Tyler Long, right, who owns Taqueria Pacifica at the AS220 arts center in Providence, cooks up some food with James Day.
Tyler Long, a surfer from Seattle, had served fish tacos and vegetarian burritos out of an avocado-green food truck for less than a year with his wife, Alison Kyner, when he made his regular stop last spring near a farmers’ market in Providence’s Armory District.
The Taqueria Pacifica truck was a welcome sight to Shawn Wallace, managing director of AS220, who had become one of Long’s regular customers. But he wanted more than a taco that day. Wallace asked Long if he’d be interested in moving his business into the arts space.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
The taqueria opened last month at AS220 (short for “alternative space” at 220 Weybosset St., its original location), which has updated the café and bar space on the ground floor of its Empire Street building to attract more people to its art exhibits and live performances.
The nonprofit arts center had operated its own café for 13 years, but it was searching for a professional restaurateur to move into the space after the renovations, said Umberto Crenca, AS220’s artistic director and founder. The idea was to make money and expand the café’s appeal to a larger audience, Crenca said, but it still had to fit local artists’ budgets.
“We wanted food that was very affordable,” Crenca said.
Taqueria Pacifica fit the bill, and for Long and Kyner, it was a welcome opportunity. “Alison and I always talked about starting a place,” Long said. “We actually met working in a kitchen in Seattle about 13 years ago. So that’s kind of been our goal since.”
They submitted a business proposal last summer, and AS220 granted them a lease enabling them to operate the restaurant side of the café. The nonprofit retained control of the bar and expanded its offerings from just beer and wine to a full liquor assortment.
AS220 also hired an experienced new bar manager, Hartford native Susana Cullina, who moved to Providence last year after living in San Francisco for eight years. There, she had tended bar, waited tables and managed restaurants, but her passion was helping Latino galleries to operate bars, which provided revenue while creating a sense of community.
“Basically what attracted me to the scene,” she said, “was that it wasn’t a bar, it wasn’t a club – it was a community that catered to the arts.”
AS220’s new space is twice the size of the old café and performance area. Lucie Searle, a project manager, said AS220 spent about $400,000 on the renovations.
The eclectic interior design melds new elements with the circa-1920 building’s historic traits. The original tin ceilings remain, while the walls are painted with contemporary red and lime green. The larger new space has separate rooms for the performance space and the café/bar.
Dan Baudouin, executive director of the Providence Foundation, recently rented the space for a dinner event with about 60 people.
“I don’t think we could have had this event the way it was before,” he said, noting the improved food and ambiance. “They have a separate performing space, yet if you want to eat you can eat, if you want to drink, you can drink, without interfering with the performances.”
Long and Kyner – a painter – moved to Providence five years ago. Three years later, Long bought the taco truck from a Salvadoran food vendor for $2,000 and his old Toyota pickup. Long made some mechanical repairs himself, and spent $3,200 on the vehicle’s signature avocado-green paint job. Taqueria Pacifica was born.
The café at AS220 offers the same menu as the truck did. The most expensive items are the shrimp quesadilla and fish burritos for $7.00, while most items, including fish tacos and vegetarian tacos, cost less than $3.50.
Cullina has stocked the bar to complement the taqueria’s offerings, with Mexican beers such as Dos Equis and Pacifico Clara, as well as vodkas infused with jalapeño and chili peppers.
“We didn’t realize that [the new café space] would be this great,” said Long, who plans to resume operating the taco truck in the spring. “We would have taken anything.”
With a mahogany bar and the sparkling new café, AS220 has a whole new look. But don’t worry, Searle stressed – AS220 hasn’t abandoned its roots.
“Rather than think that AS220 is going upscale,” said Searle, “we like to think we are improving what we have been doing, and appealing to a wider audience.”
