Centre Street have to shout for their concerns to be heard.

Mr. Settles isn't the issue.

Given all that can be learned about Mr. Settles, he probably is the very best entrepreneur the Centre Street residents could hope for. If this blog hasn't shown high enough regard for Mr. Settles’s reputation—if not his approach to the neighborhood—here is a fine article from Restaurant Confidential on this "quintessential entrepreneur." But, Mr. Settles’s business reputation isn’t the issue. Once Mr. Settles has moved on to his next venture, the neighbors will still be living next to a bar and restaurant being run by the successor owner/manager.

A new bar and restaurant is the issue, not Mr. Settles.

Current aspects of the neighborhood

On the face of things, it should be easy to understand the neighbors’ concerns.

The neighborhood has a status quo. It is up to those who wish to change that to demonstrate why the lives of the Centre Street neighbors will be improved—not the other way around.

Here are a few characteristics of the neighborhood, some positive and some not so positive:

• Residential
• Families with children
• Large number of long-term residents
• Significant numbers of residents who moved to the neighborhood for its current character
• Busy and urban during the day
• Quiet and unhurried during the evening
• Significant impingement by the immediate institutions and urban infrastructure (Roxbury Community College, Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, the mosque, the Orange Line, Fenway Park)
• Heavy day-time and weekend traffic
• Heavy day-time parking
• Vehicular traffic traveling too fast at all hours

Likely changes a bar/restaurant would bring

Here are a few of the negative changes a bar/restaurant would introduce to the neighborhood (We’ll leave it to proponents to list the positive ones):

• A business establishment dropped into an otherwise residential neighborhood
• A liquor license, with the inevitable noise and disorderliness
• Increased day-time traffic (employees and liquor/restaurant supply deliveries)
• Increased night-time traffic
• Increased day-time parking congestion (employees)
• Night-time parking congestion (customers and employees)
• Noise from arriving and departing parties to the bar/restaurant
• Noise from the normal business operation (music on the patios, kitchen exhaust fans, emptying of garbage into the dumpsters)
• Odors from the kitchen exhaust fans

It would be surprising to learn of a residential neighborhood that would welcome these negative changes.

Commercial use up the hill isn't very popular either.

In fact, commercial use at 74 Highland/13 Dorr at Alvah Kittredge Square was recently turned down at a neighborhood meeting. From the distributed notes to that meeting:

The consensus was that although some retail or non-housing uses may be desired in the neighborhood (convenience store, laundromat, etc.) that the down side of these uses in terms of feasibility, security, traffic/parking and other concerns outweighed the benefits.

If these are concerns are to be respected two blocks away at Kittredge Square, they ought to be equally respected, just down the hill, on Centre Street.


In the next posts, we'll discuss the desire for a more urban amenities, and suggest ways this desire could be met. If the proposal for 85 Centre has been withdrawn, we'll post that, too.

Tidying up the details on 85 Centre St & Darryl Settles

There are just a few details of fact and hearsay to tidy up regarding Darryl Settles and 85 Centre Street, before concluding the inaugural spate of posts for this blog.

For the record, here is a transcription of the Boston Licensing Board notice for the 27 January 2010 hearing.

Telsa Hospitality Group, Inc.
d/b/a "Legend's on the Hill"
85 Centre Street
Roxbury, MA 02119

Pursuant to MGLA 138, 15A you are hereby notified to appear at the offices of the Boston Licensing Board.

William F. Arrigal, Jr.
-Library
Room 809A
--City Hall - Boston

Wednesday January 27, 2010 10:00 AM

Has applied for a C.V. 7-Day All Alc. Bev. License-To be exercised on the above premises-In whole of said building, including in one room on first floor with kitchen and restrooms in rear, main entrance on Centre Street and exit to patio areas in rear; dining room and storage in basement; office on second floor; and including an attached greenhouse outdoor seating are [sic] for fifty (50) patrons and adjacent outdoor patio for twenty-five (25) patrons on private property between the hours of 11:00 AM-midnight.

Darryl Settles, Manager

2:00 AM Closing Hour

Please contact Cynthia Fulton from this office if you have any questions

The Licensing Board can be reached at
One City Hall Square, Room 809, Boston, Massachusetts 02201 617-635-4170 Fax: 617-635-4742

In the event, Mr. Settles withdrew his application to the Licensing Board just before the 27 January Board meeting. His application did not come up.

Here are a few comments on this notice. The areas listed in the application are:

1. "one room on first floor with kitchen and restrooms in rear"
2. "dining room and storage in basement"
3. "office on second floor"
4. "attached greenhouse outdoor seating"
5. "patio area in rear" and "adjacent outdoor patio"

And all this was proposed for a building with a gross first floor area of 1254 sq ft. Now granted the current owner is hoping to add more square footage to this, for he has been excavating beneath the first floor—reportedly without getting city permits or notifying DigSafe.

As for area #3, there is no second floor. Judging by the brick construction and exterior conditions shown in the accompanying photograph, the current structure will never bear a second story.

Regarding area #5, this building really has no rear. Zooming all the way in on the City of Boston Assessing Department map, of the property shows a postage stamp's worth of land between the rear exit an the lot line.

The photograph on the right shows that surveyor stakes have recently been set on the back lot line. There are two visible, and they show just how tight the current building is to the back lot line. It's hard to say for certain, but it looks as though the new, below-grade, cinder block construction impinges over the lot line.

Regarding area #4, the attached greenhouse seating clearly must be meant for the adjacent, Dover Amendment parking lot at #79 Centre St.

Reported conversations with various neighbors

In separate conversations with various neighbors, Mr. Settles asserted that he was planning on a "hamburger joint," a "small cafe with a few tables," and that he was applying for the the CV 7-Day All Alc. License just so he'd be able to keep all his options open. But, he really wouldn't want to close any later than, say, midnight.

In conversation with another neighbor, Mr. Settles has since said that the excavation of the current owner has so damaged the structural integrity of the building that it cannot be saved for any purpose.

In discussions following this revelation, Mr. Settles has asserted that he would want nine apartments [sic!] above (presumably on the top two floors) with unspecified commercial space on the first floor. Hearing the gasps, he recalibrated to say that perhaps six apartments on top and an art gallery on the first floor (with provision for alcohol and live music) made more sense.

Mr. Settles also asserted that he would arrange with Roxbury Community College for valet parking.

The payoff for this post

Mr. Settles's main interest seems to be just to get his project started. Even though the existing building can not possibly support the business envisioned in the Licensing Board application, it will enough for Mr. Settles to commence renovations, only to discover—surprise!—that he has to raze the building, expand the footprint to include most of the 5158 sq ft on both lots, excavate a proper foundation and basement, and then build something to suit his obvious ambitions.

Start with a humble burger joint and end with the desired jazz-bar and restaurant seems to be the ad hoc strategy, with nods to residential development along the way.

The next posts will use the facts and observations laid out in these ten posts to argue the conclusion that Darryl Settles and his ideas are this idea is wrong for Centre Street.


An addendum: We've let our rhetoric carry us away. In poking around in the Registry of Deeds web site, we learned something we did not know: Mr. Settles was involved with the development of the condominiums at 147-151 Centre Street. So far as we know, these are a fine addition to the neighborhood.

Blowing Darryl Settles's Horn

The photograph at the left is owned by the Berklee College of Music. It depicts the Beantown Jazz Festival on Columbus Avenue, Roxbury. It is reproduced here to give one measure of Darryl Settles's undoubted success at attracting crowds to his business ventures.

By all accounts Darryl Settles is a notable entrepreneur, restaurateur, and businessman.

He took over—and made over—Bob the Chef's in a time when folk weren't that eager to think of its Northampton Street location as the fashionable South End. He had a good 17-year run with that business, before moving on to the Beehive Restaurant, which actually is located in the South End.

Ten years ago Mr. Settles produced the first Beantown Jazz Festival. Starting from an amazing 10,000 attendees in its first year, the size swelled to 80,000 attendees in 2009. He continued producing it until Berklee College of Music assumed responsibility for it seven years later. The Beehive restaurant remained a prominent sponsor in 2009.

By his own account, Mr. Settles's contributions to the Boston community are broad and extend from hunger and homelessness to minority health issues and Gay Pride. While he used to live in Roxbury and has now moved to Newton, Mr. Settles maintains his civic connection to Boston.

He claims membership on the boards of the Huntington Theatre, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Berklee College of Music Advisory Board.

Mr. Settles was appointed to the board of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority on 22 Feb 2008 by Governor Deval Patrick.

His restaurant business ventures are prominent enough in the Boston community that when news filtered out that someone was interested in opening a jazz bar & restaurant on Fort Hill, there was speculation about it in the foodie press (Grubb Street article 1 and 2).

Here is Mr. Settles's own take on his accomplishments at his D'Ventures Limited web site. Here is his more expansive take [20kb pdf] at the vestigial web site of Bob's Southern Bistro.

Mr. Settles has had his share of public business problems (e.g., this Globe article about a business dispute with his Beehive partners), but these are to be expected.

The entertainment publication Stuff@Night named Mr. Settles, in 2001, "One of Boston's Most Powerful Players." In 2005, 2006, and 2007 they named him as one of the "100 Players of Boston's Nightlife."

At this point the reader may be thinking, "We are all sure that Darryl Settles is a fine and successful businessman, but, What is the payoff for this post?"

The payoff for this post is not another encomium to the social and capitalist prowess of Darryl Settles. He does not need a Jonas Prang for that.

The payoff for this post is a warning.

Mr. Settles is wired fully into the Boston business community, into the Boston charitable community, into Boston and Commonwealth politics. He is a board member of the Convention Center. He served as an associate commissioner of the Metropolitan District Commission. He serves on the board of the MFA and various other cultural institutions.

Mr. Settles clearly has pull, and, no doubt he has some push, too.

What remains to be seen, however, is whether Mr. Settles has the "pull" to to push an inappropriate venture onto an unwilling neighborhood.

The next few posts will show conclusively that a jazz-bar and restaurant does not belong in the residential environs of 85 Centre Street.