A Fond Farewell to Tazza

As of January 1, Tazza is closed. The restaurant and café, which opened in 2001, had been one of the anchors of Downtown’s revival, helping to reestablish Westminster Street as a cool place to hang out long before the current wave of shops and restaurants turned it into the lively strip it is now. With what was undoubtedly one of the best locations in the city and long business hours (they were open for both your morning coffee and your last call cocktail), Tazza was almost destined to become one of the nerve centers of the rejuvenated Downcity.

After a significant and handsome renovation almost three years ago, Tazza is closing because its landlord at the Alice Building, Buff Chace’s Cornish Associates, has chosen not to renew its lease. Cornish plans to break the large restaurant space into several smaller ones; meanwhile, executive chef and general manager Ben Lloyd hopes the restaurant will find a suitable space to relocate.

It’s difficult to say what exactly Downtown loses with Tazza gone, as we don’t yet know what will spring up in its place. Chace and Cornish Associates have a pretty good track record when it comes to curating tenants, as the recent revival at the Biltmore Garage can attest, but Tazza leaves a large void to fill. It’s seems fitting that Cornish will replace this one tenant with several, as occupied a big space and did a lot of things. It was a popular coffee shop, serving up fancy cups of joe using things like halogen siphons, along with, for my dollar, some of the best iced coffee in the city. It was also known as a great spot for a leisurely brunch or lunch while watching the workaday or weekend crowd drift down Westminster. After the renovation, it really stepped up its efforts to be a dinner destination, with an eclectic menu clearly aimed at the kind of fine dining and locavore crowds that typically flocked to places like Gracie’s, Local 121 and The Dorrance. Its nightlife offerings evolved too: the entertainment – a potpourri of open mics, DJ nights, jazz bands and more – was scaled back significantly, while the cocktail program became more of a focus to match the chic new surroundings. Then there were Tazza’s extracurriculars, like the popular Movies On the Block that it hosted next door at the outdoor Grant’s Block space, along with the Downcity Bocce League it supported.

Most of all, Tazza was always a great spot to people watch. Along with the Downcity residents and workers that made up its regulars, the coffee shop crowd kept it buzzing during the day as students drifted in with their laptops and business people held meetings. Visiting during work hours you were almost guaranteed to run into someone you knew, or find a local politico enjoying a working lunch. Late at night, bartenders and waiters from surrounding restaurants could often be found lingering at Tazza’s bar after work. There was even the occasional celebrity sighting – James Franco was a semi-regular during his stint at RISD.

Tazza had become a fixture in the Downtown firmament (or so we thought) and thus had its fare share of both devoted fans and critics. While the remodel was generally praised for turning the space into a sleek eatery that wouldn’t look out of place in Manhattan, some lamented the loss of the artsy, neighborhood vibe of the old Tazza. Some complained that the design sacrificed comfort for beauty. And, like any place that does so many things, it could be maddeningly inconsistent. The nightlife and entertainment were a hodgepodge of a lot of fun and cool music. However, the old layout was clearly not designed to accommodate both a dinner crowd and a dance floor, often resulting in overcrowding or slow bar service. The new menu that came with the re-model was a welcome improvement – the food was better and the menu simply made more sense – but with that came $28 entrees that many of the daytime regulars found too fussy and expensive. Tazza did many things right, but no restaurant could do that many things and get them all right.

Now, we bid Tazza a fond farewell. Whether you loved it or thought it was overrated, went there every day for coffee or just popped in for the occasional drink, it really helped define the first decade of the new Downcity. It was one of the first shots in a volley of improvements that Cornish Associates would rattle off in quick succession over the ensuing decade-plus, setting the table not only for places like Flan y Ajo and Small Point Café to follow, but also for events like the Providence Art Festival and the Rock n Roll Yard Sale, both of which happened right outside Tazza’s door. It’s bittersweet, as we’re sad to see a Downtown mainstay go, but also excited and curious to see what’s next at 250 Westminster.

Are you going to miss Tazza? Have a fond (or not-so-fond) memory to share? Care to speculate about what will replace it? Leave your comments below.