Sons of Boston, a downtown Boston bar where a bouncer allegedly stabbed a former Marine to death last year in an altercation near the establishment, appears poised to reopen under a new name but with the same ownership, according to city records and an attorney for the business.
The Licensing Board on Thursday granted a request to change the ”doing business as” name of the bar at 17 Union St. from Sons of Boston to Loyal Nine, according to minutes of the board’s regular meeting.
The minutes didn’t indicate when Loyal Nine plans to open.
Carolyn M. Conway, a lawyer for the business, said that Loyal Nine will operate under the same ownership.
“It is a simple change of d/b/a,” Conway wrote in an e-mail. “Looking to open in the next few weeks.”
Alvaro O. Larrama was working as a bouncer at the Sons of Boston bar on the night of March 19, 2022, when he allegedly fatally stabbed former Marine Daniel Martinez, 23, near the business during an altercation that started after Larrama had barred Martinez and a friend from entering the establishment.
Larrama has pleaded not guilty to murder in connection with the death of Martinez, who was visiting Boston from Illinois, where he lived, and is being held without bail. A trial is scheduled for October, records show.
The Licensing Board in April of last year unanimously voted to suspend Sons of Boston’s liquor license, citing what the panel said were lax safety protocols and management leading up to the killing.
“I see multiple violations by Sons of Boston,” said board chair Kathleen Joyce during the April 2022 meeting before the vote to indefinitely suspend the bar’s license. “The entire security operation from beginning to end was a failure.”
Joyce said at the time that the “failure to have a security plan, the absence of any meaningful training plan in place on March 19, and a lack of management led to serious public safety issues, and now Daniel Martinez is dead. I believe his death was foreseeable and preventable.”
Joyce noted that Sons of Boston manager Jason Kuczynski testified before the board that Larrama never signed necessary paperwork for a criminal background check before he was hired — a “clear violation” of city policy.
Court records show Larrama has been arrested multiple times during the past five years on domestic violence charges, including allegations he threw his former wife into a shelving unit and dragged her to the ground by her hair.
“Mr. Kuczynski also testified that never at any point during the events of March 19 did anyone from Sons of Boston call the police, even after Mr. Larrama disappeared from the premises,” Joyce said before the board’s April 2022 vote. “This is a stunning lapse in judgment and it breached their duty as an operator. Not only were the police not called, but nobody did anything to detain Mr. Larrama” following the stabbing.
Joyce pointed to video footage provided by the bar as another factor in her decision to vote for suspension.
She said the footage shows Larrama after the stabbing “walking freely around the establishment, talking to several employees, including Mr. Kuczynski. And at another point we see a female employee bringing him a change of clothes in the basement before he [Larrama] ultimately leaves out the back door.”
Bar employees had testified before the board that they didn’t know Larrama had allegedly stabbed Martinez before he exited from the rear of the establishment.
Joyce told the Globe Friday in an e-mail that the bar is reopening under its new name because the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission had “overturned” the licensing board’s indefinite suspension of the establishment’s liquor license.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.