Three Coffee Shops to Visit in Rhode Island

Finding that lowkey, intimate spot to sip on hot or iced coffee, with friends or your laptop as company, can be hard to locate. As we settle into this year’s cold winter months, signature coffee (and cocktail) drinks are sure to keep you toasty in the comfort of these cozy cafes and roasters.

South

Photo by Edelinda Baptista.

Fuel Coffee Bar
Lynn Eglington had always wanted to own and run a coffee bar on a warm Caribbean island. Narragansett is a close second. Fuel Coffee Bar, a five-minute drive from Narragansett Town Beach and ten minutes from the University of Rhode Island, offers hot coffee, hot chocolate, chai lattes and sixteen flavors of iced coffee to get you pumped for your day.

Early in her professional life, Eglington performed cardiac and diagnostic testing and loved her occupation until policies began to shift and it wasn’t as hands-on as she preferred. Deciding she no longer wanted to stay in the medical field, she chose her next dream job: running a coffee shop.

The Misquamicut native moved to places like Boston and Florida, but the beaches of South County were calling her back to her hometown, where she looked up potential coffee spots for sale online. The shop on Boston Neck Road was a rundown “big burlap sack of coffee beans,” as Eglington says jokingly. But in her late fifties, she took a leap of faith anyway and made a coffee bar out of what was a compact space with the help of her significant other.

“I knew people would always like coffee no matter what the economy is,” says Eglington. “If you’re a coffee drinker, you’re going to drink your coffee.”

Eglington bought the shop from a local roaster called Rhody Roasters (previously named TLC Roasters). Roaster Ken Marot delivers beans to her to this day, and they’re so fresh that “sometimes the oil on the beans is still so new and sticking to the grinders,” she says.

The theme for the coffee bar was inspired by her younger brother, John, an avid surfer since he was little. In fact, one of the paintings in Fuel Coffee Bar — a surfer gliding across a giant pipeline — is the same painting that was posted above her brother’s bed in their childhood home. He also came up with the coffee bar’s LLC, Hit the Liquid. Look around the shop and find a photo of Fuel’s inspiration, posed with his surfboard in California.

On hot summer days, the beach crowd takes over the coffee shop to purchase flavored iced coffees, and during any day of the year, you can spot URI students with laptops, notes and trusty beverages to keep alert while studying.

Seven hot coffees are brewed fresh every morning and, on bustling days, a new pot is brewed every hour to keep up with demand. The iced coffee is made from hot brewed coffee and cooled down with ice paddles so that it’s not diluted with ice. To pair with the hot or chilled beverage, Fuel Coffee Bar doesn’t skimp on creamer or sweetener options.

“We believe that you need to stand out by going a step beyond so put your profit aside and help out to get where you need to be, which is offering your customer oat milk, soy milk, coconut milk and almond milk,” Eglington says. Sweeteners like raw sugar, Truvia, Splenda and simple syrup can be found in the shop as well.

The Fuel Coffee Bar crew make everything from scratch, from bagels to pastries, all free from preservatives. “If you want a breakfast sandwich, you come here because we crack the egg on the grill,” says Eglington, who has vegan and gluten-free options in store, as well.

“It’s hard with a bakery and coffee shop to do healthy stuff,” she says, “but we’ve started with fruit parfaits, smoothies and acai bowls. We’re working in that direction.” Every hour or so, bakers in the kitchen know to put new baked goods in the ovens in small batches, and every item from the previous day is put in the “yesterday’s treats” section for $1.

Eglington’s personal iced coffee preference is a mix of the coconut and tiramisu varieties, but other favorites include the sea salt caramel mocha, snickerdoodle and French vanilla. She adds that it all depends on the customer to find the right flavor of fuel to chase their dreams, whether it’s hitting the biggest waves or opening a coffee bar in their hometown. Fuel Coffee Bar is open daily from 6 a.m.–3 p.m. 904 Boston Neck Rd., Narragansett, 792-3835, fuelcoffeebaronline.com