Kevin Troy Interview

The beauty of the Stool is that when we do an interview you never know who we’re going to sit down with. So far we’ve interviewed poker stars Dan Fishman and Dutch Boyd, handicapper Stu Feiner, Big East Commissioner Mike Trangese and today we get Kevin Troy. Who is Kevin Troy you ask? Well the odds are that despite the fact you may not know who he is you’ve probably waited in line to get into one of his bars. Kevin Troy is as big as it gets in Boston Nightlife. He owns a wide range of joints including Jillians, Tequila Rain, Match, Gypsy Bar and the Liquor Store. If you’re like me you’ve always wondered how a guy like this has managed to build his empire and what it’s like to be king. And on a more personal level I’ve always wondered why he advertises all his bars in every publication except the Stool so I figured it would be a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and get all our questions answered. So without further ado here is our interview with Kevin Troy:

Barstool - Let’s start at the beginning. I know that you played minor league hockey. So how does a hockey player end up in the bar business?

Troy - Well after High School I started playing Juniors. You could only play Juniors until you were 19 at the time. So after Juniors I went and played for the Kalamazoo Wings in Detroit. I only stayed there a short while because they didn’t pay that well relatively speaking. After leaving Detroit I went to the North American Hockey League to play for the Maine Nordiques. While I was there one of the owners of the Nordiques started his own minor league team called the Beauce Jaros located in St. George which is right outside Quebec City. So I went from Maine to St. George and played for the Beauce Jaros which turned out to be one of the most famous minor league hockey teams of all time. After it became obvious that I didn’t have a big future in the NHL, I stopped playing hockey, but continued to live in St. George. A guy who owned a group of night clubs in Quebec City and who was also a fan of the Beauce Jaros offered me a job working for him managing one of his nightclubs. And that’s how I accidentally ended up getting involved in the nightclub business. For the first year I just enjoyed myself. I did nothing but drink, meet people and have a good time. After a year of doing that I basically went to Victor and told him I wanted to learn the business. So for the next year I followed him around and learned the basics of what it took to run a nightclub. After that I moved back to Boston and worked in a bunch of places around here until I opened Jillians 16 years ago.

Barstool - Okay, so you just decided to open Jillian’s? How does one go about opening a gigantic club in Boston?

Troy - See, that’s the thing. Jillian’s wasn’t gigantic when we opened it. It was just the 3rd floor and we opened it from out-of-pocket funds and a small bank loan.

Barstool – Interesting. I don’t think a lot of people would think that you started small. I’m always under the impression that in order to get to be as huge as you are right now you need a ton of money to start.

Troy- You will see people who start by opening huge clubs, but they were probably successful in something else first. That wasn’t us. We just took the money we made at Jillian’s and reinvested it in the business. We also invested it around the country. As a result, nationally I think we’re bigger than anyone else from this area, where locally we have a fair amount going on.

Barstool - How long did it take you before you opened up your 2nd Jillian’s and where was it?

Troy- It took about about a year and a half and the 2nd one was in Miami. Miami was fun back then. Not everybody knew about South Beach yet.

Barstool – Do you own all the Jillian’s clubs across the country?

Troy - We only own Boston and Denver now. We sold all the others. I think at one point we owned 43 of them across the country.

Barstool – What about Lucky Strike lanes? Do you own all of those?

Troy - Yup, we own all 14 of them.

Barstool - Do you travel a lot to all your places?

Troy - Not at a crazy pace but I travel a lot.

Barstool - How many employees work for you?

Troy - 2,000 employees

Barstool – Okay, now let’s get into the good questions. If you were going to hang out with just your buddies and aren’t interested in meeting girls where would you go and why? Basically where would you go for a guy’s night out.

Troy - Well I’d prefer not to go to my bars because I’m always just working in my bars and I wouldn’t want to drink in my locations with my friends. My favorite place to go would be to call Budweiser and go their private suite at Fenway. What’s better than that? You sit there with a group of friends and you never know who is going to pop in the door over there when you go.

Barstool – Next time I’m going out with my buddies I’ll give Bud a call but I got a feeling that’s a call that they may not be returning quite yet. Okay next question and I think I already know the answer to this one. If you were going out on the town for a night and the primary goal was to meet hot girls where would you go? It has to be Gypsy Bar right? Tell me it’s Gypsy Bar.

Troy - Let me tell you a hidden secret about Liquor Store. The strangest thing about Liquor Store is the percentage of women. It’s extremely high compared to any bar in Boston. Like to the point that it was almost a problem. We’d have girls come out and ask where are the guys? And it’s true. You get all these bachelorette parties and you get 100 women in there before a guy sets foot in the door. So I’d have to say Liquor Store may be my first choice.

Barstool – Wow, that may be the most useful information gained from any interview ever. How is your new place Match doing compared to Blue Cat?

Troy – Oh my god. It’s night and day. There are lines Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Blue Cat didn’t have an identity.

Barstool – Speaking of lines, would you wait in line to get in Gypsy Bar?

Troy - No, I’m an A type personality. I don’t think I’d have the patience for it.

Barstool - Do you think a normal sports bar can ever work in Boston?

Troy - The problem is when there are no major sporting events what happens? The Bruins and Celtics don’t draw. Its football and baseball in this area but you don’t need to go to a sports bar to watch baseball. That’s the problem with getting pigeon holed into being considered just a sports bar. What happens when there are no major sporting events going on?

Barstool – Sticking with sports, Boston is a sports crazed city. Do you make a conscious effort to get the professional athletes into your bars?

Troy - I truly don’t make a conscious effort. I like when they come in, but if you have good places they’ll come on their own so you really don’t have to reach out to them. But sometimes you make friends with some of the guys so you get to know them.

Barstool - Who has the most cache out of all the players?

Troy - All the Red Sox and Tom Brady. Tom Brady is #1 and probably one of the most well known athletes in the country. But the Revolution guys are great guys.

Barstool - Revolution guys? Are you serious? Do Revolution guys get to cut the line?

Troy - Yeah, they do. It’s funny because whenever Red Sox players come in you see everybody elbowing each other in line and pointing to their friends and when Revolution players come in nobody recognizes them. They can be talking to people and everybody asks them what they do. But they are really nice guys and have no egos at all.

Barstool - I believe it. It’s tough for a soccer player to have an ego in this town. I would probably recognize every single Patriot and Red Sox player but I wouldn’t recognize a Revolution player if he slapped me in the face. Sticking with athletes which athlete does yours staff like the most?

Troy - David Ortiz is the most loved player by our staff. He is the same exact person that you see on TV. He acts the same way 24/7.

Barstool - Would you say that type of behavior is uncommon with athletes?

Troy - No, most of the guys are pretty decent. Some of them just get pulled so many different ways that it gets tough. There is nothing worse when you’re at a bar and some drunk guy is trying to talk your ear off all night.

Barstool - What do you think about the 2am closing and how do you rate Boston Nightlife compared to other cities in general?

Troy - I don’t like it, but the reason may surprise you. The reason I don’t like it is because at 2am people tend to stay too close to that time and everybody leaves at once. The result is that it’s difficult to get a taxi, the T doesn’t run and it’s tough to get your car from the valet. If you stayed open later everyone wouldn’t leave at 3am, but people would trickle out and it would help get rid of this problem, but I don’t know that the State knows this. The later you stay open the better filtering out process you have. I’ve seen it happen in other cities. As far as Boston nightlife goes, for the size of the city I think it’s good.

Barstool - I couldn’t agree more about the filtering out problem. Getting a cab in the winter is enough to keep me home. One thing I hear a lot is that there are too many bars in Boston and that this is killing the bar scene because everybody is spread out and nobody is getting enough business. What do you think of this theory?

Troy – I’ve heard this theory a lot too. But there is more to it. We’ve lost a lot of young people in that 22-30 year old crowd when we had the high tech slow down after 9/11. The finance and high tech industries have taken major hits here recently. I think the Boston Globe had an article that said Boston has lost 100,000 people in that age range over the past five years and the reason they left is to find work. Combine the high tech slowdown with 9/11 with the Rhode Island Fire, the smoking ban and all these things play a factor along with the fact that there are probably too many bars.

Barstool - So you think the smoking ban keeps people at home?

Troy - It does to a point. Some people may decide that if they are a heavy smoker they don’t want to stand in the cold to smoke a cigarette. But that’s probably the extreme. However, I’m sure that it does shorten some peoples stay and it has an effect. Again if you take all these different factors and combine them together this accounts for why on premise sales are down. This downward trend in sales has started since all these things came into play.

Barstool - I’d say one of the trademarks of the Kevin Troy bars is that you shut them down and then reopen them with a different name. Why do you do this so much?

Troy - I’d say it’s more complicated than that. I’ve never shut down Jillian’s because it’s an institution. But in nightclubs if you trying to overstretch the life a nightclub it’s going to slow down on you and I think that’s part of the problem you see out there. If you’re a neighborhood bar you should be able to hold your business long term, but night clubs are trendy by nature. After 5 years I want to stay current, stay with the times and give people a new place to get excited about. And that’s not just a fresh coat of paint. You have to go in there with a wrecking ball.

Barstool – That makes sense and it seems like it works every time you do it. I know you said that you saw Barstool Sports 25 Sexiest Bartender Magazine and I’m sure you noticed that your bars were well represented. Therefore, I take it that is a conscious decision to hire smoking hot girls when hiring your employees. What degree of importance do you put on looks vs. experience?

Troy - Let me answer that question with a question. If you went to a bar by yourself and the bartender was absolutely gorgeous but she was the most incompetent person and had the most wretched personality you ever ran into would you go back?

Barstool - No, but I guess that’s a sliding scale because if she was somewhat competent and didn’t totally hate me I’d go back. Moving on, there are lots of big bar groups in Boston. If I were going to stop running Barstool Sports and try to open my own single bar do you think I’d have any shot at success?

Troy - I think you have great odds if you are dedicated, use your head and market it properly. And if you’re rolling your profits into your next project you’re going to be able to grow. If you’re blowing it all you’re not.

Barstool - What are the 3 most essential things to be a successful bar in Boston?

Troy - Well it depends on who you’re trying to build it for. You have to know your audience. But the one rule with all men is that they’ll go where the women are. So build it for the women and the men will follow.

Barstool - What is your favorite city besides Boston?

Troy - Montreal. I have a home there and I love old Montreal.

Barstool - I want all our readers to know that we didn’t put you up to that answer. We love Montreal too and Casino Montreal is one of our biggest advertisers. Everybody should listen to Kevin and go to Montreal this summer and tell them that the Stool sent you.

Barstool - Okay, what is your favorite restaurant in Boston?

Troy - I like to go to Umbria in the South End. Laura Brennon is the owner over there. She used to work with us years ago as the chef at Mercury Bar. So I know if you go over there you’re going to get great food, great company, but Laura’s also the type that if you’re not in the mood for something on the menu she’ll just go back and ad lib and she’s great at that. In fact I just ate there the other night.

Barstool - I’ve got to be honest, I think that’s like the Budweiser suite, I’m not sure Laura ad libs for everybody, but I may be wrong about that. Okay, last couple questions. Is it easier to pick up girls as a minor league hockey player or as someone in the bar industry?

Troy - I was a young kid when I played pro hockey. I would literally be at a bar with other players and hockey players have butts cast in stone. Girls would comment on it all the time. Girls would come up and ask, “can I grab your butt?” I’d tell them to go ahead and knock yourself out. This was a great ice breaker. Guys who work in clubs either bartending or working the door or whatever get to meet more women. Therefore just from an odds standpoint they may do better than their buddy who doesn’t work in the business. But the most prolific womanizer I ever met was one of my best friends Mark LaPointe from Quebec City who was neither a hockey player or in the bar business. The moral of the story is that if you’re confident and good with women you’ll do great no matter what.

Barstool - I heard through the grapevine that you had a huge holiday party at Mohegan Sun for all your employees. Do you stay in the loop with rumors and gossip? I know for a fact that if Barstool gets huge my office will be rumor central.

Troy - To be honest, I don’t and I don’t want to. I don’t want to change my opinion of somebody based on a rumor. So I try to stay away from it the best I can.

Barstool – Last question. I can’t help but notice that you advertise everywhere except the Stool. Why is this?

Troy- To be honest I wasn’t aware of you guys until just recently. But the good thing is that I’m starting to see you guys everywhere and hear more and more about you.

Barstool – Well I guess that’s an acceptable answer. Regardless I appreciate you taking time to sit down with us today and I’ll be sure to see you at Liquor Store soon!