The Nitro Bar, a Rhode Island-based coffee company, will be opening its second Providence location at 134 Ives Street in the Fox Point neighborhood. The new storefront, which is set to open in late May or early June, will fill the space formerly occupied by Glou, a bar that closed earlier this year.
“Providence, you’ve always been home to us,” reads an Instagram post from The Nitro Bar announcing their new location.
The Nitro Bar began as a mobile coffee cart that traveled around Providence before co-founders Sam Lancaster and Audrey Finocchiaro opened the first permanent location in Providence on 228 Broadway. Since then, the coffee shop has opened two locations in Newport and announced plans for their first out-of-state location in New York City.
“Audrey and I have always wanted to open up a second shop in (Providence),” Lancaster wrote in an email to The Herald. They “considered a few locations throughout the years but nothing ever felt 100% like the right spot,” he wrote, adding that they have always wanted to be in the Fox Point neighborhood.
Lancaster wrote that as they move into 134 Ives Street, they have “big shoes to fill.”
“When we were approached about the space being available, we were sad to hear Glou was closing its doors,” Lancaster wrote. But they “are hoping that we too can be a community space for the neighborhood to hang out as they were.”
Though the new location is only about 700 square feet, Lancaster wrote that they are especially “excited about the planned outdoor seating” that it will have.
“I’m actually so excited,” about the new location, said Lily Young ’27. “I had the banana latte that they did last year, and it was so good, but I had to walk really far to get it … So I’m excited that we’re gonna have one closer to campus.”
Currently, Young said she doesn’t go to The Nitro Bar very frequently because of the distance from campus.
“It’s cool that they’re expanding more within Rhode Island (and) they’re not forgetting their roots,” Young said. “They’re very proud of being from Rhode Island.”
The Nitro Bar strives to use local products “whenever possible,” Lancaster wrote, and many of their items — including pastries, cold brew and syrups — are made by their Pawtucket production team. In addition, they partner with local vendors for eggs, dairy, lemonade, cider and produce.
Abigail Lee ’29 is also eagerly anticipating the opening of the new Providence location. “It being only a five to 10 minute walk is gonna be really nice because I can go there so much more frequently,” she said, adding that she visits the cafe around once a month with her friends.
Lee attended the talk that Finocchiaro gave at the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship earlier this semester. “I just really liked her whole story and philosophy,” she said, referring to the business’s evolution from a coffee cart to multiple permanent locations.
“Nitro Bar is an independent cafe, but it’s definitely becoming a larger chain now,” said Porter Culp ’28. “I would have loved to see more of a new business opening up for new sorts of coffee.” But Culp acknowledged that many of his friends were excited about the opening.
Excitement about The Nitro Bar’s new location extends beyond the Brown community.
Kara Komprathoum, a Providence resident living on the East Side, wrote in an email to The Herald that she is “so excited it’s coming to the east side” of the city.
Komprathoum recalled seeing The Nitro Bar’s beginnings as a coffee cart. “It was really cool to see a keg of cold brew in a cart just on the sidewalk,” she wrote.
“I follow a lot of Providence area entrepreneurs’ journeys into their eventual storefronts and it makes me so happy for them,” she wrote. “I feel this type of joy about The Nitro Bar.”
Pavani Durbhakula is a Metro editor. She is a sophomore from DC and is studying IAPA and Public Health. In her free time, she enjoys baking, reading and searching for new coffee shops.
