Bryan Gibb’s parents instilled in him from a very young age foundational elements that have helped him throughout his life: creativity, hard work, generosity, and always to ask the question what if. . .

Gibb has since taken these elements and used them as the main ingredients in his two Providence-based businesses: Bolt Coffee Co. and Knead Doughnuts. What else is in his sweet sauce? Community, above all else.

Bolt started in 2012 as a side project for Gibb and his business partner and friend, Todd Mackey, while they were both working in coffee at the same company. With that what if ringing in his ear, Gibb and Mackey took a leap of faith, knowing they had a supportive community behind them.

Bolt Coffee at RISD

“We scraped together a little bit of money and bought some coffee equipment to cater espresso at weddings and do pop-ups on the weekends,” says Gibb. “I was 21 at the time, and two years in, I lost my job because of a conflict of interest with my then-current employer, and so I decided to pursue Bolt full time.”

Towards the end of 2013, some folks at The Dean Hotel approached Gibb and Mackey to see if they could set up a coffee bar in the hotel they were building, just another example of the ways in which Providence continues to be uber-supportive of startups. “I’ve always seen new businesses being supported in a way that doesn’t make much sense in New England, but people love to help new things take life here,” Gibb says.

Bolt Coffee bar at The Dean Hotel

Skip ahead to 2016. Bolt Coffee has tripled its staff and opened a second location at the RISD Museum, a feat that Gibb says could not have happened without the support of his wife, Rachel, and their two-year-old son, Beckham—in addition, of course, to the entire Bolt team.

“I’m not alone. I think that is the one thing that has brought me any success,” says Gibb.

To see how Knead Doughnuts works into the entrepreneurial storyline, we need to hop back to 2014.

“Knead Doughnuts started as an idea in 2012,” says Gibb, “and didn’t start to take shape more fully until 2014, when we brought in Adam Lastrina, who had worked for many years as the general manager of Seven Stars Bakery in Providence.”

With Lastrina taking the brunt of the load as managing partner, Knead opened in January 2017, and the response from Providence has been tremendous since day one. “We are selling coffee and doughnuts, but what we seek to provide is connection,” says Gibb.

Apart from fostering community building, Knead satisfies Providence folks’ need for sugar. Featuring inventive flavors such as Earl Grey, Passion Fruit, Peanut Butter & Jelly, and Brown Butter Toffee, Knead is the perfect spot for a Saturday sweet tooth fix.

“Our goal has always been to make spaces for people to connect,” Gibb says. “Coffee has always been for us a very relational thing, interpersonal and very human. First dates, catching up with friends, connecting with new people, talking life, etc.”

Both businesses cater everything from weddings to parties to weeklong events. Knead and Bolt also aim to provide community support through donations and sponsorships.

Bryan Gibb

“Our goal is to do good where we can, however we are able,” says Gibb.

“What I’m trying to do in life and business is bring people together, and build community and relationships. This is reflected in partnerships in my businesses, and is the driving force within them,” Gibb adds. “We don’t do it alone, and my hope is that we can, through our spaces, bring real people into real community.”

Gibb loves that he can foster this sort of environment in New England, a place he has called home his entire life. “There’s something about Providence and New England that loves the underdog,” says Gibb. “The creative community has been so supportive, and continues to foster the what if conversation.”

Bryan Gibb – owner at Bolt Coffee Co. & Knead Doughnuts
Providence, Rhode Island
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Knead Doughnuts
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All images c. Christian Harder Photography | 2017

The post Coffee, Doughnuts, and Community Building appeared first on Take Magazine.

Scene: Busy coffeeshop just after dusk. Location: Northampton, MA. In walks a bedraggled, white-bearded, black coffee-swilling, grump-meister named Tom Pappalardo. His laptop is scratched, stickered, and held together with a clamp. He looks like Liam Neeson about to do someone some very serious damage. “I used to be a semi-professional curmudgeon,” he says, “but now it’s more of a persona. I think I’m actually much nicer than I used to be.”

Pappalardo, an Easthampton, MA-based graphic designer, musician, and longtime comic book artist (Everything You Didn’t Ask For, 2014), has written, designed, and, through his new press, Object Publishing, self-published One More Cup of Coffee (2016), an observational compendium of his visits to coffee shops throughout Western Massachusetts. The book really doesn’t have anything to do with coffee, except insofar it’s the liquid folks gather around to talk life, death, and pretty much everything else in between. Tom visits these spots, gets himself a cup of their darkest coffee, sets his back to the wall and just listens. The locales range from classic New England coffee shops like Shelburne Falls Coffee Roasters, to supermarkets (Trader Joe’s), to the most ubiquitous of middle-America coffee sellers like Dunkin’ Donuts and a Starbucks inside Barnes and Noble.

“It came about as a way for me to get out of the house,” Pappalardo explains. “I made a list of places, some of which I’d been a regular at for years, then others – hey how come I don’t go there?” He developed a following writing weekly Facebook updates of his observations, which became about 90% of the book, “though,” he promises, “the book is much better edited.” The book’s subtitle, “In Which the Author Barely Talks About the Coffee” was by design. “A lot of the Facebook fans thought they were café reviews. I’ve lived in the area for 20 years, I knew a lot of the owners. I wanted it to be clear that this wasn’t an extended Yelp review.”

Instead, Pappalardo reviewed the customers inside the shops, telling their stories through his story, which is most often full of rage at the base foolishness of our entire culture. With lines like “I’m trying to be less of an asshole,” it’s clear that Pappalardo enjoys being a character in his own book. It also allows him to offer up some wickedly brutal assessments of the most mundane or overwrought conversations.

Behind Pappalardo’s umbrage is the sense that we’ve lost touch with being, and feeling, part of a larger community. “Even folks our age or older are blindered and not mindful of what’s going on around them,” he says.” A big part of this book was a mindfulness exercise. I’m going to a place just to observe. I try to make it as funny as I can, because that’s the genre I work in.”

Tom Pappalardo | Photo by David Nielsen

Though it seems the antithesis of his old-school coffee shop haunting, Pappalardo also made One More Cup of Coffee available on Kindle, a move that strips it of its design, physicality, and character. It’s a sign of the times, one he acknowledges with a wince. “I’m more interested in the object  of the book,” Pappalardo explains. “I just wanted to make a nice book. It’s the same with albums vs MP3s. I’m certainly from that era where I remember growing up and buying a cassette at the mall. You’d sit and listen to it and read along with all the lyrics. You build a connection to the album. I’m also a graphic designer; you can’t have an album without a cover. So yeah, to me this is the closest I get to art, whereas the Kindle version is the raw data. If someone wants to consume that, that’s fine—I’m not going to stop them. But the book is way cooler.”

Follow Tom Pappalardo on-line, on Instagram, and multiple Facebook pages:
personal | graphic design | writing & things, etc.

Illustration by Tom Pappalardo

The post Sit. Sip. Scrutinize. Scribble. appeared first on Take Magazine.