Business owner looks to establish ‘Black Cheers’ in Roxbury

Banner Business Sponsored by The Boston Foundation

Royal Smith always knew he wanted to provide a place for Black Boston to come early and leave late.

When he opened District 7 Tavern in 2018, he built a neighborhood bar for the people, with live music, guest bartenders, and plenty of space to watch the big game. Today, he hopes to expand that safe space for community connection during the daytime hours with his new restaurant just around the corner, District 7 Cafe at 376 Warren St. in Roxbury. 

Smith, who came up in the hospitality industry, says that his mission is to provide safe spaces to Black and brown Boston.

Royal Smith is a relentless advocate for expanded liquor licenses. PHOTO: ROYAL SMITH

“No matter what market you go to — DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Alaska — there’s something special about a Black-owned place. It has a vibe; it has an aura. It has a presence of comfort for those seeking it, you know what I mean,” he said. “Whatever the version of a venue is in the Green Book — District 7 and all the District 7 kinds of businesses have that comfort for the people. It’s a place for us to hang out.”

With the addition of the District 7 Cafe, Smith hopes that his businesses will be Roxbury’s first choice.

“If you’re looking for things that we offer — coffee, cocktails, or breakfast foods — we don’t have much in this area. Prior to the opening of the cafe, the [tavern] was the only thing there. It was like a watering hole in the middle of a desert,” he said.

Smith says that District 7 Tavern is working to keep the legacy of “Black Cheers” alive. Neighborhood bar C&S Tavern, now permanently closed, had previously earned this moniker.

“We all know how effective ‘Cheers’ is. ‘Cheers’ is just a show. This is real life. This is where Black Boston, for years, came and got their news, their updates [in] real time. [They] came and shared stories, came and built community, and the goal with District 7 Tavern is to keep that going, but this time, we do it a little different,” said Smith.

“There’s not many intergenerational spaces for minorities in Boston where the young can sit in a room with the [elders] and share, talk, and transition,” he said.

Smith also was one of the major advocates pushing to ensure that 225 liquor licenses were allocated under legislation passed by the State House and pushed by the city government in 2024, targeting licenses toward communities of color.

Each year, for the next three years, five restaurateurs across 13 zip codes predominantly in Black and brown communities in Boston will be eligible to get new liquor licenses for their businesses, eventually totaling almost 200 new licenses in those parts of the city. Annually, two licenses in each zip code will cover wine and beer only, while the other three will be all-inclusive full liquor licenses.

The licenses, which will be restricted to each zip code and will be returned to the city if the business closes, will go to zip codes in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, East Boston, Roslindale, Charlestown, Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury and the South End.

Smith spoke about how he and the Boston Black Hospitality Coalition advocated making this possible, as it was actually founded out of District 7 Tavern.

“It was there that Nia Grace and I met, and we said we had to do something,” said Smith. The entrepreneurs were talking with grave concern about how a two-week COVID-19 closure was going to directly affect their businesses.

“I’ve traveled, I’ve worked for some of the bigger companies, and they have that safety net of … the restaurant groups, the companies, their investors. … We didn’t have that,” he said.

When he was faced with shuttering the restaurant, he knew they had to band together.

Smith said that the advocacy continued from there, as they galvanized more people to become involved in helping to get barriers out of the way to help other entrepreneurs of color build more businesses to benefit the community.

“There should be a District 7 everywhere. If you go throughout the world, there’s always an Irish bar. … Why can’t we have spaces? We can’t congregate at a pizza store that we don’t own. We can’t congregate at a corner store that we don’t own. We know the difference,” he said.

District 7’s cafe will be an intergenerational spot for people of color. PHOTO: ROYAL SMITH

His goal is to create more spaces like District 7 Cafe. “They don’t have to be Black led, but they should be community led and community inspired. I’ll do anything to make that happen,” he said.

He also gave advice to Black entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurs of color who may want to open their own business: Just keep pushing and listen to wise counsel.

“There’s a lot of groups and people that want to see this community thrive that you may or may not know about, but you got to be in a space with them so they can talk, and you got to be in a space to listen when that happens,” he shared. “Be observant … understand your pitfalls and listen, because you’ll see it all if you just sit back.”