Vincent Hemmeter

Music scenes don’t just happen. People create them. Personalities create them. Musicians, artists, fans, club owners and impresario. It actually takes a village, but it’s usually just one, maybe two, personalities that infuse a community with a particular vibe. In and around Worcester, Massachusetts, that personality is Vincent Hemmeter.

“I like to create environments that I want to be in,” he said on a cold, clear-blue day in 2018 while sitting in the kitchen of his 1800s manse high in the hills of the city. And as I looked around at his lovingly and meticulously restored home with his eclectic collection of antiques, that one statement encapsulated the essence of his success. The trick for me, as an interloper, was to define what “environment” meant in the context of Vincent in the role of impresario of entertainment and authentic bohemian chic.

OVERVIEW

Most purveyors of the New England music scene would know Vincent through his decades-long association with Ralph’s Chadwick Diner, the hip Worcester hotspot for barflies, music aficionados and scene-shaping bands like Alice in Chains, Black Flag, The Smithereens, The Neighborhoods and Living Colour that he bought in 2002. Some true locals might remember his first turn as a promoter at his family home in Dudley, Massachusetts, which resembled Woodstock, caused ordinance changes and, as Vincent slyly points out, broke even.

Others might know of him through his namesake bar, Vincent’s (the former Pignataro’s), which bears the neon sign “Vincent” and hosts New England’s leading roots, country and Americana artists thanks to an early defining Wednesday residency with a post-Push Push Dennis Brennan. More might know Vincent as the momentum behind Nick’s, another lovingly-restored Worcester bar which features cabaret and comedy in addition to more conventional music offerings.

With his triumvirate of super-cool music and entertainment venues, Vincent’s personality is fused into the atmosphere of night life in Worcester. But why do people gravitate to his establishments? Some of the answer is the quality of the music, of course, most of which is performed by local artists, not “the big names.”

VINCENT’S, RALPH’S

I was telling a friend about Vincent’s renovation of Pignataro’s in 1997 and my friend said, “You mean it wasn’t always that way?” For those of you who haven’t seen Vincent’s, it hosts a beautiful antique bar, wooden ceilings and floors, neon signs, miscellaneous taxidermy (including a cat named Paulie), an antique photo booth and a personally-curated jukebox. And that’s just inside. Outside, just beyond the tented “smoking area,” is a log cabin with a tin roof and rocking chairs on the front porch. Add to this Vincent’s renowned meatball sandwiches and who wouldn’t want to hang out at the place?

This all started at Ralph’s, where, as fortune would have it, Vincent observed owner Ralph Moberly’s predilection for placing antique objects in a nightclub environment; the difference was that Vincent had at one time given serious thought to pursuing a career as a fine artist. After working at Ralph’s as a manager and bartender for several years in the ‘80s, he convinced Ralph and his wife Carol to allow him to keep the diner section open on weekends during the normally-closed six weeks between January 1 and mid-February, when the couple took their annual vacation in Florida.

After two years of successful runs, Ralph and Carol gave Vincent the latitude to transform the diner, which he did, applying his own artistic sensibilities. The diner became a nightclub unto itself with separate music bookings – it’s still adjacent to the performance space upstairs – and it was here Vincent defined his personal style. From there, he knew he would strike out on his own, and thus Vincent’s came into being.

A side note about the “Vincent” sign, which speaks volumes about Vincent’s knack for personal infusion: At one time there was a “Vincent Jewelers” on south Main Street in Worcester, and the owners’ daughters used to hang out at Ralph’s. Vincent learned that there was a neon sign underneath the existing one and asked the daughters if he could have it. The owner told him that he could as long as he removed it, and remove it he did, along with a flashing neon diamond. Later, when he bought Pignataro’s, Vincent had a friend refurbish the neon and turn the diamond into a martini glass and, voila, “Vincent” was born. Vincent says that the only people who ever comment on the singular vs the possessive of the sign are musicians, and that Dennis Brennan used to say ”Welcome to Vincent” whenever he appeared at the venue.

NICK’S

Nick’s was an even more ambitious endeavor, as he transformed the old Stony O’Brien’s (the former Uncle Tom’s Café) from a Holy Cross sports bar/hangout into a cabaret-infused restaurant/bar in 2007. With his now-practiced eye toward the aesthetic, Vincent took note of the original tin ceiling in the old Milbury Street saloon and spent months renovating the venue – two months on the ceiling alone – while developing the cabaret concept, which became more pronounced through his girlfriend Nicole’s theatrical background with the Foothills Theatre Company.

And thus, because of Nicole and the bar Nick’s in one of their favorite films, It’s a Wonderful Life, Nick’s came into being. In another twist of the creative and personal early on in Nick’s launch, after Vincent and Nicole ran an ad for Nick’s in a gay-pride magazine, a pianist from the former Golden Lamb restaurant became part of the venue’s early and eclectic imprint.

Is there anything else that explains Vincent’s success? Well, he’s a true music lover, of course. His father saw to that by constantly playing music of all kinds for him, his sister was always saying, “Listen to this!” and his aunt clinched the deal by playing artists such as The Beatles, Harry Belafonte and Mel Tormé for a very young and impressionable Vincent. He learned trumpet while he was in elementary school in (ironically) Temperance, Ohio, and played in his school’s marching band, but for some reason he wasn’t enrolled in band when his family moved to Dudley, Massachusetts. Maybe that absence of music opened the door to his interest in the visual arts – painting, sculpture, film – but his engineer father prevented the pursuit of the fine arts and Vincent began to drift.

He spent five months traveling through Europe on a saved-up shoestring, only to return to the States and the necessity to earn a living. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention and the eclectic aspects of Vincent’s interests and character, combined with a vigorous work ethic and charismatic personality, enabled him to bring it all together in his “created” profession of impresario. The reality is that Vincent is an artist.

“PLACES I WOULD WANT TO BE,” “THE MAGIC TOUCH”

Musicians recognize these art-friendly places from the “vibe” of Vincent’s three establishments. These environments, created as what Vincent calls “places I would want to be,” resonate with musicians as places that they want to be – and want to play. Those with an interest in music and the arts are drawn to the environments in the same way and each of them, while different, has the same “energy.”

There are people who have this “magic touch,” which is really a combination of artistic, aesthetic and personal qualities that give a place “atmosphere.” It’s something born, not made, and in the case of music, it’s very rare. By proxy, Vincent has been an underpinning of the Massachusetts music scene since the 1980s. He continues to provide “places I would want to be” and musicians want to play, and deserves to be recognized as one of the most vital and treasured benefactors of music and the arts in Massachusetts.

FUN FACTS ABOUT VINCENT

• Grew up in Temperance, Ohio and now owns three bars
• Sang in the rock band Perceptional Eclipse in high school
• Earned his own way without financial help from his family
• Favorite band that appeared at Ralph’s: Rash of Stabbings
• Bought Ralph’s from Ralph and Carol when they breaking up
• The bar rail at Vincent’s is a railing from Quinsigamond High School
• Vincent’s is across from the David Clark Company which, fittingly, manufactures space suits
• In 2017, he celebrated 10, 15 and 20 years of ownership of Nick’s, Ralph’s and Vincent’s, respectively

(by John Cate)