Nia Grace has transformed Boston nightlife, and now she’s bringing those entertainment innovations to a Connecticut casino.
Grace is opening a new location of her Grace by Nia supper club at Foxwoods Resort Casino in May. The first location, in the Seaport District of South Boston, only opened a year ago and is thriving. The entrepreneur and restauranteur, from Roxbury, Massachusetts, also created the landmark Boston eateries Darryl’s Corner Bar & Kitchen and The Underground Cafe + Lounge.
Grace by Nia combines a fine soul food-influenced dining experience with lively R&B, soul, jazz, funk, pop and Caribbean music performed live onstage near the dining tables.
At Grace by Nia, the musicians are who you watch while you eat, unless you feel more inclined to dance. The quality of the music is central to the success of the venue.
While the Foxwoods location was still under construction last week, Grace brought some of her colleagues from the Boston club to audition bands for coveted “resident band” slots at Grace by Nia.
Twenty bands tried out at Foxwoods on April 5 and 6. The auditions were held in the Atrium area of the Rainmaker wing of the casino complex, since the club itself is still under construction. The Atrium has a bar and lounge and usually hosts DJs and live bands on weekends. On a Friday afternoon, it provided a series of free bonus live shows at a space you can’t help but notice when you’re heading to the machines and restaurants.
Through videos and interviews, the list of applicants were winnowed down to a couple of dozen acts who were invited to audition live at Foxwoods. The resident bands will be plugged into the 25 or so available performance slots each month. Nia by Grace will also feature special guest acts. The club will post its music schedule online.
Grace has partnered with Boston’s Big Night Entertainment Group, which already oversees half a dozen other clubs, restaurants or shops at Foxwoods including the Shrine dance club, Red Lantern Asian fusion restaurant, High Rollers bowling lanes and sports lounge, Guy Fieri’s Kitchen + Bar, Scorpion Bar Mexican restaurant and the Card Vault sports card collectible shop.
The new Grace by Nia space is being built to the right of High Rollers on the lower level of Foxwoods’ Pequot area. HIgh Rollers had six bowling lanes removed and a new wall put in to accommodate its new neighbor. Asked whether the noise from a bowling alley might be a problem, Grace laughed and said, “They’re going to have to watch out for us!”
The layout of the new club has a 40-foot long bar directly across from the equally wide central stage area, with seating for diners in between the stage and bar. There’s also a spacious side area for more seating a little further from the stage. This is a slightly different setup than at the original Boston Grace by Nia. At Foxwoods, the entrance faces the stage, so you are instantly brought into the experience.
Big Night’s marketing director Joe Mazzei says the company is excited to bring a Black female-owned business to Foxwoods.
“I come from a creative community,” Grace said of her Boston upbringing. “The talent there was not being cultivated enough. This is more than just putting someone on a stage. There’s food and beverages, but the critical part is the entertainment. These bands will be put on a very elite roster.”
For the auditions, each band was tasked with doing three cover songs: One jazz, one Top 40 and one R&B.
The Score Band, a new act on the Connecticut scene featuring the vocalist Ebony, had a good sense of what Nia by Grace was looking for. They auditioned with covers of Etta James’ “At Last,” Brandy’s “I Wanna Be Down” and Bruno Mars’ “777” — quite the range of tunes, augmented with visuals like a behind-the-back guitar solo and Ebony’s swaying dance moves. Ebony says the set wasn’t a stretch for them, since all three songs were already in the band’s repertoire. Ebony and The Score Band have only been together for three months but have been playing around the state, including a gig at Hartford’s Parkville Market in February. “We’re all individuals, doing our thing,” Ebony said.
The auditioning bands came in all shapes and sizes. The one that played just before The Score Band was The New Number Sevens, an all-male Country/blues/rock quartet who are already getting steady gigs at other casinos.
The Foxwoods audition scene resembled a TV reality show contest, with Grace sitting at a cabaret table near the stage, flanked by her two main music consultants at the Boston Grace by Nia, Adonis Martin and Kirjuan “Free” Freeman.
“Nia likes to give pointers to the acts,” Big Night’s Mazzei points out, and Grace, Martin and Freeman did exactly that with the auditioning bands, sitting and chatting with them right after they played.
“Everybody who showed up had raw, core talent,” Grace said. “We told them what moved us, and found out what their aspirations are.”
Grace sees her clubs as a community where “we are always trying to welcome you home,” and that goes for the performers as much as for the audience.
To show the auditioners exactly what they had in mind, Grace brought along the main house band from the Boston Grace by Nia, appropriately called The Gracenotes. The band, which features Martin on keyboards, did an energetic four-song set of Kool & the Gang’s “Get Down on It,” Roberta Flack’s “(That’s the Time I) Feel LIke Makin’ Love,” Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much” and the Gnarls Barkley/Eurythmics “Crazy/Sweet Dreams” medley. The Gracenotes have both a male and a female vocalist, Tiffany Freeman and Apollo Payton, and the whole ensemble plays with a visible, highly entertaining energy.
The auditioning bands not only saw the Gracenotes, they hung out to watch each other play. It was a congenial setting which suggested the friendly, music-first approach of Grace by Nia.
“I’ve known Nia for over a decade,” Freeman said. “We knew we were creating something special. The stage is the focal point of the room. The sound system is state of the art. I use a custom drum set. It’s a musician’s paradise.”
Grace said the menu at the Foxwoods Grace by Nia will be similar to the southern soul food-inspired menu at the Boston location, but “with a couple of surprises” yet to be revealed. In Boston, the entrees include creole pasta, oxtails and grits, lobster mac and cheese and other delights. Among the appetizers are chargrilled oysters, fried catfish bites and bourbon peach spare ribs. One of the fancy desserts is a flaming banana bread pudding. There’s a special brunch menu and unique cocktails as well.
Is this the start of a chain?
“There’s some interest up and down the Eastern seaboard,” Grace said. For now though, it’s all about Connecticut. Grace intends to be closely involved with the Foxwoods branch. “You’ll see me,” she said.
Grace by Nia is still hiring for other positions at the restaurant, holding job fairs weekly through Wednesday through April 24. Those interested can email jobs@bignight.com to apply or go to bignightcareers.com for more information.
