A Boston restaurant owner is considering suing after a Patriots party went horribly wrong
A January party at a popular downtown Boston restaurant that led to multiple license violation charges was not attended by any normal patrons, but by a group of New England Patriots players , the owner says.
Hendel George Brandao, owner of Estella on Temple Place, told the city's Licensing Board during a Tuesday hearing that while he had agreed to host the players that night, he had not anticipated the consequences and was even considering a lawsuit.
The players also did not pay their tab when they left, he said.
"There's a sense of entitlement that these players think they could do whatever they want," Brandao told the Licensing Board.
Police received a noise complaint about Estella at about 2:19 a.m. on Jan. 27, hours after the Patriots returned home following their 10-7 AFC Championship Game victory over the Denver Broncos, according to a police report read during the hearing this week.
The game took place in Denver, and the team's return home was delayed due to a winter storm in New England. They arrived at T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island, around 4 p.m. on Jan. 26.
On the night of the party, loud music was coming from the restaurant when police officers arrived.
Restaurant staff said there was a private party going on in the basement, where the loud music was coming from, and they planned to tell the guests to leave at 2:30 a.m., when Boston restaurants are legally required to close.
The officers approached the basement and could smell marijuana and hookah coming from the party. Two security guards — whom Brandao later said were employed by the Patriots players, not Estella — briefly blocked the staircase, but eventually allowed the officers to go downstairs.
In the basement, the officers said they found a DJ playing to a room of about 30 people who were drinking. They also saw "multiple exotic dancers" run out a back door toward the kitchen area as they entered the room, and $1 bills spread around the floor, as well as drinks and liquor bottles on tables and hookahs. They found the women, who police reported were "nude or partially nude," in a back stairwell with another security guard.
Bar staff told police that they were unaware of any hookahs or smoking in the establishment and said someone had dropped the cash on the floor because they were scared by the officers' arrival.
Brandao told the Licensing Board he had been planning to host the players at his home in Milton that night after they went out to other bars in Boston. Around 12:40 a.m., the players told him they weren't ready to leave yet because not everyone had arrived, saying, "B-More is about 45 minutes away," referring to defensive tackle Christian Barmore.
They asked if they could come to Estella to order some food. He agreed and told the on-duty manager, who let them into the bar through a back door.
Brandao told the Licensing Board that he had not seen "women in bikinis" or hookahs and said the players had brought them in along with their own bottles of alcohol, in gym bags. The players had originally planned to bring the hookahs and alcohol to Brandao's home, he said, but hid them under the tables when he and his staff were downstairs.
He took responsibility for the incident, saying he allowed it to happen by letting the group of players come to the bar without preparing his staff in advance or having security on-site.
"It was more of me trusting these people to do the right thing. And that's when it went bad," he said. "They (had) already rented out a place to go and have their little celebration for the Denver win, and it was more of like, 'Hey, we're just going to go eat.'"
It was not clear which members of the Patriots were present at the party.
Estella opened in 2022 and is named after Brandao's mother, according to its website . A second location at Patriots Place in Foxborough opened in October.
Brandao could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The Licensing Board will determine if violations occurred and how to move forward at a subsequent meeting on Thursday.
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