A new way to start dialogue

EXTENDING AN INVITATION: Riffraff owners Tom Roberge and Emma Ramadan want their soon-to-open bookstore/bar to be a welcoming place for readers to explore literature and large themes. / COURTESY RIFFRAFF
EXTENDING AN INVITATION: Riffraff owners Tom Roberge and Emma Ramadan want their soon-to-open bookstore/bar to be a welcoming place for readers to explore literature and large themes. / COURTESY RIFFRAFF

The bookstore and coffee shop, that’s been done quite a bit. Less common is the bookstore/bar.

Riffraff LLC will open for business, joining combined interests, in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence this fall, in a space that will soon undergo renovation.

Owners Tom Roberge and Emma Ramadan said they wanted to create a business that combined a small storefront bookstore, featuring new books, covering a range of contemporary nonfiction and fiction with a bar where people could drink and discuss what they’re reading.

“Just the idea that you could have a space where people are gathering,” Ramadan said of the concept.

- Advertisement -

The selection of books for sale will be carefully curated. The range will include contemporary fiction, art books, crime, the social sciences and a small children’s section.

The bar area will have communal style tables that will accommodate book clubs.

Renovations of the location, at 215 Dean St., were expected to begin in August. The business could open as soon as November, said Roberge.

Most people think of the word “riffraff” as referring to the scruffy, but that’s not what Roberge or Ramadan were focused on. “We want to embrace the word, make it positive, the idea being that our space will be inviting to everyone,” he said. •

No posts to display