Update: Services for Tom Bates: Wake, Wednesday, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Monahan Drabble Sherman Funeral Home, 230 Waterman Street in Providence. Celebration of Life: Hot Club, South Water Street, Providence, Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m.
Tom Bates, the burly, witty and friendly Providence tavern owner and raconteur, who came to Rhode Island’s capital to attend the Rhode Island School of Design and never left, was found dead today at his East Providence home. He was 73.
A player in Providence’s downtown and waterfront revival, Bates was out with friends as recently as last week, where he was holding court on a stool at the bar at Nick-a-Nees as his friend Marilyn Collins Gendron served drinks. His daughter, Piper, also worked there.
Bates longtime friend and business partner, state Sen. Josh Miller of Cranston, said he did not know the cause of death. A native of Utica, N.Y., Bates studied architecture at RISD and after college worked on renovation projects. He became Miller’s partner in the original Met Café, a legendary dive bar in what was then Providence’s industrial, seen-better-days Jewelry District. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the Met and the nearby Leo’s, a restaurant run by John Rector, were lodestones in that neighborhood, which had not been gentrified.
“Without Tom Bates, there is no Josh Miller,” said Miller.
Miller and Bates later opened the Hot Club, which Eben Bates, Tom’s son, now manages. Miller and Bates were also partners in opening the Trinity Brew House in a former Burger King in La Salle Square downtown Providence, which led to a revival of that area.
A devoted college basketball fan, Bates had Providence College season tickets for many years. He often attended games with his son, Eben. Bates had a love for motorcycles, and collected classic models.
Bates was also involved in opening the Custom House and Maverick’s in Providence and Tinkers Nest in Warren. And he was involved with the grocery at Cutler Mills in Warren that is currently occupied by Tom’s Market. He had suffered a stroke several years back, but appeared in good health recently. Miller said funeral services are incomplete.
Joyce Katzberg, the folk singer and activist, said this morning that she had known Bates since she was 16 years old. “What Tom did was create public spaces to bring people together. He was a visionary,” she said.
