Loma is a Classic Bar Combining International Spirits and Latin Flavors
Guests are transported to what looks like a Latin living room in the '60s or '70s, where they can learn all about cocktails in an intimate environment.
Loma in Federal Hill. Photo by Joe Kramm, courtesy of Loma.
It took local bartender Leishla Maldonado and family about a decade to save funds and open the bar they’ve always wanted. The self-funded classic bar, Loma, is worth waiting for, tucked away in Federal Hill’s back corridor on Spruce Street. It is the first Rhode Island bar to ever be named on Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards’ Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar in the East list.
The family, including Leishla – who is Puerto Rican – and her partner Osman Cortave, and his twin brother, Yefri Cortave – who are Guatemalan – transformed the space into a hideaway that instantly transports guests to an intimate living room in the ‘60s or ‘70s somewhere in Latin America. It’s named Loma after the hills and valleys in Latin America. A privacy screen depicts those hills and valleys when you descend down the staircase into the bar.
Once inside, a deep mahogany custom wood bar, warm copper walls, and burnt sienna velvet banquettes line the perimeter of the space where golden daylight drifts in from a stained glass window. Vintage Murano glass sconces line the walls for lighting the moody space, and earth-toned terra cotta tile floors and brushed concrete tables symbolize the Latin vibes found in their own relatives’ homes. Even the soundtrack is intentional with Latin jazz and bolero pumped in early in the evening with livelier salsa picking up as the night progresses.
“Our favorite places take you somewhere else for a moment, where you come in and sort of forget where you are. Pretty much all of the inspiration is from our roots,” Osman says. “We wanted it to feel like the ‘60s, ‘70s time period, almost like a private home bar in Latin America, where you feel like you’re going into a friend’s home for a moment.”
Loma co-owners Osman Cortave, Leishla Maldonado and Yefri Cortave, with team member Adam Mikula. Photo by Jhonny Ramos.
The family worked with interior designer Becky Carter out of Brooklyn, who coincidentally happened to be a Rhode Island School of Design graduate, to design the space. “It was our first time doing all of this, so we were learning on the go,” Leishla says. “She’s done commercial spaces, but she also does a lot of residential. We explained that we were trying to lean away from the commercial. And she got it right away.” They also tapped into friend Sam Duket from Transom Studio Wood Works to create the bar and furniture.
Once they had a vision in place for the space fitting of Leishla’s decade-plus of cocktail-making experience, Osman and Yefri studied and researched spirits, along with their other team member, Adam Mikula, and then Osman perfected his bartending skills to catch up with Leishla. Leishla not only served as a cocktail apprentice representing Rhode Island for Tales of the Cocktail but she also earned Bar 5-Day certification, which in the cocktail business is similar to becoming a sommelier in the wine world. It’s known as the World’s Most Comprehensive Distilled Spirits & Mixology Program out of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
The booths at Loma. Photo courtesy of Loma.
Osman had the best teacher in Leishla to learn the craft. “I’m a cocktail apprentice at Loma,” says Osman with a laugh while training under his partner, the expert.
Osman’s very first guest at Loma also just happened to be Dale GeGroff, known as King Cocktail, who wrote the book The Craft of the Cocktail. He lives in Westerly, Rhode Island, with his partner Jill DeGroff, and they came by the first night Loma opened. Dale DeGroff ordered the Number 5, which is a sherry blend with mushroom orgeat, Champagne vinegar and freshly squeezed orange juice, for which Leishla won first place in a 2019 national sherry competition. “The drink is a blend of two sherries, amontillado and manzanilla, and shitake mushroom orgeat. When shitakes are cooked, they can give off a chocolatey flavor. I blended that with the orgeat, which is a housemade almond syrup,” Leishla says. “It’s a savory, kind of umami, chocolatey, nutty cocktail.”
Osman jumped into the deep end on day one, but thrived. “I could say confidently that if my first guest ever was Dale DeGroff, I would be terrified,” Leishla says. “But he didn’t show it whatsoever.”
As for the rest of Loma’s cocktail program, the family selected featured spirits that tell a story, so that each cocktail can be a lesson in a glass for their guests. “Ultimately, we’re a classic cocktail bar, so we want to make sure that we have things on hand to make any classic,” Leishla says. “Cocktail number 12 is kind of like a ‘bartender’s choice,’ where we work with what you enjoy, and 98 percent of the time, it’s tied to a classic.”
While they came up with Loma’s cocktail list featuring their own recipes, they also added this “bartender’s choice” interactive experience for guests. “People discover these new flavors. We might put a twist on a drink like a whiskey sour, and they might say, ‘this is like a whiskey sour, but what is this spice?’” Yefri says. “So then we get to talk to them about this new ingredient, and it opens up another world.”
The family hand cuts each perfect cube and spherical round of ice for their cocktails, and serves them in vintage-style glassware. They rely heavily on special spirits from all over the world, like Roku Japanese gin and Palenqueros Mexicano Onofire Ortiz Mezcal from Oaxaca, as well as a Haitian rum called Providence that is mixed into their house daiquiri. Fruit flavors might involve pineapple, citrus, plantain, papaya, passion fruit, pear, banana and more. “We are a classic cocktail bar,” Leishla says. “We do lean into some Latin American flavors, where we highlight flavors that we might be familiar with from all of our backgrounds, all throughout Latin America as well.”
They also have many non-alcoholic cocktails. In fact, their menu includes the spirit-free options right at the top, instead of hidden at the end. “It all goes back to hospitality, making sure that we are a place for everyone to come and enjoy a cocktail, whether it has alcohol or not,” Leishla says. “We just wanted people to feel like they didn’t have to drink. This can be a space where they can hang out and enjoy a spirit free or lower proof cocktail.”
And if you don’t know about an ingredient or a spirit on the menu, never hesitate to ask the team. They consider it a teaching moment. “We find that the more elevated places get, they can also get a little pretentious,” Osman says. “We wanted to flip that on its head. We wanted to create something that felt elegant and elevated, but also approachable, homey, a very neighborhood place. By choosing the featured spirits, we want to talk about these things.”
They also want it to be a place where everyone from all walks of life can feel welcome. They speak from experience. “Being Latinos, Latinas, and trying to go to an elevated space, sometimes we’re not fully welcomed,” Leishla says. “And that’s an experience that black and brown people have in many settings, but here, it’s not even a question, because we know what those experiences are, and we make sure that this is not a place where you’re ever going to feel that way.”
Loma can also be inspirational for the next generation of Latinos. “People from our communities tell us how special the space has been to them, because it shows them that everyday people like us from our backgrounds, are not limited in what they can create,” Yefri says. “I think about our backgrounds and it’s part of the immigrant story as well.”
“We didn’t have the models of success that we are trying to model here,” Leishla says.
“When you don’t have the resources, you just dream. They tell us, [Loma] represents the culmination of that story and that dream, and the hope that somebody that’s very similar to them can create an elevated space for them,” Yefri adds.
112 Spruce St., Providence, instagram.com/loma_bar
