Sons of Boston owners getting ready to re-open; hope new name can remove stain of murder outside, allegedly by one of its bouncers

Update: Name change approved.

The Boston Licensing Board tomorrow decides whether to let the owners of the Sons of Boston, 17 Union St., change its name to the Loyal Nine.

The licensing board voted last April to shut the bar indefinitely as a public-safety menace, after bouncer Alvaro Larrama was charged with fatally stabbing a man outside - and another bar worker was charged with helping him change out of his bloody clothes and escape, following a series of other, less deadly, incidents.

But in January, the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission overturned that suspension, concluding that testimony by three BPD detectives used by the board constituted hearsay because the officers who spoke were reading from reports written by other officers and did not actually witness the stabbing murder of Daniel Martinez, a visiting former Marine from Chicago.

At a brief hearing today, Sons of Boston attorney Carolyn Conway said the new name of the Loyal Nine is an homage to the group of Boston colonists who organized opposition to the Stamp Act in 1765, in part through meetings at the office of a local newspaper, the Gazette, based near the current site of the Sons of Boston. Board members asked no questions and nobody spoke for or against the proposed name change.

Martinez's murder was not the first incident to get the bar in trouble with the licensing board. In 2021, the bar had to answer for a bouncer who was challenging passersby to fight him and who then hurled epithets at the police who responded.

The ABCC itself indefinitely suspended the bar's license on Nov. 9, 2020 after concluding it had violated emergency state Covid-19 regulations by letting patrons just sit at tables and drink without food. However, that "indefinite" suspension only last until Nov. 18, when the commission lifted it.

One of the Sons of Boston's owners, Derek Brady, has also had problems with licensing officials over other bars he owns. Last August, the licensing board rejected his request to buy the closed White Horse Tavern on Brighton Avenue in Allston, because his application included a statement he had no criminal record when, in fact, he does.