It took Stephen DeSousa one month to be promoted from bar manager to general manager at Tavern in the Square’s first location in November 2004. Twenty years later, he now sits as CEO of the independent Boston-based regional chain, celebrating their double-decade anniversaries in tandem.
Working with partners Joey Arcari and Renato Valentim, DeSousa provided the corporate and operational restaurant background as the third spoke in the wheel. Valentim experienced a similar uphill grind, emigrating from Brazil and beginning his culinary path as a dishwasher and cook.
“We all worked our way up, we came up together all with different parts in the company,” says DeSousa, “and we’ve been growing organically for 20 years.”
As Tavern in the Square expanded to four locations in its early years, the trio decided to establish the Broadway Hospitality Group, for which DeSousa also serves as CEO. Throughout their double-decade venture, the BHG team created several other independent taverns to fill gaps in non-suburban areas around Tavern in the Square, the group’s flagship brand which has expanded to 16 stores.
While Tavern in the Square serves guests across New England, BHG’s independent concepts cater to younger crowds with creative food and drink options in urban areas. These restaurants include The Mercantile in Worcester, Massachusetts; The Broadway in South Boston; and The Derby in Salem, Massachusetts. DeSousa notes these independents act as “beta tests” for their focus restaurant, Tavern in the Square is all about establishing consistency within their customer base. Twenty years later, BHG’s plan seems to have paid off.
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The BHG leadership team checks in on their locations frequently, which DeSousa asserts is key in establishing solid relationships with individual managers and to “get a pulse of what’s going on.” However, he notes it may be difficult for some larger brands to stay in touch with the communities that they serve.
To curb this, Tavern in the Square works hyper-locally. Each location has a unique exterior build and interior decor, but that’s not all. The brand frequently hosts donation drives and fundraisers that benefit specific schools within the neighborhood in which they are located, which DeSousa says totals $6,000 to $7,000 per school. BHG also does one food drop a week, whether at a school, police department, or hospital. Additionally, Tavern in the Square offers a Cocktails for a Cause program, where drink revenue goes directly to a charity near the specific locale.
Tavern in the Square strives to serve as a dining experience where everyone ranging from picky eaters to the most experimental epicureans can have a good meal. The menu spans a diverse array of offerings, including small bites like Fried Pickle Chips with a secret sauce and Buffalo Cauliflower with pickled celery; hearty entrées such as Bayou Chicken Pasta and Baked Tortellini Bolognese with braised short rib, sweet Italian sausage, whipped ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan; as well as a selection of pizzas, salads, sandwiches, and burgers. Also, the units stay open an hour later than most restaurants in their direct areas, so fellow hospitality employees can get a bite to eat after their shifts.
“We do all of it—people coming for lunch, afternoon, evening, birthday celebrations, late night,” says DeSousa. “We’re catering to everybody. We call it polished casual.”
Another differentiator is the brand’s commitment to being allergy-conscious. DeSousa’s own children have allergies and he did not want their nutritional safety to be an afterthought. “We literally stripped down our menu and built it from the ground up, so 75 percent of our menu can be made gluten-free,” he says. All Tavern in the Square locations have fryers that are exclusively gluten-free, dairy-free, shellfish-free, and nut-free in order to establish a space where allergy-prone guests feel comfortable.
Due to its small team and its independent sister restaurants, Tavern in the Square can actively pursue culinary innovation without breaking the bank. DeSousa says that the brand rotates between five menus per year, playing into seasonality and trends.
The restaurant world sees a lot of turnover, so Arcari, Valentim, and DeSousa’s shared twenty-year venture sheds light on the restaurant’s success.
DeSousa adds that although many brands use technology to advance efficiencies, there’s a fine line between tech that is helpful and hurtful. “As cool as technology is, it’s impersonal,” he says. “Hospitality, personalization, knowing who people are—it’s not just a transaction. People are going out [to eat] because they want to have a good time and feel like they feel special.”
On the BHG team, says DeSousa, “I’ve got people who have been with me 18, 19, 20 years. They care, and you can feel that, and that makes people who work for them care, and that makes people who come in feel like they’re cared for.”
On the horizon, Tavern in the Square will open four new locations in 2025 to continue spreading beer and cheer across New England.
