A POTENT ESCAPE
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Morgan Clark Snyder Jr. and Brian Oakley put their own spin on craft cocktails at the hidden speakeasy,
Juniper; Oakley adds zest to the Señor Tortoise; the PVD Sour.
The co-owners of the Providence speakeasy Juniper merge team camaraderie with marketing strategy. By TESS LYONS
What was the original plan with Juniper? Was a high-end cocktail bar always the vision? MORGAN CLARK SNYDER JR.: It was always intended as a cocktail bar, but high-end was never the term we looked at. Conceptually, we always wanted to have it be whimsical and fun and represent our personalities in ways we can’ t express in other things we do. BRIAN OAKLEY: We originally talked about what we thought we’ d do when we retire. We thought it’ d be fun to do a hole-in- the-wall amaro bar, and then a week later, Morgan was like,‘ I have keys to this weird room. Let’ s do it.’
You guys, especially you, Brian, have a presence on Juniper’ s social media. How did that come to be? BRIAN: Buttonwoods was moving locations, so I was alone a lot while Morgan was tending to that. Suddenly, being alone was part of it and with working at Julian’ s, Pizza J, being a dad and a husband, I really don’ t have much alone time. The bar,
76 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I APRIL 2026