The Duo Behind Olga’s Cup & Saucer Swap Bread for Bags in Latest Enterprise

Olga Bravo and Rebecca Wagner are perennial vendor market stalwarts. On Saturday mornings, you might find the artsy pair at Casey Farm in Saunderstown, Tiverton Farmers Market, Aquidneck Growers Market in Newport, or other destinations – courtesy of their trailer. Under brand name The Golden Trout, the trained mixed-media artists sell one-of-a-kind handbags stitched at their Hope Valley studio from a stash of burlap sacks, plastic feed bags, textile remnants, hardware, and pieces of suede hand-stamped with their alluring logo of a fish.

Long before Bravo and Wagner were making totes, they were baking artisanal bread in the small building next to Walker’s Roadside Stand in Little Compton. In the early 1990s, they opened Olga’s Cup and Saucer in Providence’s Jewelry District, which was a huge success that received national attention. For years, they served a wildly popular menu of sandwiches on oven-fresh bread and baked goods like tomato-corn pizza, scones, and pies, along with coffee, salads, and more.

While the two loved the rush of the restaurant
business and the smell of bread baking, rising costs and piling bills rendered them receptive to a change when a friend shared news that Johnson & Wales University was seeking instructors. On a lark, Bravo and Wagner applied to be adjunct professors. The two laugh as they describe the comedic hijinx during the serious bench-test of having to bake a range of goods on demand and clean up on the spot for their interview. Both were hired and decided to part with Olga’s Cup and Saucer (the space is now inhabited by both Tiny Bar and Seven Stars Bakery on Point Street).

While running the cafe, Bravo and Wagner lived in Providence, and often sought refuge from the kitchen and the city by not only vending at weekend markets, but also kayaking Wood River through Arcadia Management Area in Hope Valley. When Wagner spotted a fixer-upper for sale on a 1.3-acre lot that included a trail down to the river, plus a few small outbuildings perfect for her-and-her studios, they were sold. Not long after moving in, the perfect storm of a plastic bag ban, a pandemic, and time at home with piles of burlap sacks saved from the cafe by an employee sparked an idea. “I wanted to make bags,” says Wagner.

“Growing up, I made my own clothes,” Bravo begins, “but I hadn’t sewn in years.” What she did remember, she showed Wagner, who began creating simple totes. Before long, they were both all in; next came an industrial sewing machine, and friends and colleagues shipping empty bags to their Hope Valley HQ from all over the world. “This one is from Africa, this one is from Portugal,” says Bravo, pointing to their collection of materials. She notes that they make what they make, no custom orders.

When it was time to name the business, an encounter with a man by the river proudly holding a shimmering fish provided the inspiration. “We asked if it was a golden trout, and he said ‘yes!’ They’re a big thing around here. If you catch one, you get a prize,” Wagner says, referencing the annual RIDEM fishing challenge. And thus, The Golden Trout was born.

Today, the Bravo-Wagner homestead is a maker’s compound. The old house was torn down and rebuilt using historic plans; a two-story barn was constructed that houses Wagner’s studio, where she paints and does metalwork; and a small garage serves as the sewing studio, with totes and cross-body bags displayed on metal rods, and artful open storage of vintage spools holding belt webbing, galvanized tins of supplies, and a worn cookie tray that Bravo utilizes as a design board for plotting her next bag. There’s also a storage shed painted a glossy gray adorned with a pair of watering cans on hooks that match the tiger lilies in the patch of garden below.

In the main house, decorated in a minimalist-meets-historic aesthetic, loaves of rustic sourdough bread rest on cutting boards and there are handfuls of zinnias and hydrangeas placed in canning jars. The vibes of all things Olga’s past and present are strong. Follow on Instagram @thegoldentrout for upcoming vendor markets and more.