Slade’s new owners vow to reopen ‘very soon’

Banner Staff

Saying they wanted to give the Roxbury and South End communities a better place to relax, Ivan Payamps and Ramon Genao, the owners of Hollywood Liquors, recently purchased Slade’s Bar and Grill, one of Boston’s oldest black-owned nightclubs.

Once owned by Celtics legend Bill Russell during the 1960s, Slade’s traces its history back to the 1930s and claims many jazz greats and famous patrons, including heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Former owner Frank Williams Jr. said during an interview that he is quite confident the new owners will make a good place an even better one. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Williams said he inherited the popular nightspot in 1998 when his father, Frank Williams Sr., died. Williams Sr. had purchased the club from Russell back in the ’60s.

“I lost a little of the passion that I once had,” Williams Jr. said during an interview. “It was time for me to move on and let someone else have the opportunity to keep it going.”

That someone else was once his tenant.

Located in the same building as Slade’s, Hollywood Liquors was also once owned by the Williams family. Payamps and Genao purchased the store from Williams Jr. seven years ago, and impressed him with their hard work, dedication and business sense.

“These guys are straight-shooters,” Williams Jr. said. “I had no problem pulling the trigger on this deal with them. They came to the table with their checkbooks — not just their mouths.”

For his part, Payamps said he couldn’t be happier with the deal. “It was win-win for everyone,” he said.

Payamps said he plans to keep the club’s name and its trademark style of R&B and jazz entertainment. He said he does plan to change the interior design by creating more open space. Slade’s has been closed for the last three weeks in order for its new owners to make improvements.

Though he didn’t want to specify a date, Payamps said the club is scheduled to reopen “very soon.”

“It’s a good business,” Payamps said. “Slade’s has a lot of history, and it’s one of those places where everybody knows where it is.”

Williams Jr. said major change would not be a good idea, largely because Slade’s has a longstanding tradition of being a neighborhood bar catering predominantly to African Americans. Its menu includes most of the staples of Southern cuisine — fried chicken and fish, greens, sweet potatoes and macaroni and cheese.

“They know what they bought,” Williams Jr. said. “It would be too much time and heartache trying to change the format of the place. And it makes good business sense to keep it the same.”

On that point, Payamps agrees.

“Everything is going to be the same,” he said. “Business has been very good there and we just want a better place for people to relax.”