Boston East India Hotels LLC recently purchased the Captain Daniel Stone Inn at 10 Water Street in Brunswick, about a five-minute walk from the College. The new owners hosted a kick-off event in their bar on September 25 with live music and a tab for students.
The current interim general manager, Brian Sette, explained that the new management is looking to attract Bowdoin students to the hotel’s restaurant, No. 10 Water, which features a bar and a venue for live music.
“We love college towns because there are really interesting people that live in these towns and that work at the colleges,” said Sette. “Brunswick is a perfect example of that.”
Recently the Captain Daniel Stone Inn invited students to No. 10 Water for a welcoming event.
Connor Handy ’13, who attended the event, was one of the first people to hear about it. He and some friends were at Joshua’s Restaurant & Tavern one evening having drinks when they were approached by a group of people. They introduced themselves as part of the group that had just bought the Captain Daniel Stone Inn.
“They were trying to get a feel from us about what the potential for Bowdoin students to visit there would be,” Handy said.
“They said that they were having their big opening party the next night,” Handy added. “And they offered to buy us some drinks if we got a group of people and came down.”
A number of Bowdoin students attended the event at the Inn. It included a live band and a $200 tab at the bar for free drinks for Bowdoin students.
“When we went there was this really cool band and it was just kind of low key, but then as more people showed up we had a pretty fun little dance party,” Handy said.
He estimated that there were approximately 30 people in attendance.
“We weren’t expecting much,” said Alex Pigott ’14 in an email to the Orient. “It was exciting to find another fun place to go in Brunswick.”
Sette said that he was excited about integrating the Captain Daniel Stone Inn into the already vibrant college town atmosphere of Brunswick.
“We’re really looking to just create a great resource in the community,” Sette said. “Of course we’re looking to get the whole Bowdoin crew involved.”
For Boston East India Hotels, this means appealing not just to students, but to faculty and parents as well.
In addition to their new project in Brunswick, Boston East India Hotels owns and operates The Sofala hotel in Goa, India and is currently developing a new hotel in North Goa.
According to the company’s website, they are looking to expand to other cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Boston and New York.
With regards to the potential for Bowdoin students to make the Captain Daniel Stone Inn a regular place to get drinks, Pigott added, “I think 21-plus Bowdoin kids will really like having a new thing to do off campus besides Tuesday nights at Joshua’s.”
However, some students remain skeptical.
“The Inn may be an alternative to Joshua’s, but I don’t really see that being the case,” Matt Mathias ’14 said.
Mathias did mention that he thought the event was a lot of fun, but was concerned about the price of the drinks.
“They didn’t have any light beer or cheap beer options and beers were like four or five bucks apiece. That was definitely the biggest issue and it helped that they gave us a tab when we got there, but we blew through that pretty fast,” Handy added.
One of the things that Handy said he likes about Joshua’s is the discount on drinks that it offers students on Tuesday nights.
“If [the Captain Daniel Stone Inn makes] some kind of arrangement where they can give us discounts one night a week or something like that, then I think that that could get students to go.”
The students who attended generally agreed that the live music was a definite draw for the Inn.
The management of the Inn is excited to continue to focus on this aspect of their business.
“I’ve been talking with a couple students about trying to get more Bowdoin student bands coming to play,” Sette said.
The Inn is planning to feature at least three more live musical acts this month.