Lighthouse Coffee Roasters and Cafe Shines in Rhode Island

Inside the new Lighthouse Coffee Roasters cafe in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. All images courtesy of Lighthouse Coffee Roasters.

Now guiding coffee seekers to freshly roasted coffee and other delights in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, is Lighthouse Coffee Roasters. The new company opened a bright and cozy roastery cafe last month near the shores of Narragansett Bay.

With white shiplap walls working with pops of blue and natural wood for a nautical theme, a hammered brass 3-group Victoria Arduino Athena espresso machine glistens with a trident of upright manual levers. 

A live-edge red oak counter lined with outlets invites roaming workers to dock for the day in a shop where pastries, pressed juices, breakfast sandwiches and more are available alongside the traditional coffee menu. Couches and lounge chairs also encourage guests to relax with drinks based on beans roasted on site in a Bellwether roasting machine.

“We all have a hand in roasting, even our high school employees can do it,” Lighthouse Coffee Co-Owner Courtney Kenerson told Daily Coffee News. “We have been mostly using the profiles provided by Bellwether as they serve as a great starting point, but since opening the café and hearing customer feedback and listening to what customers like for their coffees, Rob [Kenerson, co-owner] has since started to play around with profiles and verge into creating some of his own.”

For whole-bean retail sales of single-origin coffees and blends named after local lighthouses, Lighthouse Coffee packages its beans in recyclable, reusable and vaguely lighthouse-shaped aluminum cans with threaded caps.

“We package our online sales with a card that reads ‘treat like champagne,’ however the lid will never reach the excitement level of a popping bottle of champagne. Trust me, we tried,” said Kenerson. “We always advise our customers to ‘burp’ the cans, or slowly release the gas every so often. However, if you’re an everyday coffee drinker, the gas will be released every day anyway.”

Married co-owners Courtney and Rob Kenerson set sail with the company in the Spring of last year with the Bellwether installed in an industrial facility in Smithfield to roast for online sales. The business combines Rob’s background in the restaurant industry and Courtney’s skills in marketing and design. 

“Bellwether provided us a great starting point into roasting our own coffee and we knew the beans we were getting from them would follow our goals, values, and guidelines as a company,” Rob Kenerson told DCN. “But once we can move away from the day-to-day responsibilities as working owners of the cafe, our goal is to start developing farm-direct relationships to actively have a hand in supporting the farming community. Traveling to different countries to first-hand see the coffee farms, how they grow and curate the coffee is definitely a future goal for us.”

Lighthouse Coffee Roasters and Cafe is located at 7446 Post Rd. in North Kingstown. Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or roastery here.