An Olneyville Meadery Is Bringing Mead to the Masses

Arcane Mead & Winery opened in the former Butterbang space in Providence in August.

August 14, 2025

Lauren Clem,

A view inside the meadery with tables and brewing equipment visible.

Arcane Mead & Winery is located in the former Butterbang space in Olneyville. (Photos courtesy of Arcane & Winery)

Jamie Burnet is not your typical winemaker.

For starters, Arcane Mead & Winery, the business he owns with his husband, Jake Tobak, is not located on a vineyard in the midst of rolling green vines. Instead, it’s tucked into an industrial corner of Olneyville in a space formerly occupied by Butterbang. Inside, the tasting room has the feel of an early 2000s-era brewery, with brewing equipment in full view and a small bar where you can chat with the owners about the latest selection.

For another, that selection is unlike anything you’ll find at another Rhode Island beverage producer. While it’s licensed as a winery (Rhode Island has no separate license to make mead), Arcane’s menu runs the gamut from traditional mead — a wine-like beverage made from honey and water — to mead-wine hybrids designed to taste like your favorite cocktails. There’s even a hopped mead that draws inspiration from the craft beer industry.

“Mead can be a lot of different things. I would like it to be the things people expect as well as the things people don’t expect,” Burnet says.

Arcane Mead & Winery, located at 11 Aleppo St. #7, will hold its grand opening this Friday, Aug. 15, at 6 p.m. The business is the result of several years’ effort by Tobak and Burnet, a longtime homebrewer ready to make the jump into commercial production. He got into beverage making fifteen years ago while living with his father in Virginia, when the pair began experimenting with winemaking from kits.

“I dabbled in mead throughout that period, but mostly I brewed a lot of beer throughout that decade,” he says.

In Rhode Island, he’s an active member of the homebrewing community and previously worked as a bartender at Foolproof Brewing Company. When preparing to open their business, the couple considered opening a brewery, but say they feel many of the unique styles in beer have already been done. Mead, by contrast, is an untapped market in Rhode Island, where the most recent meadery, Greenwich Cove Meadery, closed its doors several years ago. Mead gives them an opportunity to experiment with beverages most of their audience has never tasted before.

“I want this to feel like a wacky candy shop where anything could go on draft,” Burnet says.

On the day of my visit, the menu included several unique varieties organized by ABV. The Cantrip series featured session meads around 4.5 percent ABV, while the Arcana series featured cocktail-inspired meads between 6.9 and 7.5 percent, including several pyments (mead made with grape juice and honey). I sampled an Apricot Bellini Pyment made with Chardonnay grapes and wildflower honey that tasted surprisingly like the real thing, and the menu also included mimosa and pina colada-inspired versions. They source their honey from different suppliers to ensure the right flavor for each variety.

“A surprising amount of flavor comes through the nectar stores and stays in the final product,” Tobak says.

The Major Arcana series, the final category on the menu, featured full strength meads greater than 12 percent, including the crème brulee-inspired Vanillaga and the Goloso Cream Sherry mead. Arcane also has mead slushies for sale and exotic honey available from their suppliers. Burnet and Tobak plan to fill out the menu with traditional meads and wines that will appeal to more experienced palettes, but their main goal is to make mead that anyone can enjoy.

“Right now, I feel like mead is very unapproachable,” Burnet says.

As for the tasting room, that industrial vibe is intentional. Burnet says they always felt a closer connection to craft beer culture than wineries and want customers to feel like they’re headed to the local brewery. The two are also dedicated Dungeons & Dragons players and plan to host regular nights for D&D and other tabletop games. The business name is a D&D reference, and several of the mead names reference TV shows and other millennial nostalgia.

Beginning this weekend, the meadery will be open Wednesdays through Sundays, with their first bottle release — Galactic Leylime, a lime mead made with Galaxy and Citra hops — available on Friday. They eventually plan to distribute in liquor stores. Burnett says customers will also be able to sample their mead at local festivals. arcanemeadandwinery.com