KINGS OF NIGHTLIFE
By Linnea Sheldon
October 2005 -
David Domenick, now a partner at Sh-Booms, The Atrium and Voodoo
nightclubs, has been working in the Worcester nightlife scene for years.
He is originally from Pennsylvania, where his love for the service industry
began over 30 years ago. As a child, he began helping out at his father’s
tavern alongside his brothers and sister. His grandfather also owned a
beer distributorship in the area, so David grew up surrounded by the industry.
When he left PA to attend Johnson and Wales College in Providence, it
was only natural that his major was Hotel/Restaurant Management
While in school, he began working as a bar back at the Providence Marriott.
Before long he had worked his way up to Assistant Lounge Manager, unable
to hold the title of Lounge Manager because he was still in school. After
completing his degree in 1986, he was transferred to the Worcester Marriott.
He worked there for about 6 months and made such an impression that he
was hired to manage Sh-Booms at its Main Street location. Since then,
David has been involved in the opening and operation of nightclubs all
over New England, including Providence, Springfield, and Hartford.
In addition to his career in the nightlife industry, David is also a husband
and a father to 3 boys. He coaches Pop Warner football and is on the Board
of Directors for the Worcester Area Chamber of Commerce.
“The best part of the work is when you know you did a good job on
a new club or concept and you are busy,” he said. “My plan
is to keep the clubs going as long as I can and have some level of enjoyment
while working them. When it is no longer fun I will do something else.”
Despite the hours that a successful club partner has to put in, David
still makes sure to spend quality time with his family. “The hard
part is putting them to bed and going to work at night, getting home late,
and getting them off to school early in the morning,” he said. As
for why David stays in Worcester, he explains, “This is where I
landed. It is a great little city. I can call the President of the Chamber
of Commerce, the Mayor, or the City Manager and get a meeting with any
one of them very quickly, and there are some great people in this city.”
 Scot
Neri of Irish Times was also born into the industry. His father
owned what started out as a small seafood stand in Portsmouth, NH but
grew into a 130 seat, full-service restaurant and lounge. Scot began by
helping his father with operations for the restaurant and then got into
bartending at age 16.
Scot attended Babson College and after graduation watched many of his
friends take office jobs that were paying less than what he was making
at his college gig behind the bar. “I saw the money when I got out
of college and I couldn’t see myself sitting at a desk, plus there’s
the fun factor,” he said.
In 1993, Scot left the area to bartend at the Shark Club in Las Vegas,
at the time the # 1 grossing nightclub in the country. By 1995 when he
left to help open the Hard Rock Hotel, he had worked his way up to bar
manager.
After Scot moved back to New England, he took a job as Director of Sales
for an online advertising agency ~ but he missed the hospitality industry.
He landed a job as the General Manager for a local restaurant and helped
run several others before he took a winter job running the nightclubs
at Mount Snow.
That was about the time when the opportunity to take over the Irish Times
was offered to him and he decided to take on the challenge. “Right
now I’m about half way through getting the Irish Times where it
was, my plan is to get it back to where it was 6 years ago,” he
said. “As for me, short term is still going to be at the Irish Times
and I have a couple ideas for Worcester.”
As for Worcester, it’s the smallest city in which Scot has ever
worked. “People here are not afraid to try anything new…If
you go in and want to open up a new club or start a new night, and if
you get the word out people are going to come in and try it. If you try
it in Boston or Vegas people won’t necessarily come. The number
of places that are here is amazing, as is the number of people who go
out in town,” he said.
 Erick
Godin of the Lucky Dog has been in the Worcester scene for many
years now. He grew up in East Templeton then came to Worcester for art
school in 1988. A talented musician, Erick started out performing with
bands in the area.
As performers at then-Sir Morgan’s Cove, now the Lucky Dog, his
band always seemed to bring out a crowd. “It seemed like all the
bands that I was in always had a lot of friends,” he said. “They
always came out to see us, and that’s how I got hired.”
Erick started booking nights for the club in 1997. He also had a job in
the commercial art field for 8 years, but being in the band was pulling
him in a different direction. “I really enjoy playing in bands,
and going out and meeting people,” he said.
Now as co-owner of the Lucky Dog, Erick does the bookings and works hard
to give new bands the opportunity to get their music out there. A perfect
example is the popular Wormtown Wednesday, a showcase for local talent
that has been going strong for over three years. “We’re pretty
much the only club around that solely depends on music,” he said.
“I just want people to realize there is a world of different music
in this place, whereas a lot of other places stick to a genre, I don’t
want to be labeled as a certain kind of club.”
Erick enjoys being part of the Worcester nightlife scene for many reasons.
“I think Worcester is very gra-cious,” he said. “They
make it easy to get a place going. People can be fickle, but I find that
if you get them here a couple times they come back.” Working with
the other local club owners around town is a good feeling, too. Erick
is known for setting other club owners up with acoustic acts and really
does whatever he can to support the local scene, from showcases to benefit
shows. “If one club is busy, they’re all busy,” he said.
“We’re all so public about what’s going on we can be
sure the schedules aren’t conflicting.”
Another local who is a big supporter of the music scene is Gina
Migliozzi, the General Manager of the Palladium. She began her
career in the industry as a waitress, eventually touring with bands first
as a merchandise person and eventually as tour manager.“
Sometimes I miss the touring, I had a great time seeing the world and
going to a lot of different countries, you go all over the place and meet
a lot of different people and cultures, but it’s very taxing on
the body and mind,” she explained.
She began her career in the more local music scene by booking shows at
a club in Hadley in 1990. She also began working for a production company
that ~ as fate would have it ~ did shows at The Palladium. When the opportunity
came knocking, Gina took over The Palladium in June of 2000.“
We turned it exclusively into a concert venue and remodeled the inside,”
she said. “We now do huge national acts ~ booking shows and running
concert halls has been my job for 15 years. I love the Palladium, it’s
a great venue and we’ve done a lot of great shows.”
She loves her job but points out that it’s not all fun and games.
“There is a lot of office work we do, but it’s the best of
both worlds, because you get to be out on the floor and check out the
show,” she said. “You’re also dealing with people who
are intaking alcohol, so their judgment is not always great, so you kind
of have to be the bad guy sometimes.”
One of Gina’s favorite parts of the job is the different people
she meets. She also loves the idea of putting on a show. “I guess
I like the overall aspect of putting on shows everyday, starting with
a blank stage and putting a concert on, it’s artistic and there
are so many little details that go on that the average person doesn’t
see.
 ”Vincent
Hemmeter has been in the nightlife business for years, and he
wouldn’t have it any other way. Originally from Toledo, OH, Vincent
came to MA with his family when he was 9 years old. His first job in the
nightlife industry brought him to Worcester at the age of 21. He had spent
6 months traveling Europe and was out of money. When his friend mentioned
that there was a bartender position open at Ralph’s, Vincent took
it and never looked back.
“I had never bartended or been a drinker, but I was there for 12
years,” said Vincent. “When I left there is was to open up
Vincent’s in 1997. I ended up buying Ralph’s in 2002. I met
just about everybody I know doing this.”
One of the best parts of the job for Vincent is the evening hours. When
asked about the challenges of the position, he had to think for a minute
before explaining that the positives far outweigh the challenges. “It’s
tough to shut people off,” he explained. “I guess I’m
also lucky I work in a place where I don’t have any fights.”As
for his future plans, Vincent explained, “I plan on running Ralph’s
and Vincent’s for a long time. Worcester is just where I ended up
by sheer chance, I really like it here, it’s unpretentious but it
really has an edge to it.
”He’s had a good experience with all of the other club owners
he has worked with, too. As for competition, he said, “The more
places are busy, the more people go out, usually you find if you’re
having a really good night, it’s busy all over the city. Usually
people don’t stay in one place, they jump around, they go out when
things are happening.”
Originally from Detroit, Anneliese Curtis Place, CEO
of the Compound in Fitchburg, came to MA when her father got stationed
at Fort Devons in Ayer and began her career as a cocktail waitress. Over
the next several years, she worked her way up to bartender and eventually
to bar manager. She attended Smith College in Northampton for Art History
and her nightlife gig paid the bills. “In a strange way I fell into
the business, I wanted to be an archaeologist so I worked in bars to pay
for school and I didn’t let education get in the way of my life,
and I just decided this was it for me.
”Anneliese explains that Ralph’s is the bar that made her
decide she wanted to be a bar owner. “I never wanted to own a bar,”
she explained. “But one night I went into Ralph’s, and I had
never been in there before, and I went into the girls’ bathroom,
and I said to myself that if I ever owned a bar I would want it to be
like this one.
”She approached the owner of what is now her building and made the
deal. “I’m a single mom doing this, and it seems like it’s
kind of a man’s world,” she said. “Of course it’s
more challenging being a woman, and I figured that out really quickly.
”Anneliese plans on moving to California to retire, but for now
she is here. “This is where I know everyone, the opportunities were
here,” she said. “Why would you leave an opportunity like
The Compound? You just can’t do it.
”The Compound has live music 5 nights a week, with up to 6 bands
playing each night. They have people who book both local and national
acts. Says Anneliese, “It’s really about supporting local
music, but we have touring bands and cold beer, and lots of Jager shots.”
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