‘It’s just time’: Owners of Tortilla Flats, a Providence institution, list restaurant for sale for $1.3m
From server to owner: Couple bids farewell to Tortilla Flats after 30 years
It was 1994 when Joanne Everett, then a single mom, started pulling shifts as a server at Tortilla Flats, a storied Tex-Mex restaurant. She worked her way up to manager, and then was promoted to general manager, where she ultimately hired Mat Vincent, a server and her eventual husband.
In 2006, the couple purchased the restaurant from Stan Spencer, who was inspired in 1973 to open the restaurant from Tortilla Flat, a novel by John Steinbeck, and serve classic burritos, quesadillas, tacos, and fajitas.
About 18 years later, the couple is ready to hang their aprons up for good.
“The Flats,” as Everett affectionately calls the East Side institution, “has been part of my life for the last 30 years. But I’m 57 years old. And I’m ready to retire.”
After years of conversations mulling over the idea, Everett and Vincent listed the business for sale for $1.3 million last week. That cost includes all of the restaurant’s equipment, furniture, and recipes — many of which have been consistent since the restaurant’s founding. The couple owns the real estate, which is a brick building that once housed an early horse-drawn apparatus fire station starting in the 1890s, and they don’t plan on letting it go.
“We’ll continue to be the landlord,” Everett said in an interview. “It’ll be nice to continue that connection to the business, and to Providence.”
The rustic-looking restaurant has 80 seats where tablecloths are nowhere to be found on its sturdy wood tables and twinkling Christmas lights are hung over customer’s heads. Pitchers of lime-colored margaritas are staple orders for regulars as the Tortilla Flat’s logo — an illustration of Steinbeck holding his face in his hands — can be found everywhere as if the great American author was watching you eat from any nook and cranny.
Unlike other local eateries that have experienced significant turnover in recent years, the staff at Tortilla Flats are consistent. Some of their line and prep cooks have been working in the kitchen since Everett took over nearly two decades ago, and there are servers who have worked at the restaurant for 14 years.
Despite its proximity to College Hill, Tortilla Flats is an institution where booths and bar seats are filled with neighbors, families, professors from Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, and other area locals.
“I’ve been there long enough where I used to wait on parents and their kids, and now those kids come in their their children,” said Everett. “It makes me feel ancient, but it’s one of the best parts of being here.”
Everett’s own daughter was 4 years old when she started working at the Flats. Now her daughter is 35 years old, and works part-time at the restaurant. She and Vincent also share an 18-year-old son.
“I raised two kids here. It’s been a wonderful life at the Flats,” said Everett. “But if you wait too long to let it go, something could happen where you can’t actually enjoy life. Traveling is something we both have on our list of something we want to do.
“It’s been 30 years. So, I’m good with this,” she added. “It’s just time.”
Tortilla Flats, 355 Hope St. #1633, Providence, R.I., 401-751-6777, tortillaflatsri.com.
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