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CON T EN TS Providence Monthly • September 2017
21 Beautifying Downtown
24 The Wiseguys of Crimetown
27 New Dining in Providence
Dedicated neighbors are working alongside the City and Parks Department to fix up the Riverwalk
The hosts and creators of the hit podcast sat down to talk about Providence, face time with gangsters and Buddy Cianci
As if the city didn’t have enough going for it as a dining destination, here are 10 new restaurants that have made 2017 one delicious year
A whiskey flight from The East End, one of the city’s new restaurants to try
DEPARTMENTS Providence Pulse
13 Grab a paddle and explore
19
SCENE IN PVD: The Burnside
Summer Music Series and Beer
Feast
Get Out
45 TREND: Farm fresh veggies come
61 THE MUST LIST: Events you can’t
to Kennedy Plaza
miss this month
46 REVIEW: Circe serves up divinely
64 ON STAGE: Get a preview of The
inspired dishes and cocktails
Gamm Theatre’s 2017/2018 season
Garden at Burnside Park
downtown in a kayak
14 Dreadphile Cinema takes a deep dive
City Style
into so-bad-they’re-good cult classics
35 AT HOME: Inside an artist’s loft at
48 IN THE KITCHEN: 4corners Coffee
66 ART: Peán Doubulyu Glass is making
The Plant
reinvents the wheel with square donuts
cool art in a hot studio
37 THE LOOK: A Trinity Rep actor offers
50 ON THE MENU: The Veggie Valet
67 MUSIC: Things get royally loud on
style advice from the stage
keeps your farmers market finds cool on
Hairspray Queen’s new album
14 Get hands on with art and science at the West Side’s new museum
15 Add bocce and chess to the list of things to do in Dexter Park
17 Local filmmakers bring the story of a
Hope Street 39 SHOP AROUND: Shop with a progressive attitude at Bromance Ware-
51 IN THE DRINK: Loie Fuller’s is raising
house
a glass to all the ladies out there
Photography by Stacey Doyle
real-life hero to the screen
17 The ancient Irish sport of hurling
Hidden PVD 68 Peek under the dome of the 125-yearold Ladd Observatory
40 GET FIT: Climb your way to the top
53 RESTAURANT GUIDE: Loosen your belt
at Central Rock Gym
- there’s a lot of deliciousness to be had
comes to Providence
ON THE COVER Smoked Mussels from The East End. Photography by Stacey Doyle
WE B E XC LUSI VE S even more awesomeness @ ProvidenceOnline.com
PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
Publishers Barry Fain Richard Fleischer John Howell
Media Director Jeanette St. Pierre
Creative Director Julie Tremaine
Managing Editor Tony Pacitti Editor Sophie Hagen
Art Director Meghan H. Follett
Advertising Design Director Layheang Meas
Assistant Art Director Nick DelGiudice
Graphic Designer Chad Bauerle
Staff Photographer Savannah Barkley Marketing Coordinator Kim Tingle Account Managers Shelley Cavoli: Shelley@ProvidenceOnline.com Louann DiMuccio-Darwich: Louann@ProvidenceOnline.com
If you’re looking for a change of pace – and a change of scenery – check out our rundown of the nightlife in South County. From pinball bars to rocking out at the Ocean Mist to line dancing (yes, really), there’s more to South County than just beautiful beaches.
COLD BREW COOL KIDS Meet the minds behind Rhode Island’s trendiest iced coffee purveyors, The Nitro Cart.
Ann Gallagher: Ann@ProvidenceOnline.com Kristine Mangan: Kristine@ProvidenceOnline.com Elizabeth Riel: Liz@ProvidenceOnline.com Dan Schwartz: DanS@ProvidenceOnline.com Stephanie Oster Wilmarth: Stephanie@ProvidenceOnline.com
Contributing Photographers Mike Braca Kendall Pavan St. Laurent Stacy Doyle Tim Siekeira Wolf Matthewson Contributing Writers Marrissa Ballard
Grace Lentini
Erin Belknap
Stephanie Obodda
Jessica Bryant
John Taraborelli
Bob Curley Emily Dietsch Amanda M. Grosvenor Adam Hogue Jackie Ignall Interns Trent Babington Emily Blay Morgan Banville
IS PROVIDENCE STILL CRIMETOWN? After you read our Q&A with the creators of the hit podcast (p. 24), go online to read Dan McGowan’s in-depth look at the city’s battle with corruption in the post-mob era.
P rov id e n ce O n line.com
Amanda Gastel Megan Manning Marissa O’Rourke Megan Schmit
Members Of:
PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER. PAPER CONTAINS 20-25% POST-CONSUMER CONTENT Providence Monthly 1070 Main Street, Suite 302 Pawtucket RI 02860 • Fax: 401-305-3392 ProvidenceOnline.com Mail@ProvidenceOnline.com @PVDMonthly For advertising rates call: 401-305-3391 We welcome all contributions, but we assume no responsibility for unsolicited material. No portion of this publication can be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission. Copyright ©2017 by Providence Monthly. All rights reserved.
6
PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Photography (top) by Tim Siekiera, illustration (bottom left) by Phil Oliviera, photography (bottom right) by Kendall Pavan St. Laurent
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CO MME N TA RY
FREE AUGUST 2017 #250
AUGUST ISSUE LOVE “Providence Monthly reminds you why the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra should be on your calendar.” @Chris B. via FB
O O RS OUTD CO N C E R T
d to see rig ht now 20 SH OWS you nee
+
W H AT ’ S G O I N G TO H A P P E N TO WBRU?
Rem emb erin g Whe n THAYER STR EET Was Coo l
“Thank you #pvdmonthly for capturing my art and my story so beautifully!” @katewilson.artist via FB on “Finding Trippy Beauty in Simplicity” “Thanks for the great writeup on one of our cocktails!” @sindesserts via IG on “Wicked Whiskey”
PVD ’s BAN D OF THE MOM ENT Makes It Big Wic kend en Stre et’s New DIN ING DES TIN ATI ONS
READERS RESPOND TO “WBRU’S RADIO SILENCE”
A VERY STYLISH GIVEAWAY
“Please read this! I’m heartbroken about the turnout of this spring’s decision.” @Anna H. via FB
“The article mentions all of the concerts WBRU brought to Providence and the fantastic music the DJs curated. They introduced me to Ben Folds Five long before any corporate station would play their music. Twenty years later and Ben Folds is still my favorite singer/songwriter. I’m sure countless others can relate to this. RIP WBRU.” @Jeff B. via Twitter
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
/Hey R h od y @ H ey R h o d y
Show us how pretty Providence is and you could win a pair of tickets to StyleWeek Northeast! Follow Providence Monthly on Facebook and post a photo that highlights our gorgeous city to enter the StyleWeek ticket giveaway.
FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Sign up and stay in the know on all things Rhody: HeyRhody.com/newsletter
Photography by Mike Braca
“It really breaks my heart and this article is dead on. WBRU means so much to the local population and is where I discovered pretty much all of the music I’ve loved since I was 14 years old.” @Meghan C. via Twitter
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Back to studying • music classes • sports • day care • fall activites
For more Back to School offerings,
visit
PROVIDENCEONLINE.com
Think Differently
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September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
11
SEPTEMBER 2017
SUN 3
MON 4
TUES 5
RI Kids Count Student Centered Learning Spotlights Release #1 SUN 10
MON 11
WED 6
MON 18
Design Week RI SUN 24
MON 25
Design Week RI
FRI 1
SAT 2
FRI 8
SAT 9
XQ Super School Live Viewing Party
THURS 14
FRI 15
SAT 16
BIF Post-Summit Workshop
BIF Summit Design Week RI
TUES 19
WED 20
OER Design Guided Team Architectural Meeting Tour of PPL RI-EIRN Catalyst Speaker Series
Student Centered Learning Leadership Table WED 13
EdTechRI MeetUp SUN 17
THURS 7
Guided Architectural Tour of PPL
TUES 12
eduvate RI
THURS 21
Early Learning Council Meeting
RI-EIRN Catalyst Speaker Series
FRI 22
SAT 23
WaterFire: A Salute to Educators
EduvateRI Kick-Off Meetup
EduLeaders of Color Meetup
Rhode Coders 2.0 TUES 26
WED 27
Children’s Cabinet Meeting
THURS 28
WGBH EdForum
FRI 29
Lighthouse Schools Open House
Brought To You By:
For more information visit www.eduvateri.org
SAT 30
PROV I DEN CE P U LS E City / Scene in PVD
Photography by Tony Pacitti
TAKE ME TO THE RIVER It’s always nice to get a fresh perspective on something familiar, and especially on the city where you live, work and play. That’s why the folks behind the Providence River Boat Company and La Gondola have teamed up to start the Providence Kayak Company (ProvidenceKayak.com). “To see the city from that perspective is really cool and something a lot of people don’t do,” co-owner Kristin Stone says of paddling up and down the Providence River. Floating underneath the roadways that cross the river, she points out, offers up
a new way of seeing the city. Paddlers have their choice of single or tandem kayaks to roam from Waterplace Basin along the river towards the location of the proposed pedestrian bridge or through Olneyville by way of the Woonasquatucket River. “At the right tide,” Kristin says, “you can go pretty far.” With summer almost behind us, grabbing onto a paddle seems like the perfect way to hang onto those lazy days – at least until the kayaking season wraps up Columbus Day weekend.
PUL SE
City
Trashy Treasures
Celebrate the Best-of-the-Worst in Cult Cinema There’s a paradoxical dichotomy in film, where sometimes the worse a movie is, the better it is. It’s how cult classics like The Room and Repo Man are born: typically low-budget and laughably over-the-top, but made by creators who genuinely believe they’re making a great movie. Even if the film flops in theatres, with time it garners a devoted underground audience and becomes an unexpected legend. Dreadphile Cinema Club (Dreadphile.com) is now bringing long-lost, wonderfully terrible cult classics to big screens all over the Providence area – “Dreadphile” is a portmanteau of “Dreadful Cinephile.” Add to it raffles of local artwork, crafts and other merch related to the film, as well as pop-ups by creative vendors like Horror Decor, and you’ve got the makings of a fun and out-of-the-box
(or -vault) event. As latchkey kids, creator Beau Ouellette and his brother Logan “would rent as many videos as we could to keep us busy. We watched everything. Everything,” says Beau. “Mostly garbage due to the straight-to-video market that boomed in the ‘80s and ‘90s.” But some garbage is good garbage, he says. “That’s what Dreadphile is: good garbage. Cult film movies so bad they’re good.” Logan now contributes some digital art to the series, and Beau’s wife Michele is a talented artist known as “Mrs. Dreadphile” on social media. Venues shift; in July the club screened Terrorvision at Cable Car Cinema, and August showed a “Double-Secret Double-Feature” at Revival Brewery in Cranston. Stay tuned to Dreadphile’s website for future venues and screenings. –Amanda M. Grosvenor
Dreadphile Cinema champions campy cult classics like Motel Hell
Sparking Curiosity
Science Meets Art on Westminster
14
PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Curiosity and creativity drive
artists and scientists alike to examine their surroundings. With that philosophy in mind, the Rhode Island Museum of Science and Art (RIMOSA.org) builds interactive exhibits and programs that spur curiosity and creative experimentation, emphasizing open-ended experiences through their hands-on exhibits and temporary installations. For seven years, RIMOSA has hosted pop-up science, technology, engineering, art and math programs in libraries and schools statewide; in June it opened a permanent location on Westminster Street. Access is the primary incentive for creating this new brick-and-mortar location, according to Bonnie Epstein, RIMOSA’s interim executive director. “By having a dedicated space, we are available to so many more people. They can come and stay at any exhibit or activity for as long or as little time as they like, and, best of all, they can come in groups that are not age limited as so many programs are. So entire multigenerational families can come and work together to make a marble roller coaster or show each other their zoetrope animations.” Visitors can expect to find hands-on exhibits presented without instructions – the activities are open-ended and open to interpretation. At the zoetrope activity, for example, visitors can design their own animations while also appreciating the mechanics behind the technology. Other exhibits, such as the Flight Tube and Gear Table, have more ambiguous intentions and are designed to be tinkered with by visitors at their leisure. Bonnie started RIMOSA with a group of like-minded individuals whose “observations made them curious, and they satisfied that curiosity by fiddling and tinkering with things,” she explains. “They found that hands-on experimentation was the best way they knew to interact with the world, and they also saw that the ability to experience the world in that way, in all its mess and mistakes, wasn’t generally available. [They] wanted a space where people of all ages could have that experience with their families, friends and others in Rhode Island.” –Amanda Gastel
Photography (bottom) by Tony Pacitti
RIMOSA encourages discovery through play at its new, permanent location
PUL PULSE SE
City
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Only one park in Providence sits in the shadow of a castle. Surrounded by historic pastel houses, Dexter Training Ground enjoys its summer farmers market and hosts soccer and kickball matches on the weekends. Now it has chess and bocce to brag about too. The newest additions to the park’s slate of games come from members of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association (WBNA. org), who never stop seeing room for improvement in their corner of Providence. In May, for instance, they turned on the newly installed fountain in Luongo Square, signaling the completion of a neighborhood project long in development. Other initiatives include a crime watch, oil recycling program and neighborhood preservation projects. So when two brothers (and former West Side residents) approached the WBNA about honoring their community-minded parents by furnishing the park with new bocce courts and chess tables, the association got to work. In the spring, after months of planning and prototyping, several volunteers worked alongside the parks department to saw timber and lay gravel for the bocce courts, and in July, the chess tables, fabricated by the Steel Yard, were installed. Despite inclement weather, over two dozen people attended the
July ribbon cutting. Neighbors, state and city politicians and several members of the brothers’ family huddled beneath a canopy tent – their mother even cut the ribbon and threw the first jack. These tasks require hard work and massive dedication, but, according to executive director Kari Lang, each plays an important role in furthering the WBNA’s mission to make West Broadway “a safe, vibrant, and sustainable place to be ‘SWELL’ (‘shop, work, eat, live and learn locally’). It’s a great place, we all live here, so [we] work to make it better.” –Trent Babington
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PUL PULSE SE
City
Big Screen Bravery
Local Filmmakers Celebrate an Unsung Hero Many superheroes made their way onto the big screen this summer, but on September 8, Rhode Island’s Verdi Productions will be sharing the story of a real-life hero with the documentary Man in Red Bandana (Facebook: Man in Red Bandana). Man in Red Bandana follows Welles Remy Crowther, who was working on the 104th floor of the South Tower on September 11 and reportedly saved the lives of many before he passed away that day. Welles’ trademark red bandana, which he wore in his right back pocket, helped eyewitnesses identify him. Through footage and testimonials, the film examines the many individuals who have been inspired by Welles’ actions in the South Tower. “Welles’ story is incredible,” says producer Chad Verdi. “What most people don’t know is that he always wanted to be a firefighter. He gave up his life for others.”
The film is the debut effort of writer and director Matthew Weiss, who first learned about Welles’ remarkable story from Welles’ father. Matthew teamed up with Chad and Joshua Sason as well as Gwyneth Paltrow, who narrates the film, and Lyle Lovett, who performs an original song on the soundtrack. The documentary was accepted into the Napa Valley Film Festival and the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, and won the International Humanitarian Award last month at the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival. This month it will open throughout Rhode Island and in major cities across the country, including New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. “Documentaries aren’t really in theatres, so this is a big deal,” says Chad. “If there was a gentleman who took off his suit and the Superman logo was branded underneath, it would be Welles.” –Morgan Banville
The locally produced documentary Man in Red Bandana is in theaters this month
Ancient Athletics
Hurling Makes a 3,000-Year Journey to Providence
Photography (bottom) by Mike Braca, (top) courtesy of Verdi Productions
To watch a hurling
match as a neophyte is to strain for parallels: Is it soccer with sticks? A mashup of football and baseball? Field hockey with a bad attitude? The truth is that hurling predates them all. It’s a 3,000-year-old Irish ball sport with a cult following in Rhode Island, where the Providence Hurling Club (ProvidenceHurlingClub.com) takes on teams from Hartford, Worcester, Concord and Portland, Maine, as part of the North American Gaelic Athletic Association. Founded in 2015, the club plays its home games at the Pleasant View Recreation Center, the rare facility with the odd field dimensions (150 yards by 90 yards) needed for a hurling pitch.
This being an Irish sport, postmatch victory toasts and drowning of sorrows commence with a craic at Patrick’s Pub on Smith Street (not coincidentally, the bar is also the team’s sponsor). Providence Hurling Club chairman Mike Kennelly says “hurlers” range in age from the teens to mid-40s. Dubbed “the fastest game on grass,” hurling pits two teams of 13 players against each other for a pair of 30-minute halves. Each player carries a “hurley” – a stick used to scoop, carry and bat the ball – while advancing down the field. A ball batted into the opponent’s net is worth 3 points, while a shot that passes over the crossbar counts for a single point. The club is always looking for new players and fans; first-timers can get a little instruction and borrow some equipment (a helmet and a hurley) to find out if hurling is in their blood. “The sport draws players due to its unique blend of skills similar to elements found in hockey, soccer, baseball and lacrosse,” says Mike. “While many players are also drawn due to their Irish heritage, we have a good number of players that don’t have any Irish ancestry, but who love the sport and club.” –Bob Curley
September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
17
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
PUL PULSE SE
Scene in PVD
The Burnside Music Series and Beer Garden (ProvParksConservancy.org) was our favorite reason to cut out of work early this summer, and it seems like we weren’t alone. On August 10, visitors spent the late afternoon dancing along to the sounds of Hott Boys, chowing on good eats from Red’s food truck and sipping cold brews from Trinity Brewhouse. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday, if you ask us. –Photography by Savannah Barkley for Providence Monthly
Michaela Milson, Scott Nelson
Lisa Hoffman, Deb Dormody, Flannery Patton
Jen Smith, Anisa Raoof, Flannery Patton, Kathy Connolley
Lindsay Wagner, Kayla Halsall
Seth and Kathryn Clark
Caitlin Horton, Lynn Horton
Rita Rossi, Nate Broomfield
Sharayah Davis, Shasta Winn
September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
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EAST SIDE
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EDGEWOOD
25 Balton Rd $1,625,000
436 Blackstone Blvd $1,650,000
51 Prospect St $2,100,000
76 Humboldt Ave $849,000
2 George St $1,650,000
631 Angell St $749,000
264 Irving Ave $2,100,000
7 Harbor Ter $465,000
OAK HILL
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58 Memorial Rd $440,000
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67 Mount Hope Ave $440,000
193 Hope Hope St $1,300,000
120 Woodbury St $654,125
12 Bianco Ct $335,000
35 Wilcox Ave $500,000
165 Pratt St $1,195,000
PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Restoring
Riverwalk
A dedicated corps of residents is giving one of downtown’s iconic public spaces a much-needed makeover
By Tony Pacitti Photos courtesy of Downtown Neighborhood Association
S
ince last summer, sections of the Riverwalk have slowly but steadily been repainted and repaired. The park, which runs from the hurricane barrier up
to Waterplace Basin, has long been in need of a little love. WaterFire, gondola tours and Providence Flea all call the area’s land and waterways home, but an up-close look at the details and infrastructure that are a part of the park reveal that it had fallen victim to neglect over the last two decades – until it found advocates in the Downtown Neighborhood Association (Facebook: Providence Downtown Neighborhood Association). Those advocates aren’t just making calls and wagging their fingers at city officials; they’re rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty – and saving the city a whole lot of money.
One of the first things Rich Pezzillo and his husband Michael DeGrandpre noticed when they moved to Providence from Washington, DC, in 2014 was that downtown was missing a proper neighborhood association. Organizations like the Downtown Improvement District (DID) and InDowncity were already representing the city and downtown merchants, but the people who lived there didn’t have the sounding board that residents of other neighborhoods around the city did. “We quickly realized how special downtown was, and that it was a growing neighborhood, but there wasn’t any representation for the residents,” says Pezzillo, who with DeGrandpre rallied their neighbors to form the Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA) in October of 2015.
“There had been groups in the past, but they had become defunct,” says DeGrandpre. “When we came into this we were able to find – between ourselves and some very passionate residents in the area – a group that galvanized and is chugging along quite nicely.” Their first meeting had 100 attendees, including representatives from the Providence Foundation, DID and Providence Police Department, as well as Mayor Jorge Elorza and Councilman Seth Yurdin. The group gelled quickly, establishing a strong working partnership between downtown residents, merchants, property owners and city officials. Christine Francis, owner of Carmen and Ginger at The Arcade and a DNA board member, points out that “the business community has always been tight-knit and collegial with each other,” but that
the residential component had long been missing. “Adding the residents to the mix, and a way for them to also connect, has strengthened communication across the two communities” as well as bolstered the relationship between residents and city officials. In addition to serving as a catalyst between neighbors, businesses and city departments, the group has played a key role in strengthening downtown residents’ sense of civic responsibility through various improvement projects. DNA volunteers have helped with gardening and weeding in and around Burnside Park, and, by working directly with city officials, the organization was able to address a longstanding safety concern and get dozens of burned-out lights on the Point Street Bridge replaced. But their most significant contribution to the fabric of downtown might just be the ongoing Riverwalk Restoration Project.
September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
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Wendy Nilsson, the superintendent of the Providence Parks Department, was well aware of the state of the Riverwalk – the railings were in rough shape and the cables running between them were broken or missing in places – but the potential costs of repair, combined with the needs of 116 parks throughout the city and the lack of manpower within the Parks Department, didn’t paint a pretty picture. But as the DNA picked up steam, Nilsson saw the potential for what would prove to be a fruitful partnership. “We work with groups throughout the city to help make our parks unique community spaces and promote stewardship and programming,” Nilsson explains. “We went back and looked at how we could [fix the Riverwalk] using our staff. The manpower… we just didn’t have it, but what if we made it fun and built community partners?” “In so many cities you do not have the opportunity to make a difference like this,” says Pezzillo. “You’re talking about painting in the heart of the city. It’s like painting Boston Common – it’s just not going to happen. But it’s something anyone can do.” With the Parks Department prepared to provide the tools, the materials and a few employees to instruct and oversee the work, it was up to the DNA to provide the workforce. The first meetup happened last July: 30 volunteers showed up to sand and repaint more than 40 fence pillars and replace more than 75 of the horizontal cables running between them from the Hurricane Barrier to the Hot Club. “It was a magical night,” recalls Nilsson. That first project alone saved the city an estimated $40,000 in labor costs (and netted the volunteers a free drink at the Hot Club). The second meetup attracted 60 volunteers, this time along South Water Street from Mile and a Quarter to Hemenway’s. RISD’s maintenance team hopped in to assist, replacing the more than 80 vertical cables in the fence while the volunteers focused on painting the posts. “You stood on the Crawford Street Bridge looking down, and all you could see was people hanging over each pillar sanding and painting,” Pezzillo says with no shortage of pride. According to him,
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
it’s hard to tell which the volunteers find more rewarding: seeing the Riverwalk slowly restored or taking in knowing that they did it with their own hands. So far there have been a total of seven restoration projects along the Riverwalk, with residents, business owners and employees, city officials and even random passersby stopping to help out. Like the people who live downtown, the people who work there have a growing sense of pride over the work being done. “I called Rich and said, ‘You’re working in our office, essentially, so we really want to be involved with this,’” says Kristin Stone, co-owner of the Providence River Boat and Kayak companies. “We've always taken on this role as the eyes and ears of the waterways and shores.” To date, the efforts of the Parks Department and the DNA have managed to save the city more than $100,000 in labor costs. An unusually rainy
summer has postponed the latest phase of the project, which will see the railings in Memorial Park get a fresh coat of paint, but that’s next on the agenda. In the fall, the Riverwalk will be getting its own Little Free Library, one of those “take a book, leave a book” cubbies that have been spotted around the city. (“What screams ‘neighborhood’ more than a little library?” Pezzillo asks.) After all the paint is dry and the last cable has been replaced, those involved hope that the residents of downtown will continue to serve as stewards for the area’s public spaces, lending a hand where necessary. “The friends of the Parks Department – the DNA, the other neighborhood groups – are key to the success of the parks in Providence,” says Pezzillo. “Being short-staffed means parks can fall apart, but you have groups that want to get their hands dirty, which is why I think the Parks Department is investing time and money into this. At the end of the day, it’s a win-win all around.”
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CRIMETOWN Behind the scenes with the creators of the smash hit podcast By Tony Pacitti
Hosts Zac Stuart-Pontier (left) and Marc Smerling
W
hen Crimetown (CrimetownShow.com) debuted last November, it was an instant podcast phenomenon, a gripping saga of crime and corruption that made the story of Rhode Island’s cops, robbers and rogues a weekly must-listen event. Hot off the success of their HBO documentary series The Jinx, creators and hosts Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier proved that truth is always going to be stranger than fiction. While in town for a couple of sold-out Crimetown Live appearances, we caught up with Marc and Zac on Federal Hill (obviously) to talk about why they followed up their HBO series with a podcast about organized crime and, of course, Buddy Cianci. So why did you guys choose Providence to kick off Crimetown? Marc: I have family up here through a prior marriage, but I had no idea about Providence other than [that] it was a city between Boston and New York. When I started coming here regularly for family reasons, I really started to understand the weird nature of relationships in Rhode Island, which are very close. You would go to these family picnics and there would be part of the family that’s kind of connected, and then there’s part of the family that are Rhodes scholars. I was fascinated, and my father-in-law introduced me to Buddy. I got to meet him between going to journalism school at Syracuse at Newhouse and graduate school for film at USC. It was a very vulnerable stage – he was in this tortured place. It was right before DeLeo [ED: Buddy assaulted contractor Raymond DeLeo with a fireplace log for having an affair with his wife] because I remember soon after I read about this thing with the fireplace log. So he was brooding at the end of the bar at the Biltmore Hotel over a drink and a cigarette, but when I came over he lit up and we talked for a while. He was a very charismatic guy.
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Then when I read that article, I was like, “This is kind of Providence.” Then when he got reelected, it was “Oh, that is Providence.” Zac: We were finishing up The Jinx. The podcast world was kind of blowing up and we were trying to figure out what we were going to do next. I knew Alex Blumberg [ED: Gimlet Media’s CEO, affectionately referred to as “The Podfather” at the end of each Crimetown episode] from my hometown and we had kept in touch over the years, so everything kind of came together. Alex said we should do something crime-related as a podcast and Marc knew about the Providence story, so we started to do interviews. The first interview we did was with [drug trafficker] Charles Kennedy. Marc: [The late Providence Journal reporter] Bill Malinowski was our original contact through a law enforcement person who I knew from years ago. Bill was really helpful. He took me to the courthouse, showed me how to work the system to get trial papers. He was really great. Did you have any concerns about these characters opening up to you? Marc: I think we had an advantage because we were outsiders and because we had come off of Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated [projects]. We had an outside credibility that for some reason… you know how Rhode Island is. This made it feel like it wasn’t going to come back at people. They thought, “We can talk to these guys because we’ve never seen them before.” I would have assumed that it would be the opposite because of that insular nature of Rhode Islanders,
especially the types of people you were talking to. Zac: It still took a long time to develop trust, but I think the outside nature of our approach as journalists was valuable. These are characters that are real people, and a lot of people that write about this are very judgmental. We tried to not say anything one way or the other about their choices, just present their lives. That really appealed to people. With your backgrounds in television and film, what motivated the transition to a podcast? Zac: We were finishing up a project that was super longterm and very expensive. A podcast was something that Marc and I could do together. Marc: This seemed like the best way to create a story where we wouldn’t have people yelling at us about budget and time – we could just do it. We wanted to do something that was about crime, but expansive. Providence was always the story cooking in the back of my mind, this tapestry of corruption in a town where it’s very understandable in a way because of the close connections and the loss of industrial might of the city during the century. We wanted to do something bigger. Try pitching that. “What I want to do is a very intricate study of a city and crime” and people will be like, “Okay, get the next guy in here.” Especially when the city you’re presenting isn’t a New York or an LA. Marc: We got a lot of “it’s too provincial.” But the financial commitment, to Alex’s credit, was not that big in the beginning and Alex was basically like, “I’ll bet on the guys.” Because we heard that: it’s too provincial,
nobody cares about that, the mob’s been done a million times. But for us it was always about mob influence on political corruption. It was about how what was happening on Federal Hill, not just in a physical day-to-day way but in a cultural way, had crossed the highway and was happening downtown as well. What were your thoughts when the mayor said recently that he felt Crimetown was bad for Providence? Zac: To the mayor’s credit, that quote was taken a little bit out of context. When I first read it, I was like, “He said that?” but then I read the quote. And he’s the mayor of the city, I mean what’s the guy going to say. Marc: But that attitude of dismissing the “fake news” or the reality of what happened in the past is exactly what perpetuates that bad behavior in the future. You can’t really fix anything unless you bring it out into the light and show everybody. The title is a little hard to swallow, and we suffered over that, but it ends up being a very sticky title. Ultimately the show is very honest, and it’s a piece of transparency on how history has happened in this town that I think needed to be told in the way it was told. The timing really seemed right because after Buddy died and as the presidential election was ramping up, there were a lot of comparisons made to Trump and their cults of personality. Zac: I don’t know if that’s being fair to Mr. Cianci, if I’m being honest. Marc: Buddy was a very high functioning person.
Zac: And I do think he tried to do good. Marc: I think when Buddy came into office, they were desperate times, and Buddy projected that type of personality that people could get behind to change things. And I think people are desperate, particularly in the middle of the country and the South, and for some reason they’ve latched onto another cult of personality.
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Was the idea always to have the rise and fall of Buddy be the backbone of the series? Marc: He was going to be a big character, no doubt, and Raymond [Patriarca], but other than that we didn’t really know. Raymond was a challenge because no one talked about him in a personal way until we met Dr. Barbara Roberts. We had a problem trying to round him out as a person. But it’s funny, there are two names you can say in Providence and everybody knows who they are: Raymond and Buddy. Huge personalities, and very polarizing. Were any of the people you spoke to particularly surprising? Zac: You should have seen our faces when Gerry Tillinghast told us he was a dungeon master. “Like Dungeons and Dragons?” “Yeah, yeah, love it! I got this cat [that] I can see through.” If he made this up we wouldn’t have believed it at all. Marc: That’s Rhode Island. It’s always surprising. The state has a great sense of humor about itself, but it also has a sense of forgiveness. It’s kind of extraordinary.
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Eat Your Heart Out, Providence New restaurants and exciting trends are making the city’s food scene tastier than ever
Photography by Stacey Doyle
By Erin Belknap
Seafood Platter from The East End
T T
he past year has seen the debut of some new local hot spots that continue to bolster Providence’s reputation as a foodie sanctuary. These restaurants are not only serving delicious food, they’re carving out unique culinary perspectives that diners can’t seem to resist.
T
You’ll find unexpected fusions, reimagined menus and authentic flavors from across the globe. With an emphasis on entertainment and careful consideration of the dining experience as a whole, these spots are changing our expectations for an evening out.
The Vig Calling this place a sports bar would be a monstrous undersell. With fare that far surpasses the wings and burgers of sports bars past, The Vig (TheVigProvidence.com) is more like a refined sports parlor downtown. The menu features an array of in-house creations and elevated takes on familiar favorites, like the duck confit grilled cheese and prosciutto-wrapped drumettes with bacon scallion jam – all at accessible prices. Patrons can enjoy a large selection of innovative craft cocktails and local beers along with greatfor-sharing snacks like the bacon caramel popcorn. Upscale vintage decor offers a refreshing departure from signed jerseys and grainy team photos; instead, The Vig pays homage to some of the most memorable and even infamous moments in sports history (think Bill Buckner’s ball-between-the-legs flub). With stateof-the-art TVs stationed generously around the 40foot bar, a spacious lounge and a “Ringside VIP” table, there’s not a bad seat in the house. The lighthearted ambience of a sports bar in combination with remastered American comfort food makes this the perfect spot to fuel up and watch a game. Duck Confit Grilled Cheese
new restaurants 2017
Ginger Cremé Brûlée
On the West Side, Sin (EatWicked.com) turns indulgence into an Instagram-worthy art. Inspired by the guilty pleasures in life, the cafe/bar specializes in the two best components of any well-rounded diet – sweets and adult refreshments. By day you’ll find fresh breakfast pastries and sweet treats with coffee and espresso offerings, and by night, intricately plated desserts with creative cocktails, wine and beer inspired by each of the seven deadly sins. Wind down the slow, slothful days of summer with a cocktail known as “The Basic,” a refreshing blend of cucumber vodka and elderflower liquor with a touch of lemon and a little ginger beer for fizz. Or get a bit greedy on a cooler fall day with the warm chocolate chip bread pudding served with fresh mint gelato and house-made mint cookies. With vegan and gluten-free offerings that are sure to satisfy all cravings, this place has you covered, with the chic and mellow ambience that is perfect for easing into the morning or ending the day with a drink and dessert to share. (Although, once you taste them, you may want to get your own.)
Delicious Trend: Small Plates Small plates and tapas-style offerings may not be as substantial as entrees, but they’re every bit as flavorful. Plus, their lower cost in comparison to other dishes make them a win-win. • Wara Wara’s Lotus Root Poutine, with homemade lotus root fries, shredded duck, gravy, cheddar cheese, roasted mushroom and sunny-side-up quail eggs (WaraWaraRI.com)
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• Persimmon’s crispy tempura soft shell crab and lump crab, with jasmine rice, asparagus and rich crab broth (PersimmonBristol.com) • Pastaio’s Gnocchi alla Romana, made from semolina flour as an alternative to potato, then baked with cheese and served with creamy tomato sauce and basil oil (Pastaio-PVD.com) • East End’s charcuterie boards and crab biscuits (TheEastEndPVD.com)
Photography (top) by by Stacey Doyle, (bottom) by Savannah Barkley for Providence Monthly
Sin
Vino Veritas
Cheese Board with Crostini and Spicy Honey
At Broadway’s Vino Veritas (VinoVeritasRI. com), diners can expect a truly delightful fusion experience. Shaped by the collective backgrounds of its three dynamic owners, the restaurant blends European and Mediterranean cuisine with a taste of New Orleans. With a name that’s Latin for “in wine, truth,” this is a place that values both authenticity and a great time. Their eclectic menu is worth obsessing over, featuring options that will tempt all day long, from brunch to dinner. Wake up with French toast made with Portuguese sweet bread and served with crème anglais, powdered sugar and fresh fruit. Or indulge in their raved-about paella, which serves two and consists of mouthwatering saffron rice, andouille sausage, grilled chicken, fresh mussels, clams, calamari and shrimp. In a charming nod to traditional French food service, guests will also find a gueridon rolling around the dining room, with tableside Caesar salad, the occasional Steak Diane and flaming desserts. Innovative cocktails, a cheery, mellow atmosphere with outdoor seating and breezy mood music will transport you straight to The Big Easy.
new restaurants 2017
Photography (top) by Savannah Barkley for Providence Monthly, (bottom) by Stacey Doyle
Heirloom Tomato and Burratta Salad
KG kitchen bar After travelling across the country and successfully opening restaurants in five states, chef Kevin Gaundreau has developed an inspired cuisine that can most accurately be described as Creative American. Curious? Think remastered American favorites and delightfully unexpected bursts of flavor. His Hope Street restaurant, KG Kitchen Bar (KGKitchenBar.com), keeps things fresh and interesting with a constantly changing menu that utilizes locally grown ingredients and the endless bounty of the ocean. A few of the chef’s favorites include the house-made Bolognese with fresh wagon wheel rigatoni and the award-winning Shrimp and Grits. Also not to be missed are the house-made ice creams and specialty cocktails, like the barrel-aged Manhattan. The $23 pre-fixe menu offered Sunday through Wednesday includes an appetizer and entree along with your choice of wine or draft beer, making this place a no-brainer when you’re looking for a well-rounded and delicious meal that won’t stretch your wallet.
Durk’s BBQ No longer must Providenizens venture far and wide for mouthwatering Texas-style barbecue. One step inside Durk’s (DurksBBQ.com) down-home dining room on Thayer Street and the distinctive aroma of smoky spice and oak will prove you’ve found the real deal. Marked by a dry-rub spice blend and several hours of cooking low and slow in a smoker affectionately called “Stella,” Durk’s is some of the best barbecue you’ll find outside of the Lone Star State. No corners are cut here – lots of time and love go into each sumptuous bite. Choose from all-time favorites like the succulent brisket and pork belly, or clever sandwiches like the Ridurkulous and the Dirty Durk, each made with various savory blends of chopped beef, sausage and pulled pork. Meals are accompanied by vegetarian comfort-food sides like fresh corn bread and mac ‘n cheese. And like all great barbecue joints, Durk’s takes their spirits just as seriously as they take their smoke. A vast bar program features over 100 American whiskeys, a dynamic cocktail menu and an always evolving selection of draft and bottled beers (with a bona fide cicerone on site!).
Sausage, Ribs, Brisket, Macaroni and Cheese
new restaurants 2017
Pastaio For chef and owner Adam Baffoni, Italian cooking is an inherited pastime. Growing up on an Italian-run poultry farm, Adam’s early involvement in the local food scene and farming industry has shaped the way he’s approached his latest West Side venture, Pastaio (Pastaio-PVD.com). Since opening its doors in May, Pastaio has been making customers feel right at home with new American cuisine that is heavily inspired by Italian flavors. But this isn’t the typical meal you’d get at your Nonnie’s house. Pastaio sources fresh seasonal ingredients from sustainable New England farms and treats each ingredient with careful attention to detail. The results are sublime flavors and meticulously crafted dishes presented in a refined manner. Choose from sumptuous summertime options like the Point Judith black sea bass with orzo salad and roasted red pepper aioli or the strozzapretti with sweet corn crema. As evidenced by the name, one of the restaurant’s main focuses is pasta, which is handmade in-house each day. And what’s a pasta dish without wine? With a truly impressive wine list that features interesting natural and organic options along with classic selections, there’s something for every palate. Visit and you’ll find a charmingly casual vibe in the dining area, fitting for all occasions from a low-key evening to a romantic date.
Photography (top) by Meghan H. Follett, (bottom) by Stacey Doyle
Strozzapretti with Roasted Summer Vegetables, Sweet Corn Crema and Parmesan
Jahunger Jahunger’s (Facebook: Jahunger Restaurant) deliciously authentic Uyghur fare will broaden your purview of Asian food. But before delving too deep into Uyghur culture and its delicious cuisine, it’s helpful to know how to pronounce it. Wee-grr. Got it? Okay, moving along. Uyghurs are among several ethnic minority groups in China. They’re a people with a proud but complex history whose culture is very much distinct from other Chinese cultures, with their cuisine oftentimes more closely resembling that of the Middle East or Central Asia. After coming to the United States from China over seven years ago, Jahunger owner and chef Subat Dilmurat noticed that the delicious lamb, beef and chicken he’d known back home was not available anywhere in the region and subsequently made it his personal mission to gift the people of New England with the delectable flavors of Uyghur culture. Thus, Wickenden Street’s Jahunger was born. The restaurant specializes in quintessential Uyghur dishes: unbelievably juicy lamb kebabs, scallion pancakes, dumplings and various noodle dishes, like the Ding Ding Noodles and the Jahunger Noodles. These dishes are prepared through intricate and often long processes to achieve the flavor nuances that set them apart from other Asian cuisine. Noodles are hand-pulled and made fresh twice daily, while the restaurant’s signature spices and oils undergo multi-step processes before being used for cooking. Naan bread and delicious fruit tea are also available as complements to the meal, typical of Uyghur culture.
Jahunger Noodle
new restaurants 2017
Cripsy Pork Belly
Photography (top) by Stacey Doyle, (bottom) by Savannah Barkley for Providence Monthly
Kleos The Greek concept of “philoxenia,” meaning “love of stranger,” is a philosophy that is near and dear to the hearts of Lauren Lynch and Tom Bovis, spouses and owners of the new Greek hot spot downtown called Kleos (Facebook: Kleos). In a Mediterranean-esque atmosphere where everyone is made to feel like family, Tom and Lauren serve rustic yet upscale Greek dishes with homemade charm. Opt for something light and refreshing, like the Greek-style ceviche made with Mediterranean prawns, mussels and calamari and tossed with cucumber, watermelon, citrus, ginger and mint. Or choose something more savory and robust, like the made-forsharing Mixed Grill, which includes Colorado lamb chops, grilled beef, lamb kebabs and authentic loukaniko Greek sausage served with fries, pita and house tzatziki. Uniquely Greek cocktail offerings make great accompaniments to dinner. A must-try is the Karpuzzi Kocktail, a blend of Skinos Maticha, lemon and muddled watermelon and topped with Greek sparkling rosé.
Delicious Trend: Barrel-Aged Cocktails Much in the same way that wines and distilled spirits are aged, barrel-aging involves pre-mixing a cocktail and letting it age for an extended period of time. The result is often a more mellow and nuanced flavor with an occasional hit of sweetness. • The Vieux Carre at The Eddy: Rye whiskey, cognac, Italian sweet vermouth and the herbal French liqueur Bénédictine, aged two months in
charred oak barrels that are pre-cured with sherry (EddyBar.com) • Hickory Cherry Old Fashioned at The Dorrance: Bully Boy White Whiskey, Hickory Smoked Cherry Syrup and Fee Brothers Whiskey BarrelAged Bitters (TheDorrance.com) • Barrel-Aged Manhattan at KG Kitchen Bar: Pendleton Whiskey, Aperol and Dolin Rouge (KGKitchenBar.com)
September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
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Den Den Korean Fried Chicken
Dark Fried Chicken, Cold Buckwheat Noodle Soup, Den Den Spicy Rice Cakes and Beef Kimbap
Showcasing all the delicious flavors of Korean cuisine, Den Den Korean Fried Chicken on Thayer (DenDenHospitality. com) has a little something for everyone. Some crowd favorites include the rice cakes, Korean ramen, kimbap and, of course, their hallmark fried chicken, which is available in individual sizes all the way up to platters that will feed the table. The crispy fried coating and juicy chicken dunked in tangy dipping sauce is a perfectly satisfying bite that makes it impossible to have just one. They also have plenty of vegetarian dishes as well as a plethora of particularly spicy options that will appease heat lovers. With upbeat service and an unfussy menu that celebrates authentic Korean street food, Den Den’s is undoubtedly worth a visit the next time you get a hankering for fried chicken.
new restaurants 2017
At the heart of The East End’s (TheEastEndPVD.com) universal appeal is a remarkably robust bar, which keeps the good times flowing through dinner and into the night. The Wickenden restaurant’s hallmark whiskey collection includes over 300 bottles, all available by the pour or in flights. Profuse wine and beer selections are also available along with 16 enormously popular cocktails crafted from house-made syrups, shrubs and purees. For the indecisive or curious who may be overwhelmed by the impressive bounty of booze, don’t sweat it. Just order the “Call and Response,” a collaboration cocktail where you choose a spirit, an adjective and whether you want it shaken or stirred – then sit back while skilled mixologists prepare you an original cocktail. With an elevated bistro-style menu to complement the bar, The East End offers delicious made-from-scratch dishes in a variety of formats, from small plates to accompany a quick after-work drink to large family-style platters that are meant to be shared over a bottle of wine. Enjoy a flight of whiskey in the cool and comfortable ambience of the dining area, or nosh on the tasty seafood platter on the three-season garden-patio.
Charcuterie Plate
Delicious Trend: Garden City’s Restaurant Scene This always bustling shopping sanctuary is about to get even busier. While Italian eateries Avvio (AvvioRistorante.com) and Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza (ACFP.com) have opened their doors within the past fifteen months, 2018 will see the addition of three more restaurants.
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• Legal Sea Foods, a casual concept bar and dining area • The Simple Greek, fast-casual Greek food • Tavern in the Square, a traditional Boston sports bar
Photography (top) by Savannah Barkley for Providence Monthly, (bottom) by Stacey Doyle
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September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
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Pawtuxet Village & Edgewood Shop, Dine and Be Charmed by this Historic Cranston Neighborhood
Edgewood Wine & Spirits This full-service liquor store with a robust wine selection is your one stop shop for the finest in adult beverages. Known for their knowledgeable, friendly and helpful staff and affordable prices, they also carry a wide selection of craft beers, including locally brewed options such as GreySail and Foolproof. Inquire about their free delivery service to boaters when travelling to the area by sea. 1992 Broad Street, Cranston. 785-2286, Facebook. com/Edgewood-Wine-and-Spirits
The Imperial Room Located in the historic Pawtuxet/Edgewood area, this event space can comfortably seat 180 guests with a dance floor or 200 guests without dancing. This beautiful room is the perfect setting for a wedding reception, corporate dinner, community gathering, holiday party, fundraiser, banquet, a birthday or an anniversary celebration. When hosting an important event, why not make it Imperial? One Rhodes Place, Cranston. 467-7102 RIShriners.com
Noon Designs Part shop, part artisan studio, Noon Designs features a curated selection of handmade jewelry, letterpress greeting cards, home goods, body products and more. Their thoughtful design aesthetic makes this one-of-a-kind business fun to browse. Each piece in in their collection is handmade with integrity using the highest quality materials, created by masters of their craft from around the country. Visit their storefront or shop online for their playful designs. 18 Post Road, Warwick. 455-1222, NoonDesignShop.com
Lanes on Broad
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This fabulous boutique specializes in new and preloved women’s fashion, accessories and gifts. Dress yourself from head to toe with their wide range of styles for any season, including the perfect bag to match. Browse their unique selection of jewelry or create your own original design at one of their bracelet making parties. Find one-of-a-kind gifts for all occasions, including hostess and housewarming items. 2164 Broad St, Cranston. 383-5459, Facebook.com/LanesOnBroad PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Save The Date: Tuesday, September 26
A Taste of Pawtuxet Village The Imperial Room, One Rhodes Place 5:30pm - 8pm Sample food and drinks from local restaurants while enjoying live music.
O’Rourkes Bar & Grille From great food to a fun, friendly vibe, it’s no surprise why this has been a village favorite for over a decade. Their delicious pub-style menu boasts sandwiches, salads, burgers with hand-cut fries and classic dishes like Shepard’s Pie and Guinness Battered Fish and Chips. Or, try their signature Irish Nachos made with a kettle chip twist. Enjoy a meal inside the charming 1860’s setting or dine on their inviting patio. 23 Peck Lane, Warwick. 228-7444, ORourkesBarAndGrill.com
Twice Told Tales Celebrating over 30 years, this unique shop is a must visit in Pawtuxet. They feature an eclectic array of clothing, including Habitat Clothes’ newest line, as well as jewelry and accessories to match. The boutique also offers books by local authors, plus cards and gifts crafted by local artisans. With popular brands such Trollbeads and Crabtree & Evelyn, there’s something for every shopper. An independently owned business offering locally crafted wares makes shopping here twice as nice. 2145 Broad Street, Cranston. 785-9599, TwiceToldTalesRI.com
The Veiled Crow This eclectic apothecary offers small batch, all natural bath, beauty and home care products designed to harness nature’s energies. Each is made with a synergistic blend of herbs, essential and fragrance oils. Browse their bath and body care line for all natural sugar scrubs, sea salt baths and perfume oils, in an array of soothing and inspiring scents. In addition to their storefront they also offer candle carving classes, tarot card readings and an array of magical gifts and services. 1830 Broad Street, Cranston. 919-5499, VeiledCrow.com
C I T Y ST Y L E At Home / The Look / Shop Talk / Get Fit
MODERN TREASURE HUNTING
“I made both of those blue lights,” Jim says. “Lighting is one of the things I love most about my space. Both of those I made myself from cold forming and screen printing luon, and using pieces and parts of old lighting displays.”
Jim Bradley is a multimedia artist who creates found object robots and assemblage boxes. His live/work space is in The Plant in the Valley neighborhood. Jim’s new exhibit opens at The HeArt Spot in East Providence on September 21.
Photography: Melissa Stimpson
The pergola and window area defines a bedroom space in the loft. “I was working with a friend of mine, taking down a pergola from a home in Middletown. I took a very small portion of it and built it in place. We’re pretty much allowed to do anything we want here as long as it doesn’t attach to the wall. My space is always evolving.”
Jim’s home is also his studio. “Creating in this small of a space is challenging. You can see the leg of my easel – I create right there. When I do resin pours, it’s on the floor.”
“I have an obsession with yard sales and flea markets,” Jim says. “Items that are no longer used really speak to me. The biggest passion of what I do is make robots from found objects.” This little dog robot is made of a lunch box, a tea kettle, jello molds and binoculars. “It comes from seeing things – especially from the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s – that have such a specific use that were used every day, then one day get discarded. I make something new out of it and I feel like the object is happy again.”
“Swinging is one of the few things in life when you feel weightlessness,” he says. “I do it to clear my mind. You can swing and touch your toes with the wall and not hit anything.” It’s always a topic of conversation for newcomers to his space. “People either question it or immediately get on it, and if they immediately get on it I know we’ll get along.”
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CITY STY LE
The Look
by Jackie Ignall
Jude Sandy Actor and member of Trinity Rep Growing up in Trinidad and Tobago had a big influence on my style, all the more so since I moved back to Providence after living in NYC. Trinbagonians are vibrant people and love dressing up, but the heat demands an easygoing approach. It made me appreciate humble, no-nonsense natural fibers like cotton and linen – currently I’m on the lookout for the perfect linen blazer, which to me is one of the epitomes of fashion luxury for a man. When I’m offstage, I’d rather not be the center of attention, so my focus is more on ease and subtlety. I like to wear things that have just enough architectural interest to make me feel pulled together, but always in an effortless kind of way. A Nehru-collared shirt in bright white or a dusky color hits my sweet spot every time. I don’t wear ties if I can help it, but I love scarves, relaxed blazers and fall outerwear. My focus when I travel for work is on packing simple, versatile items that can take me from the theatre or dance studio to dinner or meetings. The crisp white shirt comes into play here – it can do anything!
Photography by Stacey Doyle
I get sentimental about things I love and wear them long after what some folks would consider reasonable. I have an affection for battered shoes, especially when worn with a nice outfit. I relish the understated defiance of it, not to mention the comfort. I have a couple pairs of shoes that I didn’t truly love until they had a hole or two in them. Then they became irreplaceable.
You can see Jude in The Skeleton Crew at Trinity Rep this fall. TrinityRep.com
September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
37
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
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CITY STY LE
Shop Talk
by Meghan H. Follett
Experience.
Art for All Creativity abounds at an inclusive space in Hope Artiste Village
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Photography by Meghan H. Follett
Adam Hermance has been sewing and making clothes since he was a kid. After a relatively long stint in medical administration, he decided to take his savings and escape the corporate world to turn his passion into a reality. The result is Bromance Warehouse, an LGBTQI artist collaborative space and retail shop. The inspiration for the space came not only from Adam’s passion for fashion, but from his friends’ ongoing struggle to find safe spaces to sell their works without being judged or discriminated against. Creating the space was a win-win: not only does
Adam have a space to sell his art and that of others in his community, he gets to work in a space that allows him to be inspired by the creations of others. Inside the space you can find pieces from local artists that range from apparel to fine art to throw pillows… and even dog accessories, as well as their dog Reggie (not for sale). Adam also does custom pieces and prints them in-store, so if you see something you’d love to tweak, don’t hesitate to ask. In addition to the retail aspect, Adam has been working hard to launch some social groups at the space as well.
Craft nights and group outings are on their agenda, with the hope of creating more opportunities for those in the surrounding queer community to meet new friends and network. Be sure to stop by the shop and check out their website to keep posted on events and find lots of additional sizes and styles. 1. Mugs, $15 2. Rainbow bracelet, $7 3. Lightweight sweatshirts, $28; heavyweight sweatshirts, $40 4. Throw Tees recycled pillows, $20 5. Hats, $28
Bromance Warehouse BromanceWarehouse.com • Hope Artiste Village • 1005 Main Street, Pawtucket
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September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
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CI T Y S T Y L E
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
disciplines and they all make big claims about their respective fitness benefits. Most of them acquit themselves admirably on that count, but fall short on a secondary but equally common claim: fun. By and large, unless you’re of a specific personality type, exercise is not fun. I love running, for example, and spend hours every week doing it, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s fun. One activity that had eluded me until recently was indoor rock climbing, which I had the opportunity to try at the new Central Rock Gym in Warwick. Founded in Worcester in 2009, CRG has expanded into seven locations around Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. That’s in keeping with the growth of the sport as a whole: according to the market research firm The NPD Group, indoor rock climbing is now a $175.5 million industry – and that’s before it will be featured in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Despite growing enthusiasm worldwide, I approached indoor rock climbing with a mild but very real fear of heights to conquer on my way up the wall. Manager and instructor Jamie Re quickly put me at ease, showcasing CRG’s expansive facility, which also includes a yoga studio and weight room, and introduced me to some of his regulars. The gym offers both top-rope climbing, in which a fellow climber keeps you safe with a rope that runs to the top of a tall wall, and bouldering, which involves shorter walls over thick pads and no ropes. Jamie’s plan was to show me the ropes (literally) by teaching me to belay, or secure the rope that prevents another climber from falling. Using a harness and carabiner, the belayer takes up the slack as the climber works toward the top and stands ready to lock the rope should the climber fall. Once the climber is ready to descend, it’s the belayer’s job to release the slack in a controlled fashion for a slow and safe landing. It’s a fairly simple process and can be learned in about a half hour, but it is quite genuinely a lifesaver. As I worked my way up the training wall I could feel the anxiety creeping in, but managed to continue climbing. The first real test came at the top
when Jamie instructed me to let go, lean back and let myself fall. On a cognitive level, I knew that the rope was secure and I could trust Jamie to keep me safe, but it took a few seconds for my limbs to get the message. My fear conquered, Jamie invited me to try a couple of the tallest walls, ascending roughly 30 feet – perhaps not that impressive for an experienced climber, but high enough to quicken my pulse. Each wall has several colorcoded paths of hand and footholds that criss-cross it, graded according to difficulty. This was when the real challenge and appeal of climbing became apparent: it’s as much a mental activity as a physical one. Your muscles are fully engaged by pushing and pulling your body up the wall using holds no
bigger than the palm of your hand or the ball of your foot. At the same time, your mind is in puzzle-solving mode, trying to game out the proper route from one hold to the next. On the easier courses the holds are numerous, closer together and easy to spot. On the harder ones, it’s not uncommon to find yourself glued in place, thinking, There’s no way I can reach that next hold without losing my footing. The best part about that level of mental engagement is that it distracts you from all the hard work your body is doing. Up on the wall, a Zenlike calm took over, but back on the ground I could feel an excited energy coursing through every muscle in my body. It was challenging, invigorating and, dare I say, fun.
Central Rock Gym 275 West Natick Road, Warwick • 889-5452 CentralRockGym.com/Warwick
Photography by Mike Braca
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Connecting with Community Through Art at Gather Glass
T
he experience had at Gather is
If you’re looking for an especially unique
meant to inspire their visitors just as
gift, their custom glass pieces put a
much as their beautiful hand blown glass
creative spin on the next wedding,
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anniversary or birthday present. They
through art by sharing their passion for
also encourage you to stop in and watch
the craft of glassblowing is at the core of
the process of your glass being made.
what they do. It is also the inspiration for
More live glassblowing at the studio can
their name. Master glassblower Benjamin
be enjoyed during Gallery Night, held
Giguere invites you to their studio/gallery
every third Thursday of the month. They
to attend a glassblowing class and make
can be seen during WaterFire as well,
your own unique glass creation. Learn
where they host live glassblowing at
how to craft an ornament, drinking glass
their mobile unit. Want to make your next
or paperweight in one of their group
special occasion an inspiring one? Inquire
classes. They can also be a destination
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
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FEA ST Review / In the Kitchen / On the Menu / In the Drink / Dining Guide
Photography by Tony Pacitti
FARM FRESH IN THE HEART OF THE CITY It’s been an exciting summer for Burnside Park. Brandon’s Beach, the new playground aimed at providing fun for kids of all abilities, offers another way for families to enjoy the city center while the Burnside Music Series and Beer Garden turn Thursdays into our favorite day of the week (don’t miss The ‘Mericans on September 7 as they close out this year’s lineup). And of course there’s the Tuesday afternoon farmers market. Through the end of October, Farm Fresh Rhode Island (FarmFresh.org) will bring vendors like Pezza Farm and
Hill Orchard – both from Johnston – into the heart of the city for their Downtown Farmers Market, which joins markets at Armory Park, Broad Street and elsewhere in bringing the best of the Ocean State’s farms into the city. Think juicy tomatoes and crunchy bell peppers, berries, green beans and squash. It’s the perfect recipe for a healthier, locally sourced dinner option, plus it’s much more convenient than taking an extra RIPTA ride to the grocery store if you’re already going to or coming from Kennedy Plaza after work.
FEAST
Review
by Stephanie Obodda
Divinely Inspired Dining Circe elevates cocktails and fine food in the heart of the city
popular bartender at 10 Prime Steak & Sushi. The bar’s namesake, the goddess Circe, was just as famous for her elixirs. Though I was taking the night off from drinking, my husband went all in with the Mamma Sporca. This self-proclaimed “dirty mother” of a martini is spiced with olive and pepperoncini juice, and served with black truffle and blue cheese stuffed olives. I’ll be back for one next time I need a stiff drink. We visited during Providence Restaurant Weeks, which usually runs for two weeks in January and again in July. Dinner specials during the event are around $30 to $35 and include three courses. I love perusing the menus when they are released and choosing one or two to visit. There are two types of restaurants I look for: those that have a creative menu just for the occasion, and those that include quality choices from the restaurant’s current menu. Circe fits the latter category, with eight appetizers, eight entrees and five desserts. As most are from the regular menu, diners can get an
Maine Lobster Risotto
affordable preview of the restaurant’s capabilities. For our first course, we started with the Short Rib Arancini and
Must-Try Items Smokey Pineapple Cocktail House-infused pineapple mezcal, madagascar vanilla, fresh lemon juice, cayenne pepper, pineapple leaf, citrus salted rim Crab & Lobster Caramelle Seared Georges Bank scallops, sauteed spinach, champagne beurre blanc, roasted beets Lemon Blueberry Crème Brûlée With shortbread cookie Grilled Scottish Salmon
THE SCOOP 46
CUISINE: New American PRICES: Appetizers: $1.50-$16, Entrées: $18-$42, Desserts: $8 ATMOSPHERE: Trendy
PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Watermelon Gazpacho. The arancini were served five to an order, freshly fried and accompanied by a tangy pineapple chili relish. I was surprised to find an impressive amount of short rib stuffed inside. The watermelon in the gazpacho nicely set off the fresh tomato, and the crab and Narragansett Creamery feta coupled well with the soup’s fresh summer flavors. For my second course, I had the Crab and Lobster Caramelle. Caramelle are filled pasta, similar in size to ravioli, but with an adorable twist: the ends are pinched to look like wrapped candies. In this dish, they were paired with seared scallops from Georges Bank, a fishing region east of Cape Cod. The pasta and scallops were served over sauteed spinach, topped with a creamy champagne sauce. Many New England restaurants have lobster ravioli on the menu; I thought this was a more creative and nuanced variant of the dish. My husband had the
Photography by Stacey Doyle
Circe is a big-city restaurant in a small city. What makes me say this? At face value, maybe it’s the huge drinks served in a narrow building. More subtly, it’s the restaurant’s ability to serve high-end food with a kind of nonchalance not seen in Providence’s other heavy-hitter fine dining restaurants. The restaurant had been on my mind after I attended a Rhode Island Historical Society tour of restaurants in historical buildings. We spent a few minutes in front of Circe on Weybosset Street, learning that it was designed in the 1850s for the Bank of North America by Thomas Tefft. Tefft was a prolific architect even though he died young, in his early thirties. You may have walked by one of his other buildings such as RISD’s Memorial Hall on Benefit Street (once a church), though most of his creations have not survived the years. If you drink, order a cocktail at Circe. It’s not surprising that the cocktails here are top notch: Circe’s owner, Carlo Carlozzi, was previously a
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Bacon Wrapped Angus Tenderloin. It was served with a single black truffle ravioli over green beans. Compared to filets we’ve ordered elsewhere recently, this one was especially flavorful. For dessert, I ordered the English Summer Pudding. It was somewhere between a bread pudding and a trifle, layering spongy cake with a fruit compote, and was served with vanilla gelato. My husband’s choice was the Lemon Blueberry Crème Brûlée.
A talented brûlée maker himself, he was impressed with the lemon zest flavor throughout the custard. We were seated upstairs on Circe’s partial indoor balcony near the restaurant’s front window, a perfect spot for people watching. On this rainy summer day, colorful umbrellas danced on the slick street below. Looking through the shell of the building across the street, we were reminded of the many layers of Providence’s rich history.
C i rce Re st a ura nt & Bar
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Photography by Stacey Doyle
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September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
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FEA S T
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Providence Media Spot ads: 2.125" x 2.875" July 25, 2017
Our small state has certainly kept caffeinated with a boom of artisanal coffee and donut shops, but 4corners Coffee brings a new (right) angle to the table. Paying homage to Hoxsie Four Corners, the well-known Warwick neighborhood it’s nestled in, the coffee shop has become popular for a new trend-worthy staple: square donuts. We sat down with head chef Andrea Leonardo to talk about those sweet treats, popular menu items and more. Let’s start at the beginning. How’d you get into the culinary world and baking? A lot of people in my family – my grandfather, uncle and father – are bakers. My dad got out of the business, but my uncle opened up a bakery called Baker Street Bakery in Rochester, New York, and my grandfather was helping him part-time. When I needed a summer job, I got thrown into it because we’re family, so why not help them out? When my grandfather’s doctor made him retire, my uncle needed more help, so I learned European pastries and how to make bread. When I was looking into colleges, my friend gave me an application to Johnson & Wales. I was accepted and studied the savory side of food since I had already learned the sweet side. What other local kitchens have you worked in? I was with the Marra Restaurant Group for a while and worked up to become their corporate executive chef. Ed Brady, one of the owners of this company (Justin Erickson and Jeffrey Quinlan are also co-owners), was a promoter for Marra at the time. When Ed was looking for an executive chef, I was looking for a job, so I jumped in and helped them open multiple restaurants. Our company owns The Thirsty Beaver, Milk Money, 4corners Coffee, McBlarney’s, Say Cheese and Pink Pig BBQ. 4corners is known for its square donuts. How does that work? I found a company in the town I grew up in that makes customized cutters and anything metal-related, so they fabricated two special square cutters for me.
4corners Coffee head chef Andrea Leonardo
What are some of the most popular flavors? As in any craft bakery, I think, maple bacon is the number one seller. Following that, the classics are always good. People love our s’mores and ice cream sundae flavors. We recently did a take on a blueberry muffin old fashioned, and that did really well, too. We always keep a few standards on the menu, like a simple glazed donut, but we do rotate the donut menu every Monday. It’s based on what’s going on around the area; sometimes it’s whatever we feel like. In July, we focused on different holidays. We featured a Mountain Dew flavor for National Geek Day, which had Sour Patch Kids on it. We also did Christmas in July, bringing back a lot of classic winter flavors. You also offer a full breakfast menu. What can customers look forward to on the food menu? We have breakfast sandwiches everyday and make all of our own English muffins (our most popular
bread option) and biscuits. We use local eggs and cheeses. Our square breakfast comes with two eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and our home fried wedge potatoes, another popular item. The drive-thru opened this summer. Tell us about that. Our drive-thru opens every day at 5am. We have a steady crowd that visits us on their way to work, and the drive-thru is, of course, busier on weekends and during mid-afternoon. Drive-thru customers don’t need to worry about missing the weekly donut menu: we left a blank spot on our menu board and write them in every day. What can we expect in the near future from 4corners? We’re going to start doing some popup events with other local businesses around the state. If you’re not in the Warwick area, you’ll be able to check us out at different locations. It’s still in the works, but we’ll be posting all of those on our Instagram page.
4corners Coffee 63 Airport Road, Warwick • 921-6464 • 4CornersCoffeeRI.com
Photography by Wolf Matthewson
Come in and schedule an appointment today!
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September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
49
FEAST
On the Menu by Grace Lentini
Farm Fresh Gets Even Fresher Hope Street merchants introduce Veggie Valet for shoppers’ peace of mind
may
be
winding
down, but the Hope Street Farmers Market (HopeStreetMarket.com) is still in full swing and offering locally made cheese from Narragansett Creamery, freshly harvested oysters from Matunuck Oyster Farm and baked goods from Olga’s Cup and Saucer. Now, though, there’s a new incentive for market goers to explore the little shops of Hope Street instead of heading straight home with their canvas bags full of goodies. Ensuring that no produce gets left behind, a handful of shop owners have invested in refrigerators for the public to use to store their goods temporarily while they shop. It’s called Veggie Valet, and nine shops are already on board. “The farmer’s market is such a draw to our area, but often people feel they have to rush home,” says J. Marcel owner and Hope Street
Nitro Brew On Tap
After percolating on some coffee-related matters, Dave’s Coffee (DavesCoffee. com) has recently released two new nitro brew blends: Falcon, a light roast, and Red Island Nitro, a dark roast. Both are small batch, artisan brews that have spent three days in kegs charged with nitrogen. The nitrogen adds a carbonation effect to the coffee that in turn makes it ultra creamy. These nitro brews are best served over ice, making it perfect for any Rhody season.
50
PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Merchants’ Association co-president Dixie Carroll. “With this program we can help them stick around so they can knock off a variety of their errands in our village of independent and welcoming shops.” It’s easier now than ever to do the rounds at the farmers market and then stop by Olive del Mondo to sample some gourmet olive oil and vinegar, or visit Stock Culinary Goods for that perfect addition to your kitchen, or stroll through Evolve Apothecary and Spa for green beauty products (all of these are Veggie Valet participants). In a city whose residents are dedicated to supporting and celebrating all things local, this is one more service that helps both businesses and customers alike. Find all nine participating businesses at Hope StreetProv.com. Hope Street Farmers Market: Saturdays 9am-1pm; Wednesdays 3-6pm.
Downtown’s Newest Restaurant
Stocked with comfort food in large portions, Black Sheep (BlackSheepRI.com) is the newest addition to downtown’s dining scene. It may be a bar, but it’s already pumping out modern fare like Poutine and Carolina-style Pulled Pork sandwiches alongside updated classics such as Cheeseburger Fries and Marsala and Mushroom Wings. Diners can also expect fun pub entertainment like bingo and Sunday Drag Brunches, live music, and food and drink specials throughout the week.
Photo (bottom left) courtesy of Dave’s Coffee, (bottom right) courtesy of Black Sheep
Summer
F E A ST
In the Drink by Emily Dietsch
Women’s Lib(ations) Loie Fuller’s delicious new rye cocktail was inspired by its female patrons
Anyone who has strolled into Loie Fuller’s, the Art Nouveau-inspired West Side staple, learns very quickly that it’s a space driven by and respectful of badass dames. It starts with the namesake, Loie Fuller, who lit up New York and Paris at the turn of the 20th century with pioneering dance choreography and unapologetic verve. There’s also the cadre of talented women who founded, styled and run the bistro, and the scores of smart and smartly dressed ladies who frequent the spot between brunch service and late-night cocktails. When I learned that they were serving a cocktail called the Ladies Choice, I knew I needed to know more. It’s a whiskey-based cocktail with retro edge, in keeping with the essence of Loie Fuller’s bar program: rye whiskey balanced out by Cynar (an Italian artichoke amaro beloved by serious boozehounds) and Giffard apricot liqueur (which is the godly nectar that you never realized you needed until sipping it). A bit of fresh lemon juice and a twist give it just the right pucker.
AUTHENTIC MISSOURI-STYLE BBQ FOR OVER 35 YEARS
LADIES CHOICE Serves One
Photography by Meghan H. Follett
Use your favorite rye whiskey, though stray from anything that is on the sweeter side since the apricot liqueur lends its own sweetness. If you’d like to try the gin-based version instead, simply swap in the same amount of your preferred gin. Something more neutral and less botanical, such as Plymouth or Beefeater, is ideal. • • • • •
3 oz rye whiskey 1 oz Cynar 1 oz Giffard apricot liqueur Squeeze of fresh lemon juice Lemon twist (small bit of zest)
Combine everything but the lemon twist in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake to blend, and then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Manager and self-appointed “occasional bartender” Curtis Eaton created it for two regulars on the spot one evening. These ladies, two instrumental figures in Providence’s WaterFire events, requested something with whiskey. Of his invention for them, Curtis says with characteristic irreverence and a laugh, “I thought it would be tasty!” He explains further that he modeled it on a classic Old Fashioned, but wanted to make it “more delicious” by including the Cynar and apricot liqueur in lieu of the Old Fashioned’s bitters and simple syrup. As hoped, the outcome was indeed
quite tasty. The two aforementioned patrons continued to order it off-menu for approximately a month, until Curtis decided to open it to the masses by adding it to the restaurant’s printed menu. National political currents were also a factor in that decision. “I felt that, in the wake of the Trump nonsense for women lately, it was a good time to celebrate women instead of limiting them. Hence, Ladies Choice.” Curtis redoubled the choice factor by offering a gin iteration for those who prefer clear spirits to the darker arts. That version is akin to a negroni, and a bit lighter than its bourbon-based cousin, yet no less delicious.
Loie Fuller ’s LoieFullersProvidence.com • 1455 Westminster Street • 273-4375
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
DINING GUIDE I N YO U R N E I G H B O R H O O D
Twin Oaks Since 1933, Twin Oaks has been serving generations of Rhode Islanders, who come back time and again for everything from special occasions to casual weekday lunches. What started as a speakeasy in the basement of Eva and Bill DeAngelus’s home is now the biggest restaurant in Rhode Island, run by the third generation of the DeAngelus family. The restaurant is a time-honored tradition, yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re old fashioned. Chef Ryan Mancini recently revamped their menu, keeping classic customer favorites and adding some new things to try. Their weekly specials - several dishes only offered on certain nights of the week - will always give you a reason to go back, but if you’re going for your first time, try one of the classics, like the veal parm and baked stuffed shrimp. You won’t be disappointed.
100 Sabra Street, Cranston 401-781-6677 • TwinOaksRest.com
PROVIDENCE COUNTY 10 Prime Steak & Sushi Fashionable prime steakhouse with awardwinning sushi. 55 Pine St, Providence, 453-2333. LD $$$ Blake’s Tavern Premier Irish pub with two event rooms in the heart of downtown Providence. 122 Washington St, Providence. 274-1230. LD $$ Cafe di Panni Italian American dining with an available banquet facility. 187 Pocasset Ave, Providence, 944-0840. LD $-$$ Capri Seafood dishes with a Southern influence. 58 De Pasquale Ave, Providence, 274-2107. LD $$-$$$ Catering Gourmet Premiere catering company providing food made from scratch. 333 Strawberry Field Rd, Warwick, 773-7925. $-$$$ CAV Eclectic cuisine and art in a historic setting. 14 Imperial Pl, Providence, 751-9164. BrLD $$-$$$ Centro Restaurant & Lounge Contemporary cuisine and cocktails. 1 West Exchange St, Providence, 228-6802. BLD $$$
Chapel Grille Gourmet food overlooking the Providence skyline. 3000 Chapel View Blvd, Cranston, 944-4900. BrLD $$$
Iron Works Tavern A wide variety of signature American dishes in the historic Thomas Jefferson Hill Mill. 697 Jefferson Blvd, Warwick, 739-5111. LD $-$$$
& Steak Mixed grill selections and signature fish dishes sourced locally and seasonally. 11 Dorrance St, Providence, 351-4500. BLD $$-$$$
Character’s Cafe & Theatre 82 Hybrid art space with all-day breakfast, coffee and theatre-inspired entrees. 82 Rolfe Sq, Cranston, 490-9475. BL $
Jacky’s Galaxie Local Pan-Asian chain offering sushi and classic entrees in a modern atmosphere. Locations in Providence, North Providence, Bristol and Cumberland, JackysGalaxie.com. LD $-$$$
Meeting Street Cafe BYOB eatery with large menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner served all day. 220 Meeting St, Providence, 273-1066. BLD $-$$
Cucina Rustica Rustic, Italian-style dining combining comfort food and sophistication. 555 Atwood Ave, Cranston, 944-2500. LD $-$$ Flatbread Company Artisanal pizza, local ingredients. 161 Cushing St, Providence, 273-2737. LD $-$$ Fresco Italian American comfort food with international inspirations. 301 Main St, East Greenwich, 398-0027; 140 Comstock Pkwy, Cranston, 2283901. D $-$$ Harry’s Bar & Burger Called the “Best Burger in America” by CNN. Over 50 craft beers. 121 N Main St, Providence, 228-7437; 301 Atwells Ave, 228-3336. LD $-$$ Haruki Japanese cuisine and a la carte selections with casual ambience. Locations in Cranston and Providence, HarukiSushi.com. LD $-$$
Julian’s A must-taste Providence staple celebrating more than 20 years. 318 Broadway, Providence, 861-1770. BBrLD $$ LaMei Hot Pot Authentic Chinese cuisine in a unique, casual setting. 256 Broadway, Providence, 831-7555. LD $$ Luigi’s Restaurant & Gourmet Express Handmade Italian classics and prepared foods to go. 1457 Hartford Ave, Johnston. 455-0045, LuigisGourmet.com. LD $$ Luxe Burger Bar Build Your Own Burger: You dream it, we build it! 5 Memorial Blvd, Providence, 621-5893. LD $
Mill’s Tavern Historic setting for New American gourmet. 101 N Main St, Providence, 272-3331. D $$$ Mosaic Restaurant Syrian cuisine served in an intimate setting. 91 Rolfe Sq, Cranston, 808-6512. BLD $-$$$ Napolitano’s Brooklyn Pizza Classic Italian fare and traditional New York-style pizzas. 100 East St, Cranston, 383-7722; 380 Atwells Ave, Providence, 273-2400. LD $-$$ Ocean State Sandwich Company Craft sandwiches and hearty sides. 1345 Hartford Ave, Johnston; 155 Westminster St, Providence, 282-6772. BL $-$$
McBride’s Pub Traditional Irish pub fare in Wayland Square. 161 Wayland Ave, Providence, 751-3000. LD $$
Opa the Phoenician Authentic Lebanese food served in a fun atmosphere with hookahs. 230 Atwells Ave, Providence, 351-8282. D $-$$$
McCormick
Parkside Rotisserie & Bar American
&
Schmick’s
Seafood
Key: B breakfast Br brunch L lunch D dinner $ under 10 $$ 10–20 $$$ 20+
September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
53
DINING GUIDE
Want to Gain Experience, Connections & Have Fun?
bistro specializing in rotisserie meats. 76 South Main St, Providence, 331-0003. LD $-$$
Public Kitchen & Bar American food with changing daily specials. 120 Francis St, Providence, 919-5050. BrLD $-$$
Pat’s Italian Fine Italian favorites, natural steaks and handcrafted cocktails. 1200 Hartford Ave, Johnston, 273-1444. LD $-$$$
Red Ginger Traditional Chinese restaurant and bar with a relaxed environment. 560 Killingly St, Johnston, 861-7878; 1852 Smith St, North Providence, 353-6688. LD $-$$
Pizza J A fun, upbeat atmosphere with thin-crust pizza, pub fare and glutenfree options. 967 Westminster St, Providence, 632-0555. LD $-$$
Red Stripe Casual French-American bistro. 465 Angell St, Providence, 4376950; 455 Main St, East Greenwich,
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398-2900. BrLD $$ Rick’s Roadhouse Honest, authentic BBQ with a large selection of whiskey. 370 Richmond St, Providence, 2727675. LD $-$$ Rocco’s Pub & Grub Five-star menu in an intimate, pub-like atmosphere. 55 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, 349-2250. LD $-$$ Rosmarin at Hotel Providence Bar and restaurant serving Swiss-inspired small plates, craft cocktails and an eclectic wine list. 311 Westminster Street, Providence, 521-3333. BLD $$$ Siena Impeccable Italian cuisine. Locations in Providence, East Greenwich and Smithfield, 521-3311. D $$-$$$ Spirito’s Restaurant & Catering Classic Italian fare served in a stately Victorian home. 477 Broadway, Providence, 434-4435. LD $-$$$
P o p -u p ti k i p a rt M o v ie ie s s und e U rb a n p a rk r th e s ta rs adve And n tu re m to o w o re w a y s s n th e summ er
Starbucks Coffee, tea, bakery items and lunch options. Multiple locations. Starbucks.com. BL$-$$ T’s Restaurant Plentiful breakfast and lunch. Locations in Cranston, East Greenwich and Narragansett, TsRestaurantRI.com. BL $ Tavolo Wine Bar and Tuscan Grille Classic Italian cuisine with an extensive wine and beer list. 970 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, 349-4979. LD $-$$
is accepting resumes for
Internships Editorial • Marketing Video • Web
Send inquires to
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WO RT H T H E D R I V E
Ichigo Ichie As soon as you walk into the foyer of Ichigo Ichie, it’s clear you’re not in an average restaurant. Immediately greeted by a waterfall, a blue lit bar, dripping crystal curtains and other stunning design elements, the ultra modern restaurant prepares you for a one-of-a-kind dining experience. The large location, which is conveniently located on Route 6 on the East Providence/Seekonk line, offers a squareshaped cocktail lounge, an intimate sushi bar, lively hibachi seating and an elegant dining room. The experience is just as diverse – it’s a great place for a family-friendly dinner, a romantic date, a gathering for friends, a special occasion or a quick drink at the bar.
5 Catamore Boulevard, East Providence 401-435-5511 • IchigoIchieUS.com
The Crossings New American favorites in a chic, urban setting. 801 Greenwich Ave, Warwick, 732-6000. BLD $-$$$ The Dorrance Fine dining with exquisite cocktails. 60 Dorrance St, Providence, 521-6000. D $$$ The Grange Vegetarian restaurant serving seasonal dishes with a juice bar, vegan bakery and cocktail bar. 166 Broadway, Providence, 831-0600. BrLD $-$$ The Pizza Gourmet/The Catering Gourmet Scratch wood-grilled pizzas and Italian American favorites. 357 Hope St, Providence, 751-0355. LD $-$$$ The Rosendale Bar and grill with welcoming atmosphere and creative menu. 55 Union St, Providence, 421-
The Bay • East Side Monthly SO Rhode Island • Hey Rhody
54
PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
For full restaurant profiles, go to ProvidenceOnline.com
Photography by Savannah Barkley for Providence Monthly
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DINING GUIDE
AUTHENTIC WOOD SMOKED BBQ TRI-TIP & BEEF BRISKET • BABYBACK RIBS • CHICKEN
3253. LD $-$$ The Salted Slate An agri-driven American restaurant with global influences. 186 Wayland Ave, Providence, 270-3737. BrLD $$-$$$
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The Villa Restaurant & Banquet Facility Family Italian restaurant with live music and entertainment. 272 Cowesett Ave, West Warwick, 8210060. D $-$$
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2000 Mendon Rd • 401-766-4BBQ (4227) • GottaQ.com The Village Lively bar and grill with comfort fare, bar bites and beer. 373 Richmond St, Providence, 228-7222. BrLD $-$$
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Trinity Brewhouse American pub fare and craft beer in a downtown setting, with lunch, dinner and latenight menus. 186 Fountain Street, Providence, 453-2337. LD $-$$
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Tortilla Flats Fresh Mexican, Cajun and Southwestern fare, cocktails and over 70 tequilas. 355 Hope St, Providence, 751-6777. LD $-$$
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in Rhode Island
Tony’s Colonial Specialty store offering the finest imported and domestic Italian foods. 311 Atwells Ave, Providence, 621-8675. $-$$$ Twin Oaks Family restaurant serving an extensive selection of Italian and American staples. 100 Sabra St, Cranston, 781-9693. LD $-$$$
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Ichigo Ichie Traditional Japanese cuisine, creative sushi and hibachi. 5 Catamore Blvd, East Providence, 4355511. LD $-$$$ Jacky’s Galaxie Local Pan-Asian chain offering sushi and classic entrees in a modern atmosphere. Locations in Providence, North Providence, Bristol and Cumberland, JackysGalaxie.com. LD $-$$$ Starbucks Coffee, tea, bakery items and lunch options. Multiple locations. Starbucks.com BL $-$$ The Old Grist Mill Tavern Fine dining located over the Runnins River. 390 Fall River Ave, Seekonk, 508-3368460. LD $-$$$ The Wharf Tavern Serves fresh seafood and steak with bay views from almost every table. 215 Water St, Warren, 289-2524. BrLD $-$$$
SOUTHERN RI Besos Kitchen & Cocktails Tapas and eclectic cuisine and cocktails. 378 Main St, East Greenwich, 398-8855. BrLD $$$
The Vig Contemporary sports bar with craft tavern fare. 21 Atwells Ave, Providence, 709-0347. LD $-$$
Blu On The Water Home to Rhode Island’s largest waterfront deck and three outdoor bars, with a wide menu and full raw bar. 20 Water St, East Greenwich, 885-3700. LD $-$$$
Vinya Test Kitchen Vegan cuisine accompanied by creative mocktails (BYOB). 225A Westminster St, Providence, 500-5189. D $-$$
Breachway Grill Classic New England fare, plus NY-style pizza. 1 Charlestown Beach Rd, Charlestown, 213-6615. LD $$
XO Cafe Acclaimed farm-to-table cuisine with a fantastic Sunday #PajamaBrunch. 125 N Main St, Providence, 273-9090. BrD $$
Chair 5 Locally sourced and seasonally inspired menus with a main restaurant and rooftop lounge. 1208 Ocean Rd, Narragansett, 3639820. BrLD $-$$$
EAST BAY / NEWPORT Black Bass Grille Classic seafood, historic waterfront setting. 3 Water St, South Dartmouth, 508-999-6975. LD $$ Bluewater Bar and Grill Casual restaurant with modern seafood dishes, patio seating and live music. 32 Barton Ave, Barrington, 247-0017. LD $$-$$$
50 Ann Mary Street, Pawtucket • 401-365-6278 • PhoHorns.com On Providence/Pawtucket line behind LA Fitness
DeWolf Tavern Gourmet American/ Indian fusion. 259 Thames St, Bristol, 254-2005. BLD $$-$$$
Champlin’s Seafood Dockside fresh seafood serving easy breezy cocktails. 256 Great Island Rd, Narragansett, 783-3152. LD $-$$ Coast Guard House A new American menu with a seafood emphasis and extensive wine list, open seven days a week. 40 Ocean Rd, Narragansett, 789-0700. BrLD $$$
For full restaurant profiles, go to ProvidenceOnline.com
Something wicked (awesome) this way comes
October 2017
ARTISTIC ICONS SERIES
4th Annual September 13-24, 2017 12 Days of Design Downtown Providence and Beyond Over 50 events across Rhode Island spotlighting the talent, innovation, and influence of the Rhode Island design community.
FEATURING
Designers, Leaders, Makers, Partners, Thinkers, Doers, Inventors, and More
TOURS
TALKS
PARTIES AWARDS
See complete schedule at
designweekri.com
LEGENDARY JAZZ GIANTS LIVE IN CONCERT! OCTOBER 15, 2017 THE VETS TICKETS FIRST-WORKS.ORG 401.421.ARTS
Hosted by
with support from
58
PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
in partnership with
DINING GUIDE Colvitto’s Pizza & Bakery Pizza Calzones and baked goods made fresh daily. 91 Point Judith Rd, Narragansett, 783-8086. BrLD $ Dante’s Kitchen American food with Southern flair. 315 Main St, East Greenwich, 398-7798. BL $-$$ Dragon Palace Chinese cuisine, sushi and bar. 577 Tiogue Ave, Coventry, 8280100; 733 Kingstown Rd, Wakefield, 789-2300; 1210 Main St, Wyoming, 539-1102. LD $-$$ Eleven Forty Nine City sophistication in the suburbs. 1149 Division St, Warwick, 884-1149. LD $$$ Frankie’s Italian Bistro Fine dining with imported wines from around the world. 1051 Ten Rod Rd, North Kingstown, 295-2500. D $-$$$ Fresco Italian American comfort food with international inspirations. 301 Main St, East Greenwich, 3980027; 140 Comstock Pkwy, Cranston, 228-3901. D $-$$ George’s of Galilee Fresh caught seafood in an upscale pub atmosphere. 250 Sand Hill Cove Rd, Narragansett, 783-2306. LD $-$$ Jigger’s Diner Classic ‘50s diner serving breakfast all day. 145 Main St, East Greenwich, 884-6060. BL $-$$ La Masseria Upscale Italian cuisine served in a chic setting with a rustic, countryside vibe. 223 Main St, East Greenwich, 398-0693. LD $$-$$$ Maharaja Indian Restaurant Indian cuisine and traditional curries in a warm setting. 1 Beach St, Narragansett, 363-9988. LD $-$$ Mariner Grille Seafood, steaks and pasta in a fun setting, with live entertainment. 140 Point Judith Rd, Narragansett, 284-3282. LD $$ Matunuck Oyster Bar Destination dining enhanced by a raw bar sourced onsite and a water view. 629 Succotash Rd, South Kingstown, 783-4202. LD $-$$$ Ocean House/Weekapaug Inn Multiple dining room options offer comfortably elegant dishes that highlight the best in seasonal, local produce. 1 Bluff Ave,
Watch Hill, 584-7000; 25 Spray Rock Rd, Westerly, 637-7600. BLD $-$$$ Pasquale’s Pizzeria Napoletana Authentic Neapolitan wood-fired pizza with exclusive ingredients imported from Naples. 60 S County Commons Way, South Kingstown, 783-2900. LD $-$$ Phil’s Main Street Grille Classic comfort food with a great rooftop patio. 323 Main St, Wakefield, 7834073. BBrLD $ Red Stripe Casual French-American bistro. 465 Angell St, Providence, 4376950; 455 Main St, East Greenwich, 398-2900. BrLD $$
You can be sure it’s American grown when you pick your own.
Starbucks Coffee, tea, bakery items and lunch options. Multiple locations. Starbucks.com BL $-$$
tours By APPointment
Dame Farm & Orchards Our family serving your family
weekdays: 8:30–5:30pm sat. & sun . 9:30–5pm
91-B Brown Avenue, Johnston • 401-949-3657 • dAmefArmAndorchArds.com
Upscale Mexican Cuisine on Historic Federal Hill
3 Course Dinner Monday thru Thursday
Now Open 7 Days A Week For Lunch & Dinner
Sa-Tang Fine Thai and Asian fusion cuisine with gluten-free selections. 402 Main St, Wakefield, 284-4220. LD $-$$ Siena Impeccable Italian cuisine. Locations in Providence, East Greenwich and Smithfield, 521-3311. D $$-$$$
Apple & Pumpkin Picking • corn maze wagon rides • farm stand offerings • mums
Lunch Specials Under $10
Brunch Saturday & Sunday
Margaritas & Sangria Over 70 Premium Tequilas!
351 Atwells Avenue, Prov • 454-8951 • donjosetequilas.com
T’s Restaurant Plentiful breakfast and lunch. Locations in Cranston, East Greenwich, Narragansett, TsRestaurantRI.com. BL $
40 ARTISTS
September
Tavern by the Sea Waterfront European/American bistro. 16 W Main St, Wickford, 294-5771. LD $$
23 & 24
11 am - 5 pm
The Nordic Surf and turf buffet selections perfect for family gatherings. 178 E Pasquisett Trl, Charlestown, 783-4515. LD $$$ Twin Willows Fresh seafood and water views in a family-friendly atmosphere. 865 Boston Neck Rd, Narragansett, 789-8153. LD $-$$ Tong-D Fine Thai cuisine in a casual setting. 156 County Rd, Barrington, 289-2998; 50 South County Common Way, South Kingstown, 783-4445. LD $-$$ TwoTen Oyster Bar and Grill Local oysters and upmarket seafood dishes with a full bar menu. 210 Salt Pond Rd, South Kingstown, 782-0100. BrLD $-$$$
Follow Providence Monthly on
Visit artists in their studios and lofts in three repurposed mill buildings in Pawtucket’s Armory Arts District. View art, chat with artists, watch demos, and purchase art and fine crafts. Studios are just steps apart. Ample parking and food. Easy to get to , just 500 yards from Exit 29, I-95, then follow the signs. For more info, visit:
XOPAWTUCKET.COM
@HeyRhody September 2017 | PROVIDENCE MONTHLY
59
F R E E O N E DAY F E ST I VA L !
DOORS OPEN RHODE ISLAND
F ESTIVAL
S E PTEMBER 23 • 1 0AM - 6PM FREE ACCESS TO 20+ GREAT SPACES & PLACES IN PROVIDENCE Imagine receiving a set of keys to historic homes, theaters, sacred spaces, secret vaults, studios and more for free. For one day, the Doors Open RI Festival will provide you with behind-the-scenes access to 20+ special architectural, cultural and historical places across Providence – without tickets or reservations. Explore the splendor of Barnaby Castle, the studios of Rhode Island Public Radio, the grandeur of our State House and more. The keys to the city are yours!
Site hours, descriptions, maps and more on
DOORSOPENRI.ORG #DOORSOPENRI @DOORSOPENRI S PO NS O RE D BY
G ET OU T
Photo by Michael C. Meyer, courtesy of the Pawtucket Arts Festival
Events / On Stage / Art / Music
ART ALL MONTH IN PAWTUCKET The Pawtucket Arts Festival (PawtucketArtsFestival.org) is celebrating the arts and culture of Providence’s favorite neighbor city for the entire month. Think everything from open studios, like Creature Creation of the living statues at Ten31 Studios on September 23, to concerts and musical workshops, like the Drums for One and All Drumming
Workshop by Revel Factory on September 16. Major highlights are the Chinese Dragon Boat Races and Taiwan Day Festival on September 9; the Slater Park Fall Festival on September 9-10, featuring RI Philharmonic Pops in the Park, public art and an open air market; and the PawSox Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival on September 16.
GET OU T
Calendar Explore beautiful, hidden spaces – like Barnaby Castle on Broadway – during the Doors Open RI Festival
THE MUST LIST 10 essential events happening in September
2.
September 8-10: Don your Barbie and G.I. Joe finery for Hascon (Hascon. Hasbro.com), a convention celebrating all things Hasbro at the Convention Center. There will be as many My Little Ponies and
Transformers as you can handle, plus a performance by Flo Rida and appearances by Stan Lee and Daya.
3.
September 9: Travel to over 30 countries in one afternoon when the RI Heritage Day Festival (Facebook: 40th Annual RI Heritage Day Festival) takes over the State House lawn for an afternoon of food, music, dance, costumes, and arts and crafts celebrating cultures from all over the world.
4.
September 9: Put all of those episodes of American Ninja Warrior to good use at Boldrdash (BoldrdashRace.com) when it comes to Rocky Point. It’s
part race, part obstacle course, part bragging rights for at least a month after you’ve finished.
5.
September 12–13: The WBRU Fall Ball (WBRU.com)
TEDx Providence comes to the Vets Auditorium for a day of sharing inspiring ideas
is bringing two nights of rock to Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel. September 12 is Cold War Kids with K. Flay and Joywave, and September 13 is Bastille with Frenship.
6.
September 16: Things will get “White and Nerdy” when Weird Al Yankovic makes an appearance at The Columbus Theatre (ColumbusTheatre. com) for a screening of his cult classic UHF. The parody songster – admit it, you thought “Word Crimes” was surprisingly clever – will do a Q&A after the movie.
7.
September 20–23: After a hiatus, StyleWeek Northeast (StyleWeekNortheast. com) is coming back with a bang: four nights of four or more runway shows at the Convention Center, plus shopping at the Accessory Showcase, interactive fashion and wellness experiences and, finally, food to go with your cocktails.
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
8.
September 22: Belong to the night when Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo play at East Providence’s Bold Point Park (RIWaterfrontEvents.com). The waterfront concert starts at 6pm, and will have food trucks and a full bar on site.
9.
September 23: Get insider access at the Doors Open RI Festival (DoorsOpenRI.org), when more than 20 interesting private spaces allow visitors for one day only - like Brown’s Ladd Observatory, RISD’s curiosity-filled Nature Lab, Barnaby Castle and the Benefit Street Arsenal.
10.
September 30: TEDx Providence (TedXProvidence.com) brings a whole day full of challenging and inspiring “ideas worth spreading” to The Vets, featuring speakers like Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Raymond Two Hawks Watson, founder of the Providence Cultural Equity Initiative.
Photo by Design Imaging Studios, courtesy of Doors Open RI
1.
All Month Long: The RISD Museum’s Stranger Than Paradise (RISDMuseum.org) exhibit brings together different styles, sensibilities and eras to examine how our perspective on and relationship with the natural world have changed over the centuries. The exhibit runs through the fall, and includes everything from ancient art to contemporary works.
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G ET O UT
On Stage
by Marrissa Ballard
Big Stories in Small Spaces The Gamm’s artistic director takes us behind the scenes of the theatre’s upcoming season The Sandra-Feinstein
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
The Gamm 2017/2018 Season The Importance of Being Earnest September 14–October 15 Incognito November 9–December 10 Uncle Vanya January 18–February 18 A Human Being Died That Night March 8–April 1 As You Like It April 19–May 27
Brandon Whitehead in the Gamm’s season opener, The Importance of Being Earnest
The Gamm works with both classic and contemporary material, but Tony says it all plays like it was written for today. “Theatre ought to be transporting and revisiting and reinventing different periods,” he says. “The shows may be speaking a different language, or have different customs, but they are all a mirror.” In particular, Shakespeare has long been a part of The Gamm’s work, and Tony sees As You Like It as the perfect tale for this season. “It’s a young woman exiled from a corrupt court who goes out to nature with a new set of rules,” he says. “In the end, there’s resolution and people come together.” Even though he loves Shakespeare,
Tony realizes that audiences can be intimidated by the language. “Shakespeare can feel removed; it can feel like you’re going to a museum,” he says. “But those stories are immediate and they speak to us now.” More than anything, he values Shakespeare’s ability to examine the human mind and heart. “People are blown away by how powerful it is.” Tony also believes that theatre can give audiences the chance to experience genuine connections. “It’s not a dead thing, it’s something you’re involved in,” he says. “With theatre, you get that tactile response with living, breathing human beings. You’ll be opened up to something that will stay with you.”
The Sandra Feinstein-G amm Theatre 172 Exchange Street, Pawtucket • 723-4266 • GammTheatre.org
Photo by Peter Goldberg courtesy of The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre
John Totter: 401-419-6509
Gamm Theatre is well-known for its personal and unique take on famous stories. With the 2017/2018 season starting this month, artistic director Tony Estrella takes us backstage and reveals the process behind choosing the season’s shows. According to Tony, the planning happens way in advance. “You’re always trying to think ahead as far as possible,” he says. “I also like to think about the people with subscriptions – how will the plays speak to each other?” The team searches for shows that capture whatever is inspiring them, which means that their choices are often informed by current events. “Some stories are old, some are new,” Tony says, “But they all need to speak to where we are right now.” With titles like Incognito and The Importance of Being Earnest on the slate, The Gamm’s new season will be working with themes of identity, transformation and empathy – ideas that Tony feels are important in our current political climate. “I think a lot of people feel that the systems in place aren’t working, and they’re looking for something different,” Tony says. “These plays deal with the difficulty and necessity of change. Each in their own way asks: How do we live now?” Those heavy themes all trace back to The Gamm’s main goal: to tell epic tales in an intimate space. “We’re not afraid of big stories,” Tony says.
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GET OU T
Art
by Amanda M. Grosvenor
Hearts of Glass The artists of Peàn Doubulyu Glass have developed a national following from their Providence studio
The name Peàn Doubulyu might evoke exotic European origins at first glance, but if you sound it out, you’ll notice it’s a creative take on the letters P&W, the last initials of Liz Pannell and Jim Watkins, who have built a thriving, colorful hand-blown glassware empire right here in Providence.
The couple met during a college glassblowing workshop and went on to study at RISD under Dale Chihuly, who encouraged his students to rent off-campus studios. It was around 1980, and space was cheap; they rented a 5,000-square-foot studio for $250 at the Foundry, surrounded by woodworkers, ceramicists,
painters and fellow glassblowers, only two blocks from the Smith Hill apartment they inhabited at the time. “We could have gone to New York or Boston, but it was just really easy here,” says Liz. “There’s always something cultural happening here, and you could tell at that time that the city was turning around.” Peàn Doubulyu started as a partnership in 1981, and the birth of their first son (and ensuing expenses) prompted Liz and Jim to grow their glassworking into a successful business, although Liz also paints and Jim sculpt. They figured things out as they went, growing into thriving wholesale lines sold in boutiques and high-end department stores nationwide and employing three assistants. They have worked out of an Oregon Street studio since 1990.
The whimsy of Peàn Doubulyu’s name is echoed in its work: lines encompass vibrantly colored everyday tableware to elegant large bowls, vases, candlesticks and more. Standard designs are still one-of-a-kind thanks to handcrafting. Style-meets-function is the company’s M.O., and their pieces boast surprising durability. “I think the reason we continue to do these brightly colored pieces, and why people respond to them, is that you open your cupboard and it brings a little brightness and joy,” Jim says. Peàn Doubulyu hosts open studios yearly on Thanksgiving weekend and the first weekend of June, but “people are welcome to visit the studio any time if they want to come see the glassblowing,” says Jim.
Peàn Doubulyu 22 Oregon Street • PAndWGlass.com
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
Photography by Mike Braca
Jim Watkins and Liz Pannell of the glassware studio Peàn Doubulyu
GE T OUT
Music
by Adam Hogue
Getting Royally Loud Hairspray Queen delivers raw, frantic punk on thier latest release
Photography by Tim Siekiera
“People were torpedoing
a hollow plastic penguin back and forth across AS220. At one point during our set I looked up to see people dancing in a circle around the penguin. By the end of our set, someone had lost a tooth to the bird, and another person ended up with two black eyes. It was wild.” This was the view from onstage at Hairspray Queen’s EP release this past January at AS220. With frantic, heavily reverbed vocals from the get-go, Hairspray Queen’s self-titled EP is a fast-moving, raw piece of vintage punk rock. With straightforward, always distorted dual guitars, bass and pounding drums, the EP captures a concise vibe that lends a sense of urgency and plain-spoken truth to the times we live in. The Hairspray Queen EP was recorded at Converse Rubber Tracks in Boston and mastered at Distorted Forest Studio in Smithfield. “We went for a very heavily compressed and processed, almost bright sound with it,” the band says, “that echoes some of the bands and records that most heavily informed our writing process for those songs.” Despite being a studio recording, the record does retain a clear picture of what the band is like live and has a stripped-down quality that sticks to only the most necessary parts, allow-
ing it to be recreated in a live space. Hairspray Queen also gets to the point, with three of the five songs falling under two minutes. “Shorter songs say and do what they need to and leave no room for filler,” the band says. “Every idea gets exactly as much time as it needs and then it’s gone before it gets old.” While a casual listener to Hairspray Queen might label the band as punk, the band’s members do not feel the need to be explicitly political in their music: “We feel like punk is just a genre of music like any other; any genre or art form can be political or be completely devoid of politics. Our music is deeply personal, reflecting ourselves and our day-to-day experiences, and because of this it carries inherent political themes.” With bands such as Downtown Boys, Math the Band, Zero Holds, Neutrinos and Harvey Garbage holding down Providence as a place for quality punk rock, Hairspray Queen fits right into a like-minded scene. But the band points out that diversity in the music scene is what they have come to appreciate in Providence. “A good bill is any bill that
people get excited about. The bands don’t have to sound similar, they just have to be good. We’re pretty big fans of mixed bills, as it’s given us opportunities to play with some really incredible bands.” A successful night, they continue, “is one where everyone who was there enjoyed it, and goes home sore, deaf and wanting more.”
the guide to visual arts in providence
Can’t-Miss Tracks “II” This track opens with all-in guitar riffs, before a drum count and mantra-style vocals kick in. A brief breakdown and spoken-word lyrics bring on the second half of the song before closing with the growl of feedback, all clocking in at just over a minute.
“No Names” The swirling effect on the vocals and the guitar riffing through the chorus give this track a kind of Smiths-on-steroids vibe.
Hairspray Queen September 16 with An Albatross • The Met • Pawtucket HairsprayQueen.Bandcamp.com
A fun and FREE event 5-9 pm the 3rd Thursday of the month March - November experience gallery night
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H ID D EN P V D
Seeing Stars
The Ladd Observatory brings the final frontier to our own backyard Words and photo by Tony Pacitti The Ladd Observatory
(Facebook: Ladd Observatory) stands between Doyle and Observatory avenues on the second highest point in the city, and on Tuesday nights, the 125-year-old observatory opens its doors to let visitors peer through the same telescope Lovecraft frequently used to peek into the infinite wonder of space. Mike Umbricht, the observatory’s curator, assists visitors in spotting celestial bodies while also
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PROVIDENCE MONTHLY | September 2017
sharing the history of some of the instruments on display (equipment once used to gauge the time or to analyze the composition of distant stars still calls the East Side building home). The Ladd Observatory is a rare, functional example of how we used to interact with space. For starters, the observatory was built before the neighborhood had electricity, so every action, from the positioning of the telescope to the
opening of the great domed roof, is performed manually just as it would have been in 1891. It also wasn’t long before observatories migrated to higher altitudes, perched safely away from the polluting light of modern cities on top of mountains. It might not have all of the modern bells and whistles, but who needs the highest of high tech when you can still get a peek at the storms of Jupiter on a clear night?
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