‘We sorely needed this’: In Providence, a dance club for an over-30 crowd – The Boston Globe

Medici is split into two sections: One is certainly a dance club, where young ravers dressed sparely bump to tunes throbbing from a state-of-the-art audio system.

The lounge is completely separate. The lights are brighter, the music is low enough to allow for conversation, and there’s even a small kitchen that serves food. The royal blue carpet with a pattern of hundreds of gold fleurs-de-lis complements cushy velvet couches and chairs, setting an opulent, sophisticated vibe. Portraits of the powerful Medici family, who ruled Florence and Tuscany from the 15th to 18th centuries, welcome you at the door.

It’s an older crowd than your typical club. During Medici’s grand opening in late February, guests ranged in age from 35 to over 65.

“Providence didn’t have a venue like this before,” said Mindy Britto, the owner of consignment boutique Urban Thread, which held a fashion show at Medici its first weekend open. Sporting fur coats, long dresses, and pleather pants, the majority of the crowd was 30 and older, with many women in their 40s and 50s, said Britto. “It’s very refreshing to have something that caters to a more mature audience.”

Women over 30 “still got it going on, we want to go out and have a good time, but want to do it in a more refined atmosphere,” said Britto, who is now in her mid-40s. “Professionals, business owners — we sorely needed this.”

Alex Tomasso, 65, who has opened nightclubs and restaurants across the city over the last three decades, has worked for a year to open Medici, a more than $1.3 million project with partners Sue Ashworth, Saje Barwary, and Italia Barwary.

“This is my last big project,” said Tomasso in an exclusive interview. “I don’t think I have to say that I’m 65 years old, but I’m done. I think I’m ending with this one.”

The space has come a long way. During the Globe’s first visit in April 2024 as construction was getting underway, the club was in shambles. There was a strong smell of sewage, a large puddle in the middle of the dance floor, wires hung from the ceiling, and the sound of dripping pervaded seemingly every corner. A year later, those issues have been fixed.

Bathrooms, bar tops, and even flooring have been redone throughout. Round velvet purple and white banquettes line the walls of the nightclub, while a massive mural of Florence, Italy, hangs in the lounge as the backsplash against several crystal chandeliers suspended from the ceiling. The lounge serves Italian wine and craft cocktails.

For years, particularly in the early 2000s, Providence was seen around New England as the go-to city for a fun night out. But the landscape of Providence’s nightlife has changed. While the restaurant scene has surged, nightclubs have closed, for various reasons. Gentrification has led to the redevelopment of many former venues into expensive apartment buildings, and rising housing costs have priced out many artists and musicians. In some cases, clubs were shut down after violent incidents; and new regulations, bureaucratic red tape, and the high cost of doing business in recent years haven’t helped.

“You watch shows like ‘Sex and The City’ and see them going out, dressing up, and having fun in these super cool lounges and chic nightclubs. But when I turned 21, there was nowhere in Providence like that,” said Scout Lyons, 25, an actress and designer of clothing line “Scouted.” “Medici is unlike anything else in the city.”

In contrast to larger urban settings, like New York or cities across the South, Rhode Island has had a longstanding ban on happy hours, and the public transportation system dwindles after 9 p.m., making it more difficult to keep customers in the city at night.

“Providence’s nightlife scene has been really tired. But now I have a lot of hope for Medici,” said Lyons, who also organized a recent fashion show at the lounge. “I think it’s going to attract a lot of people to Providence, and really re-ignite some excitement around the city’s nightlife scene because it shows something more upscale, but fun.”

Medici offers valet parking, and the lounge typically will be open around 7 to about 11 p.m. most nights. The nightclub side opens at 10 p.m. and closes at 2 a.m.

On its opening night, a corner of the lounge was dedicated to a wine tasting by Rossi Import, which is co-owned by Pamela Parker, who imports wine from Italy. “Frankly, I can’t remember the last time I was caught in a nightclub,” said Parker.

During the lounge’s first few days in operation, Evan Simone celebrated his 21st birthday with his parents, drinking vodka-Red Bulls while blowing out candles on a white and blue cake. In another section of the lounge, a man got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, who was wearing a floor-length red gown. DAWNNY, a “duck and influencer” that has nearly 10,000 followers on Instagram, and Mayor Brett Smiley, often critiqued for being the “fun police,” even made an appearance.

For some, including Tomasso, this club offers something different.

Tomasso has spent his career in the nightlife space, and in Medici has built out a concept that has been taking off in other cities in recent years. A nightclub in Ann Arbor, Michigan, throws weekly Friday night parties that end by 9 p.m. Many attendees call it “Geezer Happy Hour” because the majority of the crowd is over 65. Retroclubnyc in New York City plays dance hits from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and doormen favor patrons over 30 in business casual attire. The Earlybirds Club is a roaming dance party that’s coming to cities across the country and specifically targets “middle aged-ish” women, as well as nonbinary and trans people, who want to go out but also be in bed by 11 p.m.

Medici will soon host weekly comedy shows on Thursday nights, and has an upcoming brunch for entrepreneurial-minded women in March.

“It’s like bringing the early 2000s back,” said Lyons. “You can dress up like Carrie Bradshaw, wear your heels, and go out with your besties — no matter what generation you’re in.”

Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.