Liberty Elm Coffee Shop

777 Elmwood Avenue, Providence
(401) 467-0777

The life of a diner is a precarious one. While there are a lot of people who appreciate them, even in their worst states of disrepair, there are others who have little or no respect for these homely old refugees from the twentieth century. Developers tear them down without remorse, drunk drivers crash into them, and fires (both accidental and not) turn them into scorched shells. Even when graced with owners with the best of intentions, diners often sit forlornly in vacant lots awaiting an infusion of cash or the clearing of red tape.

The Liberty Elm is an example of what a dedicated new owner can accomplish with patience, perseverance, elbow grease, imagination, and a steady day job to bankroll her dreams.

The Liberty Elm is a 1947 Worcester Lunch Car (#806), a rare specimen that was specially designed to be fireproof. It opened in 1949 on a lot on West Exchange Street in Providence, the current site of the Westin Hotel. When the owner of the property decided to build a parking lot around 1952, the diner was moved to its present location on Elmwood Avenue. It was known as the Elmwood Diner as late as 1987, when then-owner Phil O'Donnell reported being held up by a man with a handgun. When the diner was broken into in 1990, it was known as Jim's Diner. It was soon purchased and reopened by Jennifer Davis, sister of singer Jeffrey Osborne, who put her experience in cooking for six children to work. Saturday was Soul Day at Jenn's Elmwood Diner (as it was then called), with home-fried chicken, cornbread, greens cooked with pork, ribs, potato salad, and chitlins on the menu.

The diner was leased (with an option to buy) by partners Paul Truman and Steve Calabro in May 1995, and rechristened the Ole Elmwood Diner. The men extensively renovated the diner, removing tan siding that hid its red porcelain-enameled steel sides, fixing windows, scraping away years of accumulated grease, and reinstalling old fixtures found in the basement. But it didn't remain in their hands long. Around 1997 or 1998 it was known as Louie's Diner where, according to a fridge magnet sent to us by Dave from Cranston, you could find "Food so great, you'll scrape your plate."

In 1999 the diner was owned by Roberto Lama, who called it Roberto's Cafe. Barbara Radcliffe Rogers and Juliette Rogers, in their guidebook Secret Providence and Newport, said of Roberto's that "Their sound system is amazing. [T]hey are open after the clubs get out, and people come here to meet their late-night munching needs and wind down with some hot Latin music. I imagine the club sound systems must pale in comparison, since the old arch-topped diner has acoustics I never dreamed of."

At the time of our first visit, in 2002, it had changed hands and names again, and was known as La Criolla Restaurant. The menu was primarily Dominican, but there were a few recognizable diner items, including simple breakfast choices, cheeseburgers, fries, and lemonade. Both the food and service were unimpressive, though, so at the time we could only recommend La Criolla to die-hard fans of diner architecture.

Sometime between 1995 and 2002 the diner was once again encased in wooden siding. Ick.

By 2003 the diner was on the skids again, a victim of the inexperience of, or mismanagement by (possibly both), its owner. A shooting that took place inside at 3:30am on December 30 of that year probably didn't help matters, either. The La Criolla was offered for sale. It had been closed for a few years when local musician Carol DeFeciani (aka Kip McCloud) found it. She had been looking for an Elmwood area property where she could open a cafe, and while she hadn't had a historic diner in mind, she could see the possibilities. She purchased the diner in mid-2006 and thirteen months later, after renovations costing tens of thousands of dollars, Worcester Lunch Car #806 reopened as the Liberty Elm.

Carol and her "sweat equity partner" and diner manager Tinker Taylor have plans for the diner that go far beyond merely offering fried foods for sale. In fact, the Liberty Elm is not your traditional greasy spoon. The menu consists of fresh-baked muffins and pastries, pizza, panini, quesadillas with homemade salsa, salads made from locally grown greens, and made-to-order fruit smoothies, among other things. The orange juice and lemonade are fresh-squeezed, and the coffee is organic fair-trade from Pawtucket's New Harvest Coffee Roasters. Biodegradable cups and take-out containers, as well as environmentally friendly cleaning supplies help keep the business green.

Carol would like the Liberty Elm to become a center of community activity and activism. The cinderblock addition at the back of the diner includes a dining area with free Wi-Fi that doubles as a neighborhood meeting space and art gallery. Sunday mornings the room is home to the Americana Breakfast Club, a low-key venue for musicians to ply their craft. Plans also include an adjunct garden center and farm stand, selling seasonal flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Ultimately, Carol hopes to change the face of Elmwood Avenue itself: one percent of profits from the Liberty Elm will go toward the purchase of American Liberty Elm trees, a specially bred variety that is resistant to Dutch Elm disease. The trees will be planted along Elmwood Avenue so that the street may someday live up to its name once more.

As if that to-do list wasn't ambitious enough, Carol wants to get the diner registered on the National Register of Historic Places. "This is a gift to Providence," she told the Providence Business News in August 2007. "It is part of Providence's history that should be preserved.

The Liberty Elm Diner is open Tuesday to Sunday, 8am-3pm.

Awards

Rhode Island Monthly's Readers' Poll: Best Diner in Providence County (2009).