Steam Café Returning To Worcester Ice Center

WORCESTER, MA — A local coffee shop that closed during the pandemic is being brought back to life by new owners.

The Steam Café location at the Worcester Ice Center, 115 Harding St., will reopen as soon as next week, according to co-owner Chris Besaw. The coffee shop will remain mostly the same as the original incarnation, but the menu will be expanded, Besaw said.

The Steam Energy Café at the Worcester Ice Center originally opened in 2017 and was operated by Niche Hospitality Group. Niche opened a second location along West Boylston Street in 2019. The hospitality chain closed both locations about a year ago.

"As you may or may not have heard, we have officially decided to permanently close both Steam locations," Niche said in a September 2020 Instagram post. "It saddens us to make this announcement, but given the current circumstances, it just didn't make sense to reopen."

Along with Besaw, the new Steam Café will be co-owned by Cliff Rucker, who owns the Worcester Railers, the Worcester Palladium and the new Nashville-themed restaurant Off The Rails.

The new Steam Café was granted a victualler license at Thursday morning's Board of License Commissioners meeting. Once open, operating hours will be from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

More in Worcester coffee...

The Steam reopening is just one drop of recent Worcester coffee news.

On Wednesday, Redemption Rock Brewing announced a new lineup of espresso drinks including lattes, cappuccino, Americanos and shaken espresso in hot and iced versions. Those offerings are on top of traditional drip coffees served at the Putnam Lane brewery.

Fuel America, which operates a café and roastery at the Mercantile Center, is working on a new Grove Street location. A "coming soon" sign went up outside the Washburn & Moen building several weeks ago.