Walking into The Liberty Elm, a renovated 1947 Worcester Lunch Car diner-turned-caf?, is like traveling back in time. The original flooring, walls, counter and ceilings look almost new, despite the history they must have seen.
But the feel of the cafe?, which opened at 777 Elmwood Ave. in South Providence a week ago, is nothing short of modern organic.
A hodgepodge of furniture and art furnishes the caf?’s Wi-Fi room. The menu consists of organic fair-trade coffee from New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Pawtucket, and salads made from locally grown greens. Additionally, there are veggie-of-the-day and meat-of-the-day panini and made-to-order smoothies and juices at reasonable prices.
The most expensive item on the menu costs $5.75. The remaining items cost from $1 to $4.25.
And soon patrons will be able to peruse locally grown plants and flowers while drinking and eating on the patio in front of the caf?, said Carol DeFeciani, one of the owners and a resident of the historic Elmwood neighborhood.
DeFeciani said her motivation for purchasing and renovating the site, which took one year to complete, was the fact that “there was nowhere for the community to gather.”
The commercial enterprises along that section of Elmwood Avenue consist of a Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus garage and a utility company across the street from the caf?.
There also are some scattered homes along the street. And toward downtown there are scattered convenience markets, hair salons, gas stations and seemingly abandoned light industrial buildings.
“This place was here and falling down,” DeFeciani said, adding that it was also filled with illegally dumped trash. “We thought we could make it into a place where our neighbors could come and hang out … I thought we could be an example for this strip.”
Being an entrepreneur who wanted to invest in her own neighborhood helped DeFeciani qualify for gap financing from the R.I. Economic Development Corporation’s revolving Microloan Fund.
Victor Barros, urban development manager at the RIEDC, said The Liberty Elm “represents what the fund was designed to do … It’s a type of business that’s good for that neighborhood.”
The fund supplied a $35,000 loan used for purchasing an expensive grease trap required to pass inspections and to meet fire code compliance costs that were greater than what DeFeciani had accounted for, Barros said.
Other funding came from a U.S. Small Business Administration 504 loan administered by the Ocean State Business Development Authority, with First Trade Union Bank as the lender. Total cost of the renovation plus purchase equaled about $215,000.
But the cost and “elbow grease” it took to open the caf? is worth it to DeFeciani, she said, because she believes it is a place that not only will improve the quality of life in the area, but also become a venue for low-key live entertainment and educational presentations on topics such as urban wildlife, which would be conducted by the Rhode Island chapter of the National Audubon Society.
Part of DeFeciani’s mission for the caf? also involves jump-starting the “greening” of Elmwood Avenue through a program she’s calling “1 percent for trees.” The goal is to appropriate one percent of the caf?’s profits to purchasing American Liberty Elm trees that are immune to Dutch Elm disease, which killed many of the elms along Elmwood Avenue in addition to those that were removed for street widening in years past, she said.
Every time the caf? makes enough profit to purchase four to six of the new strain of the Elm trees, developed by the Elm Research Institute in New Hampshire, the institute will give the caf? one matching tree.
DeFeciani’s plan is to donate the trees to the city and request that they are planted along Elmwood Avenue. She hopes the effort will encourage the state to follow through on its intent to repave and landscape the street.
“We’re not the East Side. We’re not Wickenden Street. We’re not Downcity or Thayer Street,” she said. “But you’d be surprised by the community we have here … We’re more diverse than any other neighborhood.”
In addition to owning the caf?, which will be managed by DeFeciani’s “sweat equity” partner, Tinker Taylor, DeFeciani also works as an IT professional for Brown University.
And she performs in the local band Lucky 57, which organizes a monthly roots rock, twang and Americana music showcase called “Your Roots Are Showing” at AS220.
After years of sinking extra money into promoting her band, the upstate New York native said she wanted to put her money into a business that was more viable. So, she cashed out her retirement from working at Harvard University for 14 years and decided to use the money to help start the caf?, which is also wheelchair accessible and uses biodegradable cups and take-out containers in addition to environment friendly cleaning supplies.
In addition, DeFeciani is trying to get the site registered on the National Register of Historic Places because “this is a gift to Providence,” she said. “It is part of Providence’s history that should be preserved.” •
