Downtown Wine and Spirits sold to new owner group after 37 years - Davis Square, Somerville MA
per post on Davis Square Facebook Group by the owner, business will remain open through renovations. New owners run several other MA small businesses.
![Davis Square Dewey Parsons · End of an ERA - Downtown Wine & Spirits is changing hands. In 1986, 37 years ago, at the age of 31 I purchased the liquor store on the corner of Elm and Grove streets in Davis Square. That was the beginning of Downtown Wine & Spirits and my love affair with Davis Square which continues to this day. The Red Line was still new (2yrs) and there were steel shutters on all of the storefronts to protect the glass from possible vandalism but still, you could feel the vibe that Davis was becoming something special. I remember calling a meeting at Downtown with many other shop owners with the idea of discontinuing the use of the window shutters as they made the square appear unsafe and they were no longer needed. Most agreed and stopped shutting them immediately, without incident. It wasn't long before everyone followed suit and there wasn't a shutter to be seen in the square, again without incident. One small step towards making Davis Square the iconic community it has become. In 1990, when they were building 212 Elm St., the city changed Grove St. to a one way from Highland to Elm to accommodate construction trucks and expedite the project. This was confusing to to many visitors and was negatively affecting all businesses in the square. When I spoke to Mayor Capuano, Mike told me that the parking on Grove St. was metered and source of revenue he said the city needed but assured me that the situation was temporary and would be rectified within 12 months. I met with my landlord, Charlie Laverty (still the owner), and we devised a plan to allow the city to use our parking lot for all of the lost meters and the Mayor agreed to the proposition. To his credit, Mayor Capuano made this happen in 3 weeks time. Everything returned to normal and the construction didn't miss a beat. Those spaces are used by the city to this day. We built Downtown with the idea of stocking every type and brand of beer available. We stocked over 700 different labels. This was a novel concept at the time as most liquor stores carried only the high volume items and a few popular imports. This was some 20 years before the beginning of the Craft Brew movement, which we are also heavily involved with. In the late 80's right through to early 2000's we had customers that would travel from all over New England and some would travel farther. I remember John, from Newark, NJ would be in Boston once a month and he would always come in to purchase an average of 30 cases of different imported beers he could not find elsewhere to share with his beer loving friends back home. With the tag line "The largest selection in the land" and the products in stock to back it up, we were awarded the Best Beer Store of Boston many times. Davis Square was named as one of the top 15 hippest places in 1997 and is still regarded as such by many publications. I am proud of the 37 years we've been there and feel blessed to have been lucky enough to have the Square flourish the way it has under my watch. We were heavily involved creating the local festivals that Davis is known for, Honk, PorchFest and the Arts to name a few. We like to think that we were part of the formative years and played a small part in the rise of Davis Square. Why am I sharing this? ... There's nothing more constant than change and the retail liquor industry has changed to a point that it makes it very difficult for a one store owner, like Downtown, to compete. We don't do enough business to realize the discounts offered on large purchases from our vendors that owners with 9 stores accomplish easily. Our costs continue to rise and there are trends in the marketplace that increase our dilemma. For those reasons, at the tender age of 68, I have decided to turn over the reigns of Downtown to a large group that has the buying power and funding to take Downtown to the next level. They will take over sometime in September and will be operating as Liquor World of Davis Square. They will completely renovate the store while remaining open and will change the configuration of the store. A main component of the deal is that they will retain my staff. This transition will be good for my employees and good for my customers and good for Davis Square. I will continue my love affair with Davis and visit often as I live close by. I wish to thank those that ever shopped at Downtown and want you to know that I truly appreciated every minute in those 37 years. If you venture to Downtown in the coming weeks and want to share a memory or just say hello, please ask for Dewey or Steve the GM. We'd love to chat and give you a Downtown Memento. Thank you Davis Square from the bottom of my heart. Great memories with more to come!](https://kbin.social/index.php/media/cache/resolve/entry_thumb/a4/09/a409317e319df99f86ec1b86d04153c7a51f2e4bca829b97cfc0d11908407c26.jpg)
per post on Davis Square Facebook Group by the owner, business will remain open through renovations. New owners run several other MA small businesses.
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