By Haylee LaBell
Since Fitchburg’s Destaré opened seven years ago, they have always pushed toward having a relationship with the University. Destaré is an upscale martini bar/night club located at 320 Main Street in Fitchburg, just down the street from the Fitchburg State.
Paulie Chlebecek has served as Destaré’s manager for the past three years, and has made a huge effort to incorporate Destaré in all sorts of different events in collaboration with Fitchburg State University. Paulie stated, “It’s a no brainer for me to try and really work on building a strong relationship with the university.”
Paulie and the owners of Destaré are happy with the percentage of Fitchburg State students that stop by Destaré on a weekly basis, but they would still like to get the attention of more students to really make it a place for the students to go without having to travel too far from campus.
They believe that on Thursdays alone, about 50% of their customers are students from the University, and on Fridays and Saturdays about 20-30% of their customers are from the University. “I would like our customers to be 100% students from FSU, but that is a selfish answer on my part,” says Paulie.
They currently don’t get a lot of college students visiting during the weekend with the competition of Slattery’s right down the street. “I’m in business, I’m trying to grab everyone from there and pull them here,” Paulie says.
Destaré holds numerous events ranging from small, weekly events such as teacher appreciation Thursdays or larger events like senior nights for the graduating senior class and not to mention fundraisers for the University.
“I see a lot value in grabbing some sort of attention at least from people that are students there, people that teach there, people that have kids that go to school there… Fitchburg State is a gold mine in that sense, where it’s a great clientele base,” Paulie states.
Teacher appreciation Thursdays are from 4 – 8 PM. It is four hours for teachers, not even specifically for Fitchburg State but any faculty member in the education field of any school, to come into Destaré and be provided with a great atmosphere away from a school environment with complimentary appetizers.
Destaré is willing to work with the University now and in the future to really build a tight-knit relationship between the two. They see themselves as a nice entertainment option for students and faculty to go and “take a load off.”
During the interview, Paulie admitted the answer to a question I am sure everyone was wondering: Destaré does make money off the events that Fitchburg State University holds there but the amount varies from event to event.
Events that they don’t charge for are fundraisers; the money made on those nights is made from the drinks ordered instead.
“Yes, we definitely make money off of Fitchburg events whether it’s a senior night or teacher appreciation Thursdays, but that’s business; I am in a position to put money in the owners pocket,” says Paulie.
Teacher appreciation Thursdays and senior nights are just a couple of events that Fitchburg State has entrusted Destaré in holding.
The list of events held for the University at Destaré goes on and on but a few on the list include Halloween party, beach party, alumni events, film events whether actual shooting for a film, a screening, or even fundraisers for the film department in order to raise money to put on a video production, along with fundraisers for other events, faculty holiday parties and even going away parties for some of the professors.
There is a wide variety of events that Destaré has held and they are open to holding so many more.
For the future, Destaré plans to continue on with their relationship and collaboration with the university and in hopes to create a greater clientele with anyone in association with the University.