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One of the new business owners taking over the Green Room helped create it — now he is trying to make it the spot for world class craft cocktails.
Just hours before business owner Eric Suher faced a city-imposed deadline to either reopen five shuttered Northampton music and nightlife venues or sell their accompanying liquor licenses, he sealed a 5-year intent to lease and a liquor license purchase with two local business owners for the Green Room.
Perrin Hendrick, co-founder of dinner-ware company Supper Club with Will Trinens, said they have been in conversation with Suher about the Green Room since the end of May or early June. The three finalized the negotiations on Thursday and met Suher’s 5 p.m. deadline by only a couple hours.
Suher will remain the owner of the building, while the two co-founders lease the space, Hendrick said.
The sale of the liquor license is contingent on the city License Commission’s approval, which will be discussed at their Oct. 18 meeting, according to Annie Lesko, Northampton’s administration, licensing, and economic development coordinator. The 5-year intent to lease is also based on the liquor license transferring.
Suher reached an agreement in May with Northampton’s License Commission to either sell his all-alcohol liquor licenses or reopen his five businesses under specific conditions, or he would lose all of the liquor licenses. The nightlife venues cited included the Iron Horse, the Basement, the Green Room, the Calvin Theatre and Pearl Street Nightclub.
The news of the Green Room comes after Suher sold the Iron Horse to The Parlor Room on Wednesday, including the venue’s liquor license and sold the liquor license for his Center Street nightclub the Basement to John Piskor, owner of the Main Street restaurant Gombo Nola Kitchen & Oyster Bar on Friday.
Suher has not responded to repeated requests for comment. Reached by phone in August, Suher declined to comment on the status of his businesses, telling MassLive, “you’ll know soon enough,” before hanging up.
While Hendrick and Trinens are serial entrepreneurs, according to Hendrick, they have a special attachment and good memories at the Green Room. Trinens worked with Suher to get the business off the ground before bowing out early on.
- Read more: Eric Suher’s deadline to reopen or sell Northampton venues passed, here’s what’s next
“I think originally Will was interested in kind of executing a vision there,” Hendricks said. “He bowed out early, so it was kind of maybe a chapter left unwritten.”
Hendricks said they have also been patrons of the Green Room and had close relationships with the staff before the business closed last August. He said they are looking forward to continuing the Green Room’s legacy by creating a world class craft cocktail program.
“We’ve also kind of systematically watched Northampton struggle in the past,” Hendrick said. “I think we just decided that it would be a good opportunity to potentially put some skin in the game and see if we could do something that was done really well and executed really beautifully and just kind of elevated. Just adding that component to Northampton that had been missing for the last few years.”
- Read more: Eric Suher sells Basement liquor license to Northampton restaurant Gombo
Although Hendrick said they aren’t interested in serving food, he said they are thinking about how the Green Room will help to inform the ceramics ware at Supper Club.
The two plan to open the Green Room in early 2024 and will be renovating the space. Hendrick didn’t provide specifics about what renovations are to come.
“While [the Green Room] existed, it had some really good things going on there and we hope to take those and revitalize those and also add our own personal voice to them,” Hendrick said.
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