Rhode Island's Nitro Bar is booming amid viral TikTok fame

Regulars at Nitro Bar in Providence have come to expect a line out the door as they wait for their weekly fix of caffeine.

In its eight years in business, the company — which now has three operating locations in Rhode Island — has become a “hot commodity,” Nitro Bar regular Becca Day told The Herald. Day, who moved to Providence just a few months ago, attributes her constant visits to the coffee shop's unique atmosphere, rotating seasonal flavors and friendly staff.

“It's full of life,” said Lauren Roche, an employee at Nitro Bar. “There are a lot of people from the neighborhood who come in, so we know someone every day.”

The local cafe was founded in 2016 when co-founders Audrey Finocchiaro and Sam Lancaster built what Finocchiaro described as “a shitty box on wheels.” The couple maxed out Finocchiaro's $1,600 credit card in the process. “You can’t let the dollar amount in your bank account dictate how you feel as an entrepreneur,” Finocchiaro said.

Initially, Finocchiaro and Lancaster rolled through the streets of Providence with minimal success, often ending the days with negligible gains. However, as they began hiking up College Hill, the Brown students' enthusiasm “really changed the trajectory of the car,” Finocchiaro said. Sales skyrocketed and the couple were eventually approached by investors to kick-start their wholesale journey.

In Providence, they opened their first permanent location at Dash Bicycle Shop in the West End in 2018. In Newport, they opened a location on Thames St. in 2019 and another on Pond Ave. in 2021. Each of the three operating locations has its own “vibe,” according to Finocchiaro.

The brand has now gone viral on TikTok and has over 418,000 followers as of 2020. Her most popular video has almost 17 million views and 2.6 million likes.

The Providence location is the company's first and smallest. The store on Pond Ave. in Newport “offers more seating, a bigger atmosphere” with more tables and space, while the Thames St. location offers a “more sophisticated menu,” she said. Although the stores each offer a different niche, for Finocchiaro they are “like children.” I still love her.”

Finocchiaro “never expected to have this kind of reach,” but “the brand somehow caught attention and kept it going,” she said.

Since her TikTok account gained traction, sales have increased by 60%.

When she creates content, Finocchiaro tries to “seem authentic” and works hard to create content that she herself would want to see. It's about “publishing the content that feels good to you and trusting yourself to do it,” she added.

But above all, the cafe values “people, quality and the finer things in life,” Finocchiaro said.

“It’s always been important to us to treat our team like family,” she added, and “to extend that to the customers who come in.”

And this effort seems to be paying off. “My favorite thing about working here is the sense of community,” Roche said. “All my colleagues and I are very close.”

While Finocchiaro and Lancaster look forward to future expansion, they want to keep their eye on the starting point. “We've been asked to do franchises many times, but it's not something Sam and I are interested in,” Finocchiaro said. “We like to have control over the environment and everything that comes with it.”

But that doesn't mean the store has stopped going: Nitro Bar is currently looking for another location. “We love our West End location and never want to leave there, but we would definitely love a second location in Providence,” she said.

For Finocchiaro it is “crazy” that so much has changed since 2016.

But it looks like more changes are on the way. Nitro Bar's website states that the cart's next stop is “the moon.”