Irregardless Biscuit Co. Is Now Open

Irregardless is now open Friday to Sunday on the West End of Providence. Photo by Jamie Coelho.

Editor’s note: This article was updated from an earlier version posted on Oct. 5, 2023.

A beloved biscuit business just moved inside a former favorite breakfast spot on the West End of Providence. A permanent storefront for Irregardless Biscuit Co. is now open in the cozy former Kitchen space, which was run by the legendary Howard Croft before he passed away from cancer in 2022. The hours are Friday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (or until they sell out!). They hope to expand hours as they adjust to the demand.

An Irregardless Biscuit Co. breakfast sandwich.

The people have been waiting for Irregardless biscuits since the fall, and the time has now come to open its doors. James Dean – who also owns the Slow Rhode with Patrick Lowney and Patsy Wilson – transitioned the former popup to a permanent space with partner Joe Hafner. Hafner came to the business with an extensive culinary background working as the head chef at Gracie’s for many years, and — little known fact — he was also the private chef for American filmmaker Wes Anderson. Over the last ten years, he’s worked in restaurants in Santa Barbara, Wyoming, Nantucket and Philadelphia, but now he’s permanently back in Rhode Island.

“I have always wanted to open something with James, and Rhode Island is where my career blossomed and where I consider home,” Hafner says.

Hafner is running the day-to-day operations and cooking at Irregardless, while Erin Richer is helming the baking operation as the manager and head baker. They are now open Friday to Sunday, serving crisp, buttery biscuits as breakfast and lunch sandwiches, along with other options.

Here’s the menu!

Dean says opening in the former Kitchen space is bittersweet with Croft’s passing, but he hopes that Irregardless will be embraced by the neighborhood. “We can never do what he did here,” Dean says. “To try to go in and replicate what he was doing would be inauthentic in some ways, so we wanted to keep doing what we do, but with respect to him as well.”

“It is incredible to work in Howard and Anne’s former space,” Hafner adds. “It’s small, adorable, and has a rich history.”

Irregardless Biscuit Co. started as a popup in 2020. “The name started as a joke because everyone says irregardless is not a real word, and at the time, it wasn’t a real business, so it just stuck,” Dean says.

The premise is based on Dean’s grandmother’s biscuit recipe. He travels to North Carolina two or three times a year to load up his truck with the same flour that his grandparents used to make their biscuits. “I learned to make the biscuits from her,” he says. “The mill that mills the flour is good friends with my family now. We’ve known them and used their product for years.”

When Dean started the business, he was the one waking up on Saturdays and Sundays at three or four in the morning to make the biscuits for the popup which was run out of the former Tailor Shop next to Broadway Bistro. His partner at the Slow Rhode, Lowney, also owns Broadway Bistro and the popup kitchen storefront next door, where Hotline pizza is also based. The Irregardless Biscuit Co. popup took off there during the pandemic, as did Hotline.

“When we started, it built up steam and took on a life of its own,” Dean says. “I originally started doing it once a month, and then it went to every other weekend, then every weekend pretty quickly.”

As it grew, Dean hired Richer to take over the baking since he works full time teaching at RISD. There was so much demand for the biscuits, they realized it could be more than just a weekend operation. “We knew we were outgrowing the space, but hours-wise, we could only do Saturdays and Sundays,” he says. “There were other things we wanted to do, so I started looking for a space maybe nine months ago, and we had been in contact with a couple of different spots.”

Hafner and Dean shopped around, looking at the Armory and the former Fearless Fish location on the West End, finally deciding on the Kitchen space. “Once we found out the Kitchen space was available and we could make it work financially, it made sense to move on it,” Dean says.

While Irregardless is mostly takeout, there are twelve seats for dining in, including four small tables and three or four counter seats. Dean is proud to have Hafner at the helm running the business every day and to have Richer continue baking and cooking.

Mornings have some coffee options, and they are also planning something extra special for nighttime. “We’re going to keep what we’ll be doing at night under wraps for now, but there will be some options at night, and hopefully it fits in with something that’s not in the neighborhood that people will like,” Dean says.

94 Carpenter St., Providence

Stay tuned to their Instagram page, @Irregardlessbiscuit, for updates.