Neighbors Say Rok Bar Too Loud

The other side of the East Greenwich restaurant renaissance is that success can bring problems for those who live nearby. 

Case in point: neighbors of Rok Bar 'n Grill on Main Street complained recently to the Town Council about noise when the restaurant has bands as well as from sometimes boisterous or argumentative patrons at closing time.

The residents – who live on Division Street and on Peirce Street – said even if the decibel levels are under the town's limit (which they have been, according to police), the noise is very loud. In addition, they spoke about being woken up at 1 a.m. by departing patrons.

"This is my recommendation – that they put in soundproof glass," said a Peirce Street man who did not want to be identified. "And my other recommendation is that there's a police presence every single night at closing time because that's when people come out of the bar."

Brandon Sweet, one of the owners of Rok Bar, said Friday the last thing he wanted was for the bar to become known as "the nightclub of East Greenwich." Rather, he reiterated what he said before the bar opened: "I want it to be a family-friendly place."

He said he'd being doing a lot of research on soundproofing, noting it wasn't a simple thing to replace the windows since the building is in the historic section.

"The windows are the biggest problem," Sweet said, noting they had not been able to find replacement windows that would both lessen the noise and meet HDC requirements. 

"We're meeting with a sound company this week to give us all our options," he said. After that, they will meet with the town fire marshal to discuss possibilities. One idea, he said, was to have something they could put up during the hours bands are playing that would come down for the rest of the time. Right now, live music is played Friday and Saturday nights.

Even that, Sweet said, has been tailored to keep things quieter. They only have a band with live drumming on Saturday nights. Friday night they feature a dance bands. In fact, he said, for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, they purposely didn't book a band, to not antagonize neighbors.

Sweet said the bar employs two "floor hosts," quasi security guards, and one is stationed outside when the patio (which has its own bar) is open. 

Police Chief Thomas Coyle said Rok Bar had been "very open to our suggestions and is working to better address the noise." 

The police have worked hard on establishing a presence down at the waterfront, to better deal with noisy and noisy patrons there. Now, with Rok Bar, Coyle said he is trying to keep a car visible at closing time in that area too.