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CON T EN TS
Photography by Tony Pacitti
Providence Monthly • September 2018
A politically motivated electorate could shake things up on Primary Day (p. 24)
FEATURES
24 Primary Concerns
21 Behind the Shelves
This month's primary election could shift the definition of progressive in Rhode Island
How is Ocean State Job Lot keeping up with retail's new normal?
DEPARTMENTS Every Month
City Style
33 AT HOME: Inside an enchanting
46 MUSIC: Meet Ritchee Price, the
56 IN THE KITCHEN: Edward Bolus
legendary trumpet player of South
talks Mill's Tavern's fall menu
East Side home
Water Street
11 Restoring Kennedy Plaza's
34 THE LOOK: The owners of J Marcel
48 ON STAGE: The Gamm gets ready
cocktail at the new and nautical PTX
Soldiers and Sailors Monument
on their favorite styles
to raise the curtain on its new stage
Lounge
12 Rhody Craft is resisting, one
36 GET FIT: Playing nine holes (of disc
50 ART: Painter Margaret Owen finds
58 ON THE MENU: Mare brings a
snarky t-shirt at a time
golf) in Slater Park
inspiration in and out of her studio
new rooftop destination to Wayland
14 The Providence Improv Fest is
39 BEAUTY: Natural skincare products
Feast
making it all up this month
are all in the family at Nissi Naturals
9 Commentary
Providence Pulse
57 IN THE DRINK: A caffeinated
Square
53 TREND: Luxe's Build Your Own
61 RESTAURANT GUIDE
Burger challenge returns
16 Trinity Academy for the
41 SHOP AROUND: Handcrafted jour-
Performing Arts taps into
nals for any occasion at Rag and Bone
creativity
18 A local TV crew is mining goofy laws for comedy gold
54 REVIEW: Heng does Thai rotisserie on College Hill
Hidden PVD
66 See where animals get their check ups, at Roger Williams Park Zoo
Get Out
43 THE MUST LIST: This month’s can’tmiss events
ON THE COVER: Styled by Nick DelGuidice. Photography by Brandon Harmon ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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WEB E XC LUS I V E S
MONTHLY
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GONE FISHIN’ Grab your gear and get out to the East Bay. Fall brings out bluefish, seas bass,
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Account Managers Shelley Cavoli Louann DiMuccio-Darwich Kristine Mangan Elizabeth Riel Dan Schwartz Stephanie Oster Wilmarth For advertising information email: Marketing@ProvidenceOnline.com Contributing Photographers Mike Braca
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PUT SOME MUSSEL INTO IT When we talk seafood in Rhode Island, oysters and calamari tend to get all of the attention. This month, we turn our
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
Jackie Ignall
Bob Curley
Dan McGowan
Meghan H. Follett
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Chuck Staton
Amanda M. Grosvenor
Julie Tremaine
Adam Hogue
attention to the humble mussel, to find out what makes this tasty morsel an unsung hero of our local aquaculture scene.
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CO M M E N TA RY ALL HANDMADE
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Behind the mic with rapping raconteur B. Dolan
The PawSox are wieners for a night
ALL THE TIME
A world of cinema returns for the RI International Film Fest
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“Check out Providence Monthly’s piece on Providence Public Parks and be sure to visit our beautiful parks this summer to enjoy everything they have to offer!” @Providence Parks Department via Facebook “Great profile piece by Providence Monthly’s Amanda M. Grosvenor on all the great parks throughout the City of Providence. Check it out and don’t forget to visit one soon!” @Providence Art Culture Tourism via Facebook “Thanks, Providence Monthly for helping spread the word about our beautiful parks and green spaces!” @Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council via Facebook
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PULSE City • Scene in PVD
A new documentary short tells the history of Kennedy Plaza's Soldiers and Sailors Monument
PRESERVING THE PAST Restoration efforts and a documentary short chronicle the story of Soldiers and Sailors The 40-foot tall Soldiers and Sailors Monument towers over Kennedy Plaza. Built in 1971, the iconic downtown display commemorates the 1,721 Rhode Islanders who lost their lives during the Civil War. As the Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy (DPPC) ramps up it’s efforts to restore the monument, they’ve released a short documentary from North Kingstown-based filmmaker Jamie McGuire to tell the story of the men behind the statue. Public Memory/Public Spaces features interviews with Mayor Elorza, Senator Reed, descendants of soldiers commemorated on the plaques of
the statue, and DPPC Executive Director Cliff Wood, intercut with drone footage of the monument and archival photos of Rhode Island’s soldiers in the Civil War. It all has a very Ken Burns vibe, which comes full circle when the preeminent Civil War documentarian makes an impassioned plea at the end of the film for preserving the memory of those soldiers’ sacrifice. The film is available to view on the DPPC’s website, along with an outline for the two phase, $300,000 restoration project, which includes repairing and replacing damaged and missing elements, as well as infrastructure improvements. ProvidenceParksConservancy.org –Tony Pacitti
Photo courtesy of David Konetski ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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PULSE • City
Rhody Craft has contributed $2,000 to the Rhode Island ACLU though sales of it’s “ResistWare” tees
Through Retail, She Persisted Kim Clark’s Rhody Craft on Hope Street is known for its quirky, Rhode Island-themed, well, everything. But next to t-shirts and knick knacks displaying familiar landmarks and Ocean State imagery are a few tees designed with “Resist.” or “Team Mueller.” “I’m channeling my rage is what I’m doing.” Clark had been carrying a Black Lives Matter t-shirt in her store, but after the 2016 election she opened the throttle on her disappointment with the turn of political events. It started with pins – “Very Stable Genius,” “Nasty Women,” “Bad Hombre” – but the line of t-shirts she designs and calls RestistWare are about more than declaring her progressive bona fides. $10 from every shirt sold goes towards the RI ACLU. So far, Clark has contributed nearly $2,000. “You really toy with ‘Should I do this with my business?’ But if you’re going to have a business and not be yourself, then what’s the point? You have to have a conscious,” she says. “Conscientious capitalism!”
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
The first shirt read “+2,864,974 votes” – the number of popular votes Clinton had over Trump. Most recently, Clark has unveiled the “I really do care do u?” design, evoking the First Lady’s tone-deaf border detention center ensemble. Response has been mostly positive – the “Team Mueller” shirt has been flying off the racks – and Clark is always up for talking politics with customers, regardless of where they stand. “People feel comforted finding a community. Other people want to debate, and that’s fine. I know the community I live in,” Clark says, adding “I sell a lot of ‘Persist’ mugs.” When asked if she had any new designs in mind, your humble interviewer realized that, with our president’s ever-itchy Twitter fingers, it was probably a silly question to ask. “There’s always a new comment!” Clark says, laughing because what else can you do at this point. “I restrain myself to be honest.” 769 Hope Street, RhodyCraft.com –Tony Pacitti
Photography by Tony Pacitti
Rhody Craft’s Kim Clark takes on the administration, one t-shirt at a time
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PULSE • City
Off Script The Providence Improv Fest brings local and national improvisers together for on-the-spot comedy
On top of its myriad performances, the festival will host improv workshops for aspiring, off-the-cuff comics. “One of our goals is to get people a better understanding of what we do,” says Tim Thibodeau, an instructor at the Providence Improv Guild (P.I.G.) and producer of the festival. “So often people still think we tell jokes or do standup. First timers often give the best compliment an improviser can receive, which is, ‘Was that all really made up
The 15th Providence Improv Fest brings three days of unscripted comedy to AS220 this month
on the spot? None of that was scripted?’” Rhode Island is no stranger to improv comedy thanks to a vibrant community of performers based out of P.I.G., Wage House Comedy Theater in Pawtucket, Bring Your Own Improv in Warwick, The Bit Players in Newport, and Improv Jones, which performs monthly at AS220. “Rhode Island is a place where everyone seems to have some sort of connection to everyone,” muses Thibodeau. “There are so many talented people in the improv community, who challenge each other and promote the joy [that] improv gives us. I believe many of the performers here could make it big in NYC or LA, and some have, but I think many enjoy creating a community of like-minded individuals who are willing to share their good times. You might
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
Photos courtesy of David Rickerby
This month, more than 200 goofballs will descend on Providence. They will come from all over the country. They will gather their forces on Empire Street. They will bring nothing but the clothes on their backs and some folding chairs. And then – well, we’re not really sure what they’ll do. They just kinda make it up as they go along. The Providence Improv Fest returns September 13-15 for its 15th year, taking over AS220 for three days of rampant ad-libbing.
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Thank You Rhode Island! see multiple performers play in multiple locations, but each location has its own different appeal.” The lineup will be staggered with local and national acts, so that audiences can sample a range of styles. The second and third nights are followed by after-parties, and for many returning comics, the fest serves as a kind of reunion. For improvisers like Thibodeau, improv isn’t just a chance to be funny on stage, but a way of interacting with the world. “For me, improv is therapy,” Thibodeau says. “It’s a place where you can create something hilarious from absolutely nothing, and you can do it with people you admire.” 115 Empire Street. ProvidenceImprovFest.com -Robert Isenberg
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90 Spruce Street, Providence 272-4676 | RosebudSalon.com ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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PULSE • City
The Art of Education Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts finds success for students in creativity
With a 100 percent college acceptance rate, a multitude of practicing Rhode Island-based artists, and a full staff of educators who are artists themselves, Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts (TAPA) is taking the Creative Capital by storm – for the ninth year in a row. The Washington Street school began as a community idea in 2007, backed by Dr. Joyce Stevos and Richardson Ogidan. When schools in the West End and South
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
Side of the city were shuttered, the pair worked with community leaders to come up with and fine-tune the idea of opening a charter school for the performing arts. Three years of planning later, TAPA opened its doors to serve 34 seventh grade students. The student body has since expanded to more than 200 in grades 7 through 12. Liz Richards-Hegnauer, Head of School at TAPA, says the school is “a strong public school option for Providence city students,
targeting creative [and] artistic students whose needs are not met in traditional public schools [. . .] Most of [the] students come from groups to whom the arts might not be accessible if it wasn’t for TAPA and our artistic partners.” Using an arts-integrated curriculum, the school is able to tap into the core of what makes Providence the “Creative Capital.” By employing two Artists in Residence in each of their four major areas of focus (dance,
Photo courtesy of Liz Richards-Hegnauer
TAPA’s arts-infused curriculum allows students to tap into their creative side and thrive
So Many Reasons to Visit
THE ARCADE PROVIDENCE film, music, and theater), the school works to implement a standards-based curriculum in the performing arts. Richards-Hegnauer remarked that “the arts are authentically infused into everything we do [as a] teaching and learning tool” and is “the catalyst by which other subjects are learned.” At its core, the TAPA mission remains the same as it was when it launched in 2010: to provide underserved Providence students with a rigorous and creative arts-driven secondary school experience that would prepare them to get to, and through, college. Each year, their students break barriers, including beating the national average for college retention rates. Richards-Hegnauer marvels that the “exceptional thing about looking back over the past eight years are the way in which our graduates have exceeded [our mission].” She says that it wasn’t until TAPA had students enrolled that she realized how effective their diverse model of teaching and learning through the arts could be. Co-Founder and former Board Member Dr. Joyce Stevos recently reflected on TAPA’s progress after a brief return to the school, expressing her belief in “the arts [contributing] to our students having the strength to survive and, in that success, to tell their ‘story’” by providing a place of support that may not be available in the traditional school. “Expansion is in our future,” says Richards-Hegnauer, acknowledging Rhode Island’s newly-established focus on Learning Pathways, which will assist students in identifying a passion while in school and allow them to dive into that interest. “We’re at the forefront of understanding how students are really able to implement their talents in education,” she continues. As a transformational trajectory, TAPA looks optimistically into the future for both themselves as an institution and their students TAPAProvidence.org –Caroline Boyle
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PULSE • City
Breaking Laws for Laughs A crew of RI scofflaws are mining weird, outdated laws for TV gold
currently studying for his master’s degree in history at UMass Boston and has appeared on C-SPAN to discuss his (now completed) quest to visit the gravesite of every past American president and vice president. The promotional “sizzle reel,” filmed in June at locations around Rhode Island, stemmed from an encounter the Deions had while visiting Swan Point Cemetery in Providence. “We were at the gravesite of H.P. Lovecraft when a security guard pulled up and told us we couldn’t take photos of the grave unless we were blood relatives of the deceased,” recalled Deion. Thus was born the idea of staging a “Burnside Family Reunion” at the cemetery to comply with the rule. Deion admits that one regulation they didn’t comply with was getting a permit to
shoot the sizzle reel in a peaceful Woonsocket cemetery standing in for the well-patrolled Swan Point — least of all with a pair of live horses, a golf-cart-riding “security officer,” and actors wearing costumes not exactly befitting a funeral ceremony. “We weren’t allowed to film there, but hey, we’re scofflaws,” he says with a laugh. The Rhode Island connection is strong with Scofflaws: Cranston-born actor Scott LaRose, one of the stars of the show, connected the Deions with legendary Hollywood TV producer and fellow Cranston native Vin Di Bona, who created Battle of the Network Stars in the 1970s — often considered the first reality TV show — as well as the long-running America’s Funniest Home Videos. “He told us it’s a funny concept, it could be successful, and I’m on your side,” recalls Deion from a
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
Photo courtesy of Scofflaws
Ambrose Burnside, a miniature pony, and a man dressed in Marilyn Monroe’s dress from Some Like It Hot walk into a cemetery. That’s not a punchline, just part of the wackiness of Scofflaws, a reality TV hopeful poking fun at ridiculous laws and regulations being developed in Rhode Island by a motley crew of actors, history buffs, and pop culture fans. Cranston resident Paul Deion and his son, Kurt, came up with the idea of a show centered on “breaking [obscure] laws in the craziest way possible” back in 2011, when Kurt was still a sophomore at Cranston East High School. The father-son partnership is perfect for the show: a natural comedian, the elder Deion is a former buyer and seller of vintage toys and co-founded Rhode Island’s first comic book convention; straight man Kurt is
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A mock Burnside family reunion in Woonsocket sets the stage for Scofflaws, a potential TV show that highlights the bizarre local laws people don’t know about
meeting with the producer in California. Di Bona subsequently wrote a $4,000 check to fund the sizzle reel, which the Deions are hoping to have in the producer’s hands by the end of the summer. If he likes what he sees, Di Bona could then pitch the show to network and cable TV channels. If it makes it on the air, Scofflaws will have no shortage of material. In landlocked Kansas, for example, it’s illegal to fish for a whale out of a moving vehicle; Florida bizarrely bans sexual relations with porcupines; and a Connecticut law stipulates that farmers cannot call their cucumbers “pickles” unless the little gherkins bounce when dropped. “This country is chock full of silly laws, rules, and policies,” says Deion. –Bob Curley
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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Kind of a
BIG DEAL
In an Internet retail, post-Benny’s world, Ocean State Job Lot relies on its value and values
Photos courtesy of Ocean State Job Lot
By Bob Curley
W
hat exactly is a “job lot”? Invariably, it’s the first question people ask about Ocean State Job Lot (the second being, “Where do you get all this stuff?”). But what Job Lot isn’t is also important to the story of this Rhode Island institution, which recently celebrated 40 years in business and has become one of the most successful discount retailers in New England. A job lot is an industry term for merchandise grouped together for purchase or sale, often “stranded inventory,” in the words of Ocean State Job Lot marketer David Sarlitto, who also heads the company’s charitable foundation. What the company adamantly is not is a salvage operation like its one-time rival, Building #19, which fell to bankruptcy in 2013. “There’s a misconception that our goods are old or low-quality,” says Alan
Perlman, who co-founded the company with his brother, Marc, and business partner Roy Dubs in 1977. Nor does Job Lot only sell closeout goods, although that is part of the business. For every overrun or lot of products that wasn’t selling fast enough for manufacturers on Job Lot’s shelves, you’ll also find first-quality items that the company’s buyers — including a team based in China — simply ferreted out at a good price at a trade show or bought directly from the manufacturer, cutting out the middleman and passing on the savings to customers. “It’s difficult to run a store with only closeouts,” says Perlman, “I’m less concerned about whether it’s an import or a purchase or a closeout, than whether it’s a value.” ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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The first Ocean State Job Lot store opened in North Kingstown in 1977, and the company slowly but steadily expanded into Connecticut, then Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, New York, and New Jersey. Today, the company has 131 stores, $700 million in annual sales, and a 1.2-million-square-foot distribution center at Quonset Point. Just 16 of the stores are in Rhode Island, so increasingly it’s the “Ocean State” part of the name that’s more puzzling to consumers than “Job Lot.” How those stores are organized is an important part of Job Lot’s success story: unlike other retailers or supermarkets, which map out every square foot of their retail space and charge companies hefty fees for shelf space, “a good chunk of our space is devoted to deals,” says Sarlitto. “It’s almost like a store that floats.” That flexibility allows Job Lot stores to stock a broad and eclectic variety of goods depending on what the company’s buyers have been able to acquire, from bird seed and aluminum pans to gazebos and kayaks. There’s an interesting origin story behind almost every item you’ll find in a Job Lot store. Buyers got a big lot of Wise potato chips after the snack food company decided to change a package size; Job Lot took both the chips and rolls of foil bags imprinted with the old serving
size at a big discount. Job Lot undersells Stop & Shop on Polar Soda because it uses its own trucks to pick up the cans of flavored seltzer and soda from the beverage company’s Worcester manufacturing plant. And you may recognize some of the rugs from Building #19 — Job Lot bought their stock of floor coverings during bankruptcy proceedings. Seasonal goods also make up a huge portion of Job Lot’s inventory. Often, buyers will acquire seasonal goods from manufacturers offseason — summer goods in October, November, or December, for instance — and a company that views throwing anything away as sacrilege needs the ability to store items like pool chemicals from year to year, so they can be restocked for when the warm weather arrives and people start thinking about swimming again. Job Lot’s mammoth Quonset distribution center has 44-foot ceilings and storage space for 88,000 pallets of goods. Some merchandise, like food, moves in and out quickly, thanks in part to a 2.5-mile-long conveyor system (picked up cheap, of course — it was originally purchased by Target as part of a failed foray into Canada). On the other hand, Jeff Enright, Job Lot’s director of supply chain logistics, likes to show off the 250 pallets of belts that have been sitting in dusty boxes in the distribution center for the last
seven years. “If we can’t sell them all in one year we’ll bring them back, because it was a good deal,” Enright explains. Eventually, what’s left will likely get donated to charity. To understand Job Lot’s extensive charitable giving program, start with the fact that Sarlitto’s background is in marketing, not philanthropy. The Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation has no formal staff, with its giving program fully integrated with the company’s retail operations. “The same skills the company uses to buy clothing or gazebos or kayaks are used to support philanthropy across eight states,” says Sarlitto. Charities the company works with — primarily food banks, but also veterans’ and health care organizations — can place “orders” for needed goods through Sarlitto, who also works closely with Job Lot buyers and manufacturers to source items like olive oil, peanut butter, and healthy cereals that food charities need for their clients. That’s how Job Lot came to deliver truckloads of gourmet cheese — creamy Camembert, rind-covered Brie, nutty Gruyere, and more — to local food banks last year. Cheese isn’t something Job Lot normally buys — it lacks both refrigerated trucks and store shelves — but the manufacturer knew how closely the company works with groups like the Greater Boston Food
Photos courtesy of Ocean State Job Lot
Bank and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and offered up the goods. “This cheese normally sells for $6 to $25 a pound; it was all within the sell-by date, but the manufacturer had too much stock on hand and was looking for a way to deplete it quickly, so we bought it at a fraction of the price and donated it,” says Sarlitto, who arranged for the cheese to be drop-shipped directly to the charities’ refrigerated warehouses. The cheese story perfectly illustrates the kind of creative purchasing that Job Lot buyers do every day. “We’re not afraid to try anything,” says Marlene Bellini, the company’s senior merchandise manager and buyer. Sometimes, that means buying fidget spinners directly from Chinese factories just as that fad hit its peak; other times, buyers will even pick up pallets of unidentified goods from trusted sellers and figures out how to sell the stuff only when the boxes are opened. Job Lot has thrived even as old rivals like Building #19, Benny’s, and Worcester-based Spag’s have fallen by the wayside and national competitors like Big Lots have arrived in New England. “We’re opportunistic in everything we do,” says Enright, right down to buying warehouse storage racks at 16 cents on a dollar, and using secondhand radios acquired from an offshore drilling company after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The company’s strong roots in the communities it serves are reflected in one of its familiar charitable giving programs, which saw 30,000 winter coats donated to homeless veterans. “We got a good deal on Totes coats and put them on display for customers at $39.99,” Sarlitto recalls. “They could get a Crazy Deals card for the same value or could give it back. I’d say 99.9 percent gave it back — some people would take their Crazy Deals gift card and put it in the pocket of the coat, or turn around and use it to buy other accessories like hats and scarves.” “Generosity feeds on itself,” he says. Finally, Job Lot succeeds because of the relationships it has built with suppliers over the course of four decades, buyers who are empowered to take chances, and a fierce dedication to providing good deals to customers. Pointing to warehouse racks full of the kayaks that have become a signature seasonal item at Job Lot stores, Enright explains, “We have to convince people that what we put out there is a good value, not that it’s a great kayak.” “We consider our integrity more important than any one deal,” says Perlman.
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Primary C oncerns This month’s primary could redefine what it means to be a Rhode Island Progressive in Trump’s America
Since the 2016 presidential election, local candidates and constituents have shown a desire to move Rhode Island towards a more progressive shade of blue
By the time Rhode Islanders head to the polls to vote in the primaries on September 12, Democrats across the country will have a good idea of just how wide their party’s tent has become. But as one of the last primary states in 2018, Rhode Island could serve as a final test case for the expansive ideological menu offerings from multiple factions within the party. The contest of ideas that primaries are designed for will give Democrats in Rhode Island the option of sticking with pragmatic incumbents like Governor Gina Raimondo and Lieutenant Governor Daniel McKee,
Photography by Tony Pacitti
By Dan McGowan
or backing progressives who are dead set on shaking up the status quo like Matt Brown and State Representative Aaron Regunberg. Down the ticket, particularly in Providence, there are challengers taking on liberal lawmakers from the right, including a former President Donald Trump supporter who managed to win the Democratic endorsement over progressive Representative Moira Walsh until the party backed off out of embarrassment. So why are these primaries so contentious and what message are Democrats sending as they head into the November election? “I think primaries are opportunities for the Democratic Party to have a conversation about where we’re going and how fast we’re going to go there,” T. Kevin Olasanoye, executive director of the State Democratic Party, said in a recent interview. Just as they have in campaigns throughout the United States this year, the topics in that conversation vary widely depending on the race. The performance of Trump is usually a mainstay among Democrats. Gun reform has also been a frequent talking point. But discussion over health care or the economy or schools can range from front-and-center to nonexistent in certain races. In the gubernatorial primary between Raimondo, Brown, and former State Representative Spencer Dickinson, Raimondo has largely focused her energy on touting the state’s strong economy as the best reason to elect her to a second term. A former venture capitalist who cut her teeth in politics by leading the effort to reform the state’s pension system as treasurer, she has argued her approach has helped bring the unemployment rate back in line with the national average. But Brown has found his niche by attacking Raimondo from the left, arguing that the governor has invested too much of her energy recruiting large corporations with tax incentives rather than focusing on bread-andbutter issues in the state. He is advocating for universal health care, driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, and a vast renewable energy program. Raimondo has sought to counteract Brown’s criticism by highlighting her own
Daniel McKee
While Lt. Governor McKee is well-liked by RI’s mayors, Regunberg appeals to a segment of progressives who feel they’ve been over looked at the State House
Aaron Regunberg
progressive credentials, advocating for an expansion to the state’s free college program to include Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island, while promising to improve pay equity between men and women. But Brown’s promise to restore cost-of-living adjustments to pensioners positions him as the left’s clear alternative in the race. The lieutenant gubernatorial primary pits the incumbent, McKee, a former Cumberland mayor who won the office in 2014 without support from organized labor, in the primary against Regunberg, a progressive darling who replaced the disgraced former Speaker Gordon Fox in House District 4 and successfully convinced his colleagues to support legislation that gave paid sick leave to thousands of Rhode Island workers. McKee is well-liked among most of the state’s mayors, who view him as a strong partner at the State House. He has also spent his first term taking National Grid to task while trying to be an advocate for small businesses. Regunberg has raised a boatload of campaign money appealing to liberals who believe their voice is too often forgotten during contentious debates on Smith Hill. But for the two major statewide office primaries – State Treasurer Seth Magaziner, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, and Attorney General favorite Peter Neronha don’t have Democrat challengers – the actual policy differences between the candidates has played second fiddle to their personality differences. As Brown University, political science professor Wendy Schiller sees it, there is no singular issue driving the divide between Raimondo and McKee Democrats and Brown and Regunberg Democrats. “I think there is a broader perception among younger Democrats that government is not working well enough in providing essential basic services such as a good education to average citizens and that long serving politicians are not sufficiently attentive enough to helping people who are not their donors or their friends,” Schiller said. Schiller said the Democratic Party across the country is facing a challenge with voters who don’t feel as though they’ve recovered
Photography (left) by James Jones
Gina Raimondo
well enough from the Great Recession nearly a decade ago. “But there is a basic disconnect between what incumbent Democratic officials are supporting and providing for people, and what people believe they are getting from government,” Schiller said. “It will be up to those incumbent Democrats to adapt their messaging to make it clear what they do accomplish, and who it helps.” Incumbent Democrats have another challenge in Rhode Island: party leadership. At a time where most of the excitement within the party nationally is coming from fresh faces like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old female of Puerto Rican descent who unseated Caucus Chair Joe Crowley, one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, in a primary earlier this year, Rhode Island’s Democrats are facing criticism for failing to embrace that liberal energy here at home. In House District 3, the state party initially
Governor Raimondo faces challengers in this month’s primary, like Democrat Matt Brown arguing that the incumbent governor is too interested in tax incentives for corporations
endorsed Michael Earnheart, who admits to voting for Trump in 2016, over incumbent Representative Moira Walsh, a single mother and former waitress who has been a critic of House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and other members of his leadership team. The move backfired, sparking outrage from elected officials and activists who came to Walsh’s defense. Even Congressman David Cicilline rebuked party leadership and offered to help Walsh’s re-election campaign. The party ultimately rescinded the endorsement, but the damage was done. Still, some of the endorsement controversy coupled with other top-of-mind issues like a push for lawmakers like Regunberg to reconvene the General Assembly to pass the Reproductive Health Care Act in an effort to protect abortion rights as the spark the party needs heading into the fall. Sulina Mohanty, who chairs the Women’s Caucus of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, said she is seeing more engagement in
Matt Brown
local politics. The Providence Journal has reported that 29 percent of the people who declared for Congress, statewide office, or the General Assembly were female, a record high. “There are a lot more people paying attention to what’s happening in addition to people who are running for the first time,” Mohanty said in a recent television interview. “So I think eyes are open, people are paying attention to what’s happening, whereas before they might not have been engaged. And I think as we have more people engaged in the process, we’re going to have more outcry when things don’t go the way they’re supposed to.” For Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution and a long time Rhode Island political observer, everything goes back to the president. West said Trump has changed the political turf even for Democrats, who appear
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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to be moving to the left as a result of their unhappiness with his policies. While even conservative Democrats in Rhode Island are hesitant to embrace Trump, the primary could become a litmus test for how far candidates are willing to go to oppose the president. “He has galvanized the progressive base and made people more willing to confront him,” West said. “Conventional politicians who are not tough on Trump will face some political exposure, especially within
Photography by Tony Pacitti
Democratic primaries, where liberals are more likely to vote.” West predicted Trump’s impact on Democrats, let alone Republicans, could have a lasting impact. “This is not just a minor turf war, but a shift in the underlying foundation of American politics,” West said. “It is the reason progressives have upset incumbents in several states and more Democrats are signing up behind progressive politics. Trump has dramatically altered the entire
political landscape.” No matter where they stand on the ideological spectrum, Olasnoye from the State Party said he’s hopeful Democrats can come together following the primary. As the son of Nigerian parents who sent their children to college on the Pell Grant, he said he’s confident the party’s broader values are still a winning message in Rhode Island. The challenge is real. While the vast majority of Rhode Island’s elected officials will be Democrats heading into 2019, Raimondo
is not a lock to hold on to the governorship in a rematch with Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, the presumed favorite on the Republican side. Similarly, Speaker Mattiello faces a credible Republican in Steven Frias. Olasnoye said his mission is clear, no matter who wins in the primaries. “The only thing I care about is the fact that Democrats have a vision for making the lives of working families and middle-class families better,” he said.
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Education with impact Open House Saturday, November 3rd, 10am
BACK to SCHOOL
Nursery through eighth grade East Providence, RI gordonschool.org
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K-8 Special Education School FALL OPEN HOUSE October 21 from 1-3 p.m. thewolfschool.org 30
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
Studio, One-Bedroom and Two-Bedroom units now available. Prices starting at $150,000. Amenities Include Concierge • Dog Park • Movie Theater • 24 Hour Fitness Center Swimming Pool • Club House • Attached Garage Parking Business Center
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY the903@mottandchace.com | 401.315.8900 mtchce.com/903 Each office independently owned and operated.
CITY STYLE At Home • The Look • Shop Talk • Whole Body • Get Fit
A MAGICAL SPACE A truly unique College Hill home inspires enchanting thoughts “It’s a very special house,” says Sally Strachan of her College Hill Lightning Splitter, which has a roof that covers two of the four stories. “The idea was that if lightning struck the house, the pitch of the roof would split the lightning in half.” An organizational consultant, Strachan works with state organizations, startups, and nonprofits. She’s currently chairing the State House Restoration Society, “focused on the interior of this
magnificently beautiful building,” she says. Strachan moved from Manhattan 15 years ago, choosing Providence because, “I wanted a city and a garden,” she says. She also wanted a space that she could use to benefit the things she really cares about by hosting fundraisers. The 1846 Victorian has windows and doors on every wall, except for the one pictured here, which houses a custom bookcase. “The books are my heart,”
she says. “I love reading, and no book goes on my bookcase if it hasn’t been read.” Other things of note in the room: the christening gown that’s been in her family for over 200 years, and the family heirloom china cabinet filled with antique English and American cut glass. There’s also a private garden in the back, like she’d been dreaming of before she moved here. “It’s a magical house.” -Julie Tremaine
Photography by Mike Braca ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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CITY STYLE • The Look
by Jackie Ignall
Dynamic Duo
Comfort is important to us when we are at the store, so you will almost always find us wearing jeans. When I go out, I feel best in a dress. And you will most likely find Bill in a pair of jeans with a jacket. We have owned J Marcel for 10 years and it is a huge part of everything we do. When shopping for ourselves or for the store, we are always buying two categories of items: basics that you can wear with anything and statement pieces that make you feel special when you put them on. After that, we look for items that have a flattering cut, lay properly, comfortable material, and feel great to the touch. Accessories make up a large part of our business and we feel a special connection to the costume jewelry industry since we are based in Providence. Bill’s father (the namesake of J Marcel) used to work at Imperial Knife Company in the Jewelry District and ran in the same circles as jewelry executives where they all traded wares. Although I didn’t grow up here; my mother loved jewelry, so it’s something that I’ve always seen as a way to complete an outfit. One of my favorite looks is a cool t-shirt and lots of interesting jewelry. And as soon as there is a chill in the air, I start wearing scarves and don’t really stop until the spring. Since we work really long hours in retail, we normally don’t want to shop as a way to relax. We spend a lot of time in Texas and California, which is where we go shopping for fun — we’re similar to the plumbing contractor with a leaky faucet at home. Fall is a great time to stock one’s wardrobe. Pattern continues to be a huge trend with lots of florals as well as plaid. We are so glad that denim is back! The ‘athleisure’ trend is still here, but people are going back to denim, especially dark denim for fall.
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
Photography by Stacey Doyle
Dixie Carroll and Bill Jette, owners of J Marcel, on their special connection to accessories and fall fashion trends
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CITY STYLE • Get Fit
by Robert Isenberg
Putting Around Disc golf in Slater Park is relaxing, outdoorsy, and basically free
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A “disc” is a plastic saucer, smooth and thin, with tapered edges, like a discus. If you throw it correctly, the disc slices through the air at alarming speeds, slipping between branches and landing gracefully in a patch of grass. After flinging the disc a few times, the coup de grace is a final toss into a wire basket, perched on a pole and festooned with chains. All you need to play disc golf is a single disc, available at various sporting goods stores for $15 to $20. The investment is long-term; each disc is nearly indestructible and could last generations. In a past life, I was obsessed with disc golf.
After a five-year hiatus, I arrived in Rhode Island with a renewed hunger for hurling saucers through the woods. When I heard about a disc golf course in Slater Park, I waited impatiently for my next day off, when I could sprint out of my Pawtucket office and spend my lunch break under the open sky. From a distance, disc golf looks no more athletic than regular golf. You throw, you walk, you pick up your disc, and you throw again. The “tee” is a patch of concrete or a chunk of railroad tie, and little maps guide the trajectory of your “drive.” The game is simple and slow, and players don’t even
Photography by Robert Isenberg
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VOTE WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 12 need to catch the objects they lob. But for me – and other enthusiasts – disc golf is a full-body experience, especially on a humid, overcast summer day. Nine “holes” add up to a decent amount of walking, much of it through sylvan trails. I crisscrossed the lawns and woods, following signs from basket to platform. Once a disc hits the air, it’s easy to lose, and I sometimes had to forage in the bushes. My clothes were patchy with sweat, and I chugged from my Nalgene bottle. The real magic of disc golf is how it blends with a regular park. The Slater Park baskets are painted bright orange, so they’re easy to spot, but players leave a modest footprint. If you’re not looking for the course, you might never even notice it. School groups played games nearby; joggers and cyclists were just visible through the foliage. Except for the rules and terminology, disc golf is nothing like regular golf, which thrives on sprawling exclusivity. Disc golf costs next to nothing, and it blissfully coexists with every other parkgoer. Playing a round is basically just a nature walk with a final score. The Slater course is a textbook introduction to disc golf – mostly flat and easy to follow, and you can pick from three different skill levels. (After all these years, I still throw like a rookie). The only downside is that the course ends on the opposite end of the park, so you have to schlep all the way back to a parked car. Still, I felt sublime, as if I’d awoken from a deep meditation. Disc golf is great in pairs and groups, where you can gossip and cavort; yet it’s also a luxury to escape the hubbub – strolling through the park, silently assessing distance and velocity. When I returned to my car, I realized how much I’d relished the quiet, and I already started scheming my next trip back.
Slater Memorial Park 1426 Newport Avenue, Pawtucket
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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NEW ENGLAND’S PREMIER FASHION WEEK #STYLEWEEKNE
#SWNESEPT2018
THE FUTURE IS FASHION
SEASON 15
SEPTEMBE R 19-22 | 20 1 8 RI CONVENTION CENTER WWW.STYLEWEEKNORTHEAST.COM
DAVID DELBONIS 401.487.7379
CITY STYLE • Whole Body
by Julie Tremaine
All in the Family
Photography by Brandon Harmon
A brother-sister team works across continents to make an all-natural skincare line Andrew and Anna Mangeni found natural skincare the way a lot of people do. “We were making things for ourselves because our kids were allergic to so much,” Andrew says. Unable to find products that worked for their family’s needs and sensitivities, Andrew started playing with formulations of soaps, lotions, and hair care that only used completely non-reactive ingredients. Friends started asking for product. His sister, still in their native Uganda, did the same. “My sister and I started reading about herbs, natural things in our environment that are healing to the skin,” Andrew says. “The first thing she brought us was shea butter cream. I added essential oils to it.” Eventually, she launched her own beauty line and salon in Uganda. When Andrew and Anna saw how well she was doing with the things the family had been making in their garage, they decided to launch their own line in Rhode Island. Now, Nissi Naturals has a storefront in Pawtucket, selling their affordable, high-quality body and hair products. At the store, Andrew makes over 50 soaps, in formulations designed to address specific skincare needs. There’s a shea butter bar with chamomile that parents love for calming babies at bath time; a turmeric marble bar with activated charcoal that reduces puffiness in the skin and helps fade dark spots and discoloration; and aloe soap for when you’ve been in the sun. A Moroccan clay shampoo bar cleanses the hair without stripping its natural oils. Watermelon soap – Andrew’s favorite – is a secret weapon against aging. “Watermelon rinds have more lycopene than tomatoes,” he says. “Freeze your watermelon rind and use it in place of ice cubes in your smoothie. People throw away the most important part.” I asked him for something to help with razor burn, my worst enemy in beach season, and he handed me a Gentleman’s Shaving & Shampoo Bar, made with coconut and olive oils, bentonite clay, and a blend of essential oils including tea tree. I’ve been using it in place of shaving cream, and I haven’t seen a single bump.
Andrew and Anna Mangeni started Nissi Naturals to address the allergies of their children, Samuel and Elizabeth
Nissi Naturals also carries face and body lotion, co-wash and leave-in conditioner, bath bombs, castile foaming hand soap, and body scrubs. A hair growth serum helps promote hair strength and restoration, especially after extreme stress from styling, like hair loss at the hairline from the stress of African braiding. Their shea butter is made with East African Shea, of which Uganda is the leading producer, which is regarded as the highest quality in the world. “It’s super moisturizing,” Andrew says. “A tiny bit goes a long way.” Their top priority is using completely natural ingredients. “The target is making things that will not cause carcinogenic problems down the line,” Andrew says. “Before we use anything, we research first.” They use European standards in Uganda, and that’s what Andrew and Anna go by, rather than the looser restrictions on chemicals from the FDA. (If you want to chill yourself to the bone, do a
quick search on how unrestricted the ingredient “fragrance” is in your favorite shampoo and lotion). “Our products are not made the same way,” Andrew says. “We have to educate people about why we’re different.” I also tried their Imara Cleaning Conditioner, a super-potent co-wash that takes the place of shampoo and conditioner, depositing oils that leave curly hair moisturized, even out of the shower. “Our products are for all skin types and all hair types,” Andrew says. “People assume that we’re just for black people, but our products work on everyone.” Even more egalitarian is the price point: nothing in the store is over $20, which is important to Andrew and Anna. “Natural products are not just for the rich.”
Nissi Naturals 548 Smithfield Avenue, Pawtucket • 642-0232 US-Shop.NissiNaturals.com
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
39
SEPTEMBER 2018 EDUCATION INNOVATION MONTH mon 3
tues 4
wed 5
sat 1
#edchatRI
thurs 6
fri 7
sat 8
tues 11
wed 12 North Kingstown Technology Summit
Fuse Fellows Chat
thurs 13 Innofest @ McCoy Stadium
sun 9 #edchatRI
EduvateRI Kick-Off Meet Up
mon 10
sun 2
fri 14 EduLeaders of Color Meet Up
sat 15 Doing What Works: Making Connections Across MTSS
sun 16 #edchatRI
BIF Summit Design Week RI
mon 17
tues 18
wed 19
PBL RI Meet Up
thurs 20
fri 21
sat 22 WaterFire: A Salute to Educators
EduLeaders of Color Equity Summit
Big Bang Science Fair
sun 23 #edchatRI Big Bang Science PD
Design Week RI mon 24 Kids COUNT Policies Supporting SCL in RI: Report Release
tues 25 RE-EIRN Report Release
wed 26
OER Design Team
Youth Restorative Project Certification Training Overview PechaKucha Night; theme: Curiosity
thurs 27 EdTechRI Meetup
fri 28 Digging Deeper: Collaboration + Inquiry + Integration = Succes (RISTE)
sat 29
sun 30 #edchatRI
* Oct 5 CLEE Statewide Institute to Advance Equity
Visit www.eduvateri.org/events for more information
CITY STYLE • Shop Talk
Words and photos by Meghan H. Follett
Bound to be Beautiful Unique paper goods made with care in Pawtucket Jason Thompson started making and selling journals on a blanket at Brown University in 1990. A self-proclaimed maker-at-heart, he learned the craft from his girlfriend (turned wife and business partner) Ilira Steinman, who had just returned from a semester abroad in Italy. Their shared love for the craft turned that blanket business into Rag & Bone Bindery, first selling their handbound journals and books at fairs and then
to stores across the country. Today, from their studio just across the Providence line in Pawtucket, they make pretty much everything by hand, from the ribbon threaded spines to the carefully torn pages for their journals. Find the couple’s handiwork online at their website and on Etsy, still created with the thought and care they’ve had since the beginning. Whether it’s an album, customizable baby book, or other paper
goods, you know with Rag & Bone Bindery you’re getting a one-of-a-kind piece. 1. Anniversary journal, $67.50 2. Baby’s First Book, $67.50 3. Journals: Large, $31. Medium, $24.75. Small, $15.75
Rag & Bone Bindery RagAndBoneBindery.com • 888-338-8128
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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531 Harris Ave, Woonsocket $1,150,000 401.617.2931
Find out more at 531Harris.com 749 East Ave, Pawtucket, RI 401.521.9490
42
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
GET OUT Calendar • On Stage • Art • Music
FALL FASHION September 19-22: Dress to the nines for New England’s premier fashion event, STYLEWEEK Northeast, which returns this month and brings fashion industry professionals to Providence for a weekend of exciting new fall looks. SWNE is a non-profit
“dedicated to the growth and expansion of design” in Rhode Island, and this month’s show will exhibit regional designers like Carissa Frazier, Candice Wu, Arianna Nicola Designs, and Franklin Rogers. 1 Sabin Street, StyleWeekNortheast.com
Photography by Brandon Harmon ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
43
GET OUT • Calender
THE MUST LIST 10 essential events happening this month
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
September 22: Ocean State Oyster Festival
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3
September 3-9: Pawtucket puts flavor first during Restaurant Week. Participating restaurants offer a special price to try the best of their menus, from breakfast to burgers to tacos. Various restaurants, RestaurantWeekPCF.com
September 8-9: The Rhode Island Seafood Festival returns with the best in seafood and spirits from around the Ocean State, as well as live music and activities. India Point Park, RISeafoodFest.com
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September 8-9: Celebrate local art at the Slater Park Fall Festival. One hundred vendors will sell their creations, accompanied by food trucks, crafts, music, and lots of family-friendly fun. The event is topped off with RI Philharmonic’s “Pops in the Park” and fireworks. Slater Memorial Park, Pawtucket, PawtucketArtsFestival.org
September 14-15: The arts flourish this month with events like the Rhode Island Music & Arts Festival. Alongside local art, food, and beverage, live music will be featured from bands like Perpetual Groove, Barefoot Truth, and The Mallett Brothers. India Point Park, RhodeIslandMusicFestival.com
Photography by Mike Braca
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$
5
September 15: Give back to your favorite city with a little elbow grease during this month’s Riverwalk Restoration Project. Help fellow volunteers beautify the waterfront by picking up trash, painting railings, lampposts, and benches, and removing stickers. Downtown, DNAPVD.com
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September 20: Thomas Rhett brings country music with a pop swagger to the Dunkin Donut Center this month. Brett Young and Midland will join him on stage for Thomas Rhett: Life Changes Tour 2018. It’s sure to be “Unforgettable.” 1 La Salle Square, DunkinDonutsCenter.com
DINNER’S CALLING 401 861 1770
7
September 20-22: Actoress and comedian Nicole Byer takes the spotlight at Comedy Connection. The Upright Citizens Brigade alum and host of Netflix’s Nailed It will keep the laughs coming all night long. 39 Warren Avenue, East Providence, RIComedyConnection.com
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September 21-30: The national tour of the musical Miss Saigon starts at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Young Vietnamese woman, Kim, meets an American G.I., and what follows is an epic love story. 220 Weybosset Street, PPACRI.org
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September 21: Harvard professor and Brown alum Tarek Masoud will explore contemporary issues in his lecture “Islam and Democracy in the Age of Trump” at Central Congregational Church. 296 Angell St, CentralChurch.us
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September 22: The Ocean State Oyster Festival is back and brinier than ever! Sample the state’s tastiest oysters, celebrate the state’s aquaculture industry, and give it your all in the shucking contest. Riverwalk, OysterfestRI.com
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
45
GET OUT • Music
by Adam Hogue
South Water Street Jazz
“I played the hell out of the National Anthem,” Ritchee Price recalls. With just himself, a trumpet, two students holding rifles, and one student carrying the American flag, Price would usher in Bishop Hendricken football games in the way that he saw fit. By this point in the conversation, Benard, a flight attendant from South Carolina on a stopover, had already pulled up a chair just to listen in on the conversation outside of the Wild Colonial on a Wednesday evening to “hear the wisdom being shared.” What becomes clear anytime a seasoned musician begins to tell stories is that everything is connected and the music is always that elusive, never-perfect thing at the heart of it. Make no mistake, Price is a professional, but beyond that he is an artist devoted to his craft. He has not reached the end of his journey with his trumpet and he is still, as he puts it, “trying to get better.” “This is why a trumpet can piss you off,” Price says, then paraphrases an old joke he heard. “Sometimes it plays great and you won, sometimes it plays bad and the trumpet
won, and sometimes you die and the trumpet is still there.” When I pulled up to the Wild Colonial on South Water Street, Price was leaning on his car running scales on his trumpet. I guess this was his not-so-subtle way of letting me know exactly who he is. Price is a regular at the Wild Colonial, playing out along the river or in the parking lot enjoying a scotch (not so much these days) as the evening melts into night. He is, as he puts it, like Norm on Cheers. In between anecdotes and musings, Price greets people on a first-name basis, catching up and making small-talk before studying music in The “Real” Book, a collection of lead sheets for jazz standards. This is all part of Price’s “retirement program.” Wake up at 5:30, shower, go back to sleep, exercise, practice trumpet, and then later, go the Wild Colonial to play more. Price regularly plays at open jams (Murphy’s Law in Pawtucket has a Joe Potenza hosted “Groove E Tuesday” jazz night) and cobbles together impromptu quintets for events, but at the core of everything
he does is the drive to keep playing and always work on “getting better,” knowing that he will never reach his best. Price has asthma, so he first picked up the trumpet to “open up” his lungs, but it was the drum and bugle corps that made him get serious about it. Price moved to Rhode Island from amish country Pennsylvania because it sits in between Boston and New York. After attending Berklee College of Music from 1979 to 1983, Price spent two years doing odd jobs waiting to land the dream gig. When a former classmate named Doug Miller recommended him to jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, Price was off. In a testament to life as a professional musician in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Price recalls coming off of a tour in Japan,
MUST WATCH: Check out Ritchee Price on Youtube playing at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1988 with the Lionel Hampton band to see him in all his glory wailing on the high note runs that he’s known for… all bow-tie free.
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
Photography by Savannah Barkley for Providence Monthly
Trumpet player Ritchee Price gives an impromptu soundtrack to the Riverwalk
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landing in Niagara Falls, and driving directly to a gig at the Newport Jazz Festival with 30 minutes to spare in 1988. Due to 100 degree heat and being disoriented from jet-lag, Hampton allowed the band to take off their bow ties for the gig. Price went on to play with the Count Basie Orchestra all while serving as the music director of Bishop Hendricken, Rogers, and, most recently, Portsmouth high schools from 1987 until 2016. Price’s love of drum and bugle corps drove a passion to develop the competitive marching bands at his schools to make them just as important as the sports teams. He continues to judge marching band competitions to this day. Price is what every musician should aspire to be. He is a man ever trying to improve his craft. There is always somewhere he is trying to get to and he finds every opportunity he can to stop and just play.
Ritchee Price RitcheePrice.com
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With the box office set to open on September 4, nearly a year after announcing their move to Warwick, the debut of The Gamm Theatre’s new home is rapidly approaching. “It certainly has a lot of potential for something beyond the usual,” is how Artistic Director Tony Estrella introduces the Warwick space, formerly the home of the Ocean State Theatre. Further into the building, Estrella describes all their new amenities: from multi-stall bathrooms and parking to administrative offices and studios. Inside the actual theater, they’ve removed the proscenium arch and built the main stage out. For Gamm shows, they’ll curtain
off the rest of the space to create a bigger version of their famous black box. The rest of the space beyond the curtain will be saved as an opportunity for other artists or organizations to rent for their events. “What’s important is that in recreating the box, we keep that same intimacy, but as we grow, the artists and audience will be more comfortable, and we’ve got more volume,” says Estrella. These expanded dimensions will add more depth and height to the space, allowing for more creative freedom when it comes to set design. “Our designers have been brilliant about overcoming the limitations of the Pawtucket box, but this is giving them a little
Photo courtesy of The Gamm Theatre
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more room to make their visions happen,” says Estrella. “That’s going to be the biggest change onstage.” Oliver Dow, Managing Director, discusses some of the other changes they’ve made, including the addition of a lighting grid. “It’s a fantastic building with a lot of ability to grow in years to come,” he says. On the upper floors, they discovered unfinished rooms that will be converted into rehearsal space. “A lot of the big work was done, so most of what we had to do was finish it.” The team is also on a tough deadline, with the opening their first show, Night of the Iguana, looming on October 11. Despite this, they’re both excited for the opening. “I’m most looking forward to the new experience, the challenge, the ability to give our artists what they need, and having our audience see the space,” Dow says. “Really, more than anything, it’s what happens on stage that really matters.” Looking to Season 34, The Gamm has planned a full range of riveting shows to play in the new space, including one national premiere and one New England premiere. “Thematically, we discuss issues and things that are happening in society,” Estrella says. “Right now, there’s a lot of concern about politics, and people are asking ‘How do we get through this?’ So all of the stories are about what happens when a crisis hits.” Estrella hopes that the whole season galvanizes and uplifts viewers, despite the heavy subjects. “You always want to give audiences a chance to process their lives,” Estrella says. “Art is a generative act; I always come out of a great production, no matter what it is, feeling inspired.” As for Dow, the performances remain a light at the end of a long journey. “We have much more work to do as we go on, but I look forward to our audience falling in love with it as we have.”
The G amm Theatre 1245 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick GammTheatre.org
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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GET OUT • Art
by Amanda M. Grosvenor
The Art of Fresh Air Painter Margaret Owen makes the world a more colorful place, inside and out Based on her body of work, it’s unsurprising that Owen finds inspiration in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters like Paul Cézanne, and Claude Monet – “I know it’s clichéd, but I can’t get enough of him” – along with Mary Cassatt and Vincent van Gogh. Cézanne’s style moved Owen early on in her life; she claims he “got [her] started” as a painter and would carry one of his prints around. “The way he uses color just completely speaks to me, and the way he sees space: as not just a 3D representation, but more of an idea,” she says. Like Cézanne, she tends to use pure colors next to each other on the canvas, rather than mixing them on the palette first— she “let[s] them mix optically instead.” She cites large-scale landscape painter Ida Schmulowitz as a local inspiration. Owen began using oil paints in high school in Virginia; later, she earned a master’s degree at the New York Academy of Art, where she immersed herself in the more technical
Artist Margaret Owen brings her vibrant subjects to life both in and out of her studio
aspects of her craft. There, she met her husband, Michael, a fellow artist, RISD graduate, and a native Rhode Islander. When they became pregnant, the couple decided to leave New York City and settle in Providence. Owen always preferred still life painting indoors, but as their son grew, she started “venturing farther afield” and found that watercolor paints were easier to transport and paint with while sitting by the water in Jamestown or traveling with a close friend to Europe to paint together and visit art museums. Her background is in still life and close observation, but watercolors allow her to experiment in new ways. Thanks to the combination of her cheerful style and sparkling, patient personality, Owen became a painting instructor, teaching regular classes. Her students even urged her to do plein air classes; now, she leads painting sessions in parks and beautiful spots all over the city and beyond. In a world plagued with distractions, stressful
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Photography by Savannah Barkley for Providence Monthly
Margaret Owen brings a joyful interplay of color to the subjects she paints, whether it’s a still life of flowers in a vase or fruit in a bowl, a portrait, or an apartment interior in Paris or Morocco. She also paints outside, “en plein air” as the French say; a favorite spot is a small bridge at Pleasant Valley Parkway in Elmhurst, near her in-home studio. On one of her walls hangs a painting of the bridge, lush and alive with greenery; on another, it sleeps under fat, block-like snowflakes, captured by her brush year-round. “It’s basically a glorified drainage ditch, but I could paint it all day,” Owen says. Viewed through her artistic interpretation, one might feel transported to a peaceful pastoral vista. Owen has a knack for seeking out the vibrancy in her subjects and capturing it with meticulous detail or with more abstract strokes, but always with those powerful colors. Her artist name, Permanent Magenta, is both an actual paint color as well as a paradox of concepts: something irrevocable, yet also fun and bold.
news, and overwhelming consumerism, Owen views artmaking as a way to sit quietly with herself and her feelings: the perfect antidote to a society driven by compulsion. She sums up her philosophy in a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke: “Be attentive to what is arising within you, and place that above everything else... What is happening in your innermost self is worthy of your entire love.” She hopes her painting and teaching will “give others permission” to engage with the world and find beauty all around them, encouraging them to find their own inner peace and expressive voice. Margaret Owen’s work can currently be found at Studio Hop on Hope Street, Sheldon Fine Art in Newport, and the Darius Inn on Block Island.
Marg aret Owen PermanentMagenta.com
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
FEAST In the Kitchen • On the Menu • Review • In the Drink • Restaurant Guide
WELL DONE Luxe Burger Bar hosts its eighth annual Build Your Own Burger contest If you can dream it, Luxe can make it – and you might have a shot at $1,000 in cash and prizes. The Build Your Own Burger Contest has attracted hordes of contestants over the years, who pick from a list of 45 ingredients and give their creation a name. This may sound straightforward, but be warned: there are 400,000 possible combinations. “In the past seven years, we have tasted some of the most mouthwatering burgers and shared memorable moments with Luxe Burger fans and contests,” said John Elkhay, owner of Luxe and CEO of Chow Fun Food Group. Since early July, burger enthusiasts have busily picked the best combos
of meat, cheese, and toppings. Whether you imagine an ahi tuna steak with bacon horseradish and a fried egg, or lean bison with dill pickles and chipotle ketchup, Luxe will review your recipe (and you’re even allowed two secret ingredients). Hopefuls still have until September 5 to submit their concept, and fans can vote on their favorites through Facebook and the Luxe website. The competition (and grills) will get most heated on October 20, when five finalists compete for the grand prize. Money is nice, of course, but so is the glory: the winning burger will spend a year on the Luxe menu. 5 Memorial Drive, Providence. LuxeBurgerBar.com –Robert Isenberg
Photo courtesy of Luxe Burger Bar ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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FEAST • Review
by Stephanie Obodda
Clucking Delicious Heng serves Thai Rotisserie steps from Thayer
Providence’s newest Thai restaurant, Heng, is hidden below Thayer Street in a surprisingly charming exposed brick space. Even before Heng finished renovations, their sign caught my eye. Thai rotisserie chicken? I was intrigued. When they opened, it was my nose that noticed first, a slight tang of fermented fish sauce wafting down Angell Street. Unlike most Providence Thai restaurants, Heng focuses on Thai street food, with
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rotisserie chicken as their specialty. Heng opens early for dinner, something I appreciate now that I’m dining with a young baby. Visiting at four on a weeknight, we were not surprised to be the first ones there. This gave us the advantage of the full attention of our waitress, who was friendly and eager to make recommendations. She didn’t even bat an eye when we, looking forward to leftovers, ordered at least one extra appetizer and entree.
Our appetizers were classics - a Scallion Pancake with peanut dipping sauce and Kanom Jeeb, shrimp dumplings similar to Chinese shumai. Since Heng specializes in chicken, the Kai Tod, billed as their
CUISINE: Thai Street Food PRICES: Appetizers: $5.95 - $14.95 Entrees: $12 - $14 ATMOSPHERE: Casual
Photography by Stacey Doyle
Tom Yum Noodle Soup
“famous Thai-style mini chicken finger,” seemed worth trying. While most American chicken fingers are white meat (or something barely resembling meat), these use the juicy dark meat. Piping hot and crisply fried with a spicy homemade sriracha, they were the perfect happy hour snack with a Singha Thai beer. Though most of Heng’s cocktails are fairly standard, my Tamarita, a refreshingly sour margarita made with tamarind, creatively incorporated a typical Thai ingredient.
Thai Chicken Rotisserie
My husband and I quickly agreed on a Spicy Grilled Beef Salad, a meat-heavy salad with a tangy lime dressing similar to Cambodian Plear, a favorite of ours. Almost on the opposite end of the flavor wheel, the Pad Kee Mow (sometimes called “drunken noodles”) is a dense dish of wide rice noodles with a sweet sauce. The way the noodles fold and cling together is - dare I say - almost sensual. The noodles are served with a choice of protein; our waitress enthusiastically recommened the crispy
chicken, and I’m glad we listened. We took a chance on the new-to-us Kha Moo Dang, a dish of roasted pork, Chinese sausage, and soft boiled egg over rice with a sweet gravy. Though unexpected, the side of clear pork broth was so simple and enjoyable. Of course we wouldn’t visit Heng without ordering Thai Rotisserie Chicken. The half chicken, cut up for easy consumption, comes with a side and a choice of rice. As I had hoped, the chicken was excellent, moist and well flavored. We enjoyed our side of Garlic String Beans, bright green and slightly blistered with a sprinkle of garlic, a preparation that will forever make steamed string beans seem terribly boring. For the rice, we had the traditional sticky rice in a small woven basket. This was the freshest and most pliable sticky rice I’ve had locally. The traditional way to eat sticky rice is to roll and compress a small amount between your fingers and palm, then dip it in sauce or use it to pick up food. We ended with a classic Thai dessert, Mango Sticky Rice. Heng is a friendly restaurant with a well-chosen menu and a good place to experience Thai street food classics from the comfort of your chair.
Must-Try Items Kai Tod Their famous Thai-style mini chicken finger with Sriracha sauce
Pad Kee Mow Wide rice noodle, onion, egg, peppers, and sweet basil
Thai Rotisserie Chicken Half bird with a choice of sides and rice
Heng Thai & Rotisserie 165 Angell Street • 751-1651 HengPVD.com
ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
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FEAST • In The Kitchen
by Karen Greco
Grist for The Mill Executive Chef Edward Bolus describes his inspirations and menu-making process Every season, Edward Bolus creates a new menu from scratch for Mill’s Tavern. A Pennsylvania native, Bolus studied culinary arts at Johnson & Wales and honed his skills in the Mill’s Tavern kitchen for several years before becoming executive chef. When he’s not crafting complex new dishes, he’s raising vegetables and competing in oyster-shucking competitions. As we inch toward autumn, Bolus is cultivating new ways to merge French technique with Providence’s diverse flavor palate – and he talked to Providence Monthly about his adventurous menu, tending a small garden, and his go-to Lebanese comfort food.
Mill’s Tavern changes out the menu seasonally. What can diners expect in the fall? We change out our menu four times a year, and even the core items have a seasonal tweak. In the fall, rabbit will be on the menu. I love working with rabbit. It’s a unique animal, with a very neutral meat that works with a variety of different flavor profiles. I am thinking about doing a veal dish of some sort. A pork chop. Our grill is very popular – we have both wood and charcoal, no gas – so a lot of our core items come off the grill. For the winter, we always bring venison back, which our customers love. A lot of regulars always ask, “When’s the venison coming back?” Winter! Because of our New England spring, I got a late start to the garden, so heirloom tomatoes will be out later. So those will be on the fall menu. You have a garden? Yes! This is our fifth year. It’s not big enough for us to completely sustain the restaurant, but we
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Executive Chef Edward Bolus draws from the state’s diverse food traditions when developing new menus at Mill’s Tavern
do have a garden out back. We started out in pots, and it grew to a small plot. I grow heirloom tomatoes, a variety of different peppers, strawberries that are taking over. One of our regulars gave me a head of Israeli garlic, which I planted. It’s growing like crazy. Expect something with Israeli garlic in the fall as well. How do you come up with new items on a seasonal basis? It’s a challenge. I take a lot of input from my crew – we all come from diverse backgrounds and we all bring our heritage and the food that we grew up with to the table when we sit down to plan the menu. Rhode Island has such diverse communities and foods to chose from that I am able to find inspiration all around me. I come across a new flavor and I’ll sit down with my staff and brainstorm how we can apply that flavor to a dish while
implementing the classical French techniques that are the core of what Mill’s is known for. What is your favorite dish to cook? It’s is a family dish called Kibbeh Nayeh. Some cultures do it with just lamb, my family does it with lamb, shoulder, and beef top round. The meat is twice ground with a ton of mint, peppers, onions, cumin, and bulgur wheat. It’s served raw with olive oil and pita bread. I grew up eating that for breakfast. It’s the Lebanese version of sausage and eggs. It’s midnight and you’re raiding the fridge, what are you having? Leftovers.
Mill’s Tavern 101 North Main Street, Providence • 272-3331 MillsTavernRestaurant.com
Photography by Mike Braca
You came to Rhode Island to go to school. What made you decide to stay here after graduation? I grew up just outside of Scranton and came to Providence to attend Johnson & Wales. Then I just stayed. Providence is the best of both worlds. It has most of the amenities of a big city with the quaintness and the peace and quiet of a rural area.
FEAST • In The Drink
by Robert Isenberg
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The coffee martini is just one of PTX Lounge’s many inspired cocktails PTX Lounge is an old-fashioned little pub in Pawtuxet Village, tucked into a quiet side street. A mural of a mermaid, painted on the brick façade, beckons visitors with a pint of beer. John Richard, acclaimed owner of The Avery in Providence, opened PTX earlier this year and filled it with nautical decor: a whale-shaped front sign, mariner portraits, and the skeleton of an old kayak bolted to the wall. The lounge has a nice range of grog, from craft beers to cocktails, but bartender Lara Pietropaolo encouraged us to try PTX’s Coffee Martini, a frothy blend of vodka and coffee liqueurs. The martini may serve as a sugary dessert, especially after a hearty meal
on Broad Street, and the coffee flavor will only become tastier as the weather chills.
COFFEE MARTINI 1 oz. Huixoc Coffee Liqueur 0.5 oz. Coole Swan Irish Cream Liqueur 1 oz. Local Cold Brew 1 oz. House Vodka
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
57
FEAST • On The Menu
by Chuck Staton
Mare is Tops
With such a panoramic skyline, one might ask why we don’t have more rooftop dining options in Providence. As if to answer this question, Mare Rooftop recently appeared from the clouds to give us a relaxed, highclass new option for getting dinner with a view. In the midst of Wayland Square and flanked by similarly acclaimed eateries, Mare Rooftop opened this summer atop an unassuming building on the corner of Wayland Avenue and Waterman Street. The sleek, wide-open space that serves as the restaurant’s main room is bright and inviting during the day – and that’s before you even see the surrounding patios, which become richly atmospheric at night. The covered area of Mare seats over 120 people, and lounge-ready couches and high-top tables adorn the outdoor area and can seat an additional eighty.
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Mare is a Mediterranean restaurant with connections to Mediterraneo and Ristorante Pizzico, thanks to General Manager Alessio Iannucci. Executive Chef Giulio Medizza is at the helm of Mare’s impeccable menu, which expands upon Southern European cuisines. Medizza is striving for a high-end dining experience, and there is a palpable level of care in every bite of the Beet-Cured Salmon, Tuna Crudo, and Pan-Seared Scallops. Mare’s wine list is derived from across Europe, from Spain to Macedonia, and the cocktail selection riffs on old favorites like the Tuscan Pear Martini and the Lavender Lemonade Mojito. The establishment will also be open year round, so even in the middle of winter, you’ll be able to savor the view. 229 Waterman Street, MareRooftop.com
Photo by Gina Mastrostefano
Mediterreanean dining goes to the rooftop in Wayland Square
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Photo by Gina Mastrostefano
Providence When you type the Big King URL into your address bar, you find an ambiguous website: the words “Big King,” an email address, and the description of “a small weird restaurant at 3 Luongo Square in Providence Rhode Island.” There’s one link to reserve a table, and one that simply states, “questions? answered. Maybe.” This is what we know for sure: James Mark moved his restaurant, north, into the Dean Hotel in downtown Providence. He then converted the original location into a place called Big King. Beyond that, Mark’s second restaurant is shrouded in mystery. Before trying a new restaurant, some people out there might prefer the safety of a specific, guaranteed option they know they’ll enjoy. Some other, more adventurous eaters might prefer the general description and will be excited by the idea that a chef is going to choose the menu based on the best locally sourced food available at the moment, night after night. This is one of the many ways that Big King purposely creates an aesthetic that’s been crafted for intelligent, experienced diners. Big King features subtle, Japanese-inspired dishes, which feel perfectly at home amongst the muted lighting and laidback aura – and there’s sake as far as the eye can see. But eliminating an ever-present online menu may entice the bold and hungry. When it comes to Big King, don’t ask too many questions. Just go. 3 Luongo Square, BigKingPVD.com
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SEASON 34 Providence Media Directory Ads: ALL TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
East Side Monthly – August 3, 2018 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’ Providence Monthly – August 8, 2018
THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA Ad size: 2.375" x 2.25"
July 26, 2018 OCT - NOV September Issue 2018
Luxe Burger Bar Build Your Own Burger: You dream it, we build it! 5 Memorial Blvd, Providence, 621-5893. LD $ McBride’s Pub Traditional Irish pub fare in Wayland Square. 161 Wayland Ave, Providence, 751-3000. LD $$ McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood & Steak Mixed grill selections and signature fish dishes sourced locally and seasonally. 11 Dorrance St, Providence, 351-4500. BLD $$-$$$ Meeting Street Cafe BYOB eatery with large menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner served all day. 220 Meeting St, Providence, 273-1066. BLD $-$$ Mill’s Tavern Historic setting for New American gourmet. 101 N Main St, Providence, 272-3331. D $$$ Ocean State Sandwich Company Craft sandwiches and hearty sides. 155 Westminster St, Providence, 282-6772. BL $-$$ Parkside Rotisserie & Bar American bistro specializing in rotisserie meats. 76 South Main St, Providence, 331-0003. LD $-$$
Pizza J A fun, upbeat atmosphere with thin-crust pizza, pub fare, and gluten-free options. 967 Westminster St, Providence, 632-0555. LD $-$$ Public Kitchen & Bar American food with changing daily specials. 120 Francis St, Providence, 919-5050. BrLD $-$$
Siena Impeccable Italian cuisine. Locations in Providence, East Greenwich, and Smithfield, 521-3311. D $$-$$$ directed by Fred Sullivan, Jr.
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
The Grange Vegetarian restaurant serving seasonal dishes with a juice bar, vegan bakery, and cocktail bar. 166 Broadway, Providence, 831-0600. BrLD $-$$ The Salted Slate An agri-driven American restaurant with global influences. 186 Wayland Ave, Providence, 270-3737. BrLD $$-$$$ Tortilla Flats Fresh Mexican, Cajun, and Southwestern fare, cocktails, and over 70 tequilas. 355 Hope St, Providence, 751-6777. LD $-$$ Trinity Brewhouse American pub fare and craft beer in a downtown setting, with lunch, dinner, and late-night menus. 186 Fountain Street, Providence, 453-2337. LD $-$$ Twin Oaks Family restaurant serving an extensive selection of Italian and American staples. 100 Sabra St, Cranston, 781-9693. LD $-$$$ XO Cafe Acclaimed farm-to-table cuisine with a fantastic Sunday #PajamaBrunch. 125 N Main St, Providence, 273-9090. BrD $$
SOUTHERN RI Pat’s Italian Fine Italian favorites, natural steaks, and handcrafted cocktails. 1200 Hartford Ave, Johnston, 273-1444. LD $-$$$
Red Stripe Casual French-American bistro. 465 Angell St, Providence, 437-6950; 455 Main St, East Greenwich, 398-2900. BrLD $$
1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, RI
Douglas Pike, Smithfield, 349-4979. LD $-$$
Tavolo Wine Bar and Tuscan Grille Classic Italian cuisine with an extensive wine and beer list. 970
Breachway Grill Classic New England fare, plus NY-style pizza. 1 Charlestown Beach Rd, Charlestown, 213-6615. LD $$ Celestial Cafe Fresh, locally sourced ingredients from farms and fisheries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 567 South County Trail, Exeter, 2955559. 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 $$$ Colvitto’s Pizza & Bakery Pizza Calzones and baked goods made fresh daily. 91 Point Judith Rd, Narragansett, 783-8086. BrLD $
magazines?
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Dante’s Kitchen American food with Southern flair. 315 Main St, East Greenwich, 398-7798. BL $-$$
Phil’s Main Street Grille Classic comfort food with a great rooftop patio. 323 Main St, Wakefield, 783-4073. BBrLD $ Red Stripe Casual French-American bistro. 465 Angell St, Providence, 437-6950; 455 Main St, East Greenwich, 398-2900. BrLD $$
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Pasquale’s Pizzeria Napoletana Authentic Neapolitan wood-fired pizza with exclusive ingredients imported from Naples. 60 S County Commons Way, South Kingstown, 783-2900. LD $-$$
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Mariner Grille Seafood, steaks, and pasta in a fun setting, with live entertainment. 140 Point Judith Rd, Narragansett, 284-3282. LD $$
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Jigger’s Diner Classic ‘50s diner serving breakfast all day. 145 Main St, East Greenwich, 884-6060. BL $-$$
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George’s of Galilee Fresh caught seafood in an upscale pub atmosphere. 250 Sand Hill Cove Rd, Narragansett, 783-2306. LD $-$$
102 Waterman St., Providence, RI 02906 print@allegraprovidence.com www.allegraprovidence.com
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Fresco Italian American comfort food with international inspirations. 301 Main St, East Greenwich, 398-0027; 140 Comstock Pkwy, Cranston, 228 3901. D $-$$
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Frankie’s Italian Bistro Fine dining with imported wines from around the world. 1051 Ten Rod Rd, North Kingstown, 2952500. D $-$$$
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Eleven Forty Nine City sophistication in the suburbs. 1149 Division St, Warwick, 884-1149 LD $$$
TH E PE R FECT SOLUTION
Send résumé to
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Schedule your perfect duo appointment today for Botox™ or Dermal Fillers with Lori Polacek, M.D., Board Certified Plastic Surgeon and with Beth Walker, Licensed Medical Aesthetician for your personalized skin care treatment plan. Together they will coordinate your plan for perfect, younger-looking skin!
Siena Impeccable Italian cuisine. Locations in Providence, East Greenwich, and Smithfield, 521-3311. D $$-$$$ Sophie’s Brewhouse Espresso drinks and sandwiches with an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients. 699 S County Trail, Exeter, 295-4273. BL $$
2000 Chapel View Blvd #110 Cranston 401-331-0202 • PolacekPlasticSurgery.com Mon-Thurs 9am-5pm • Friday 9am-4pm ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
63
Rhode Island’s Premier Piano Care Specialists
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RESTAURANT GUIDE T’s Restaurant Plentiful breakfast and lunch. Locations in Cranston, East Greenwich, and Narragansett, TsRestaurantRI.com. BL $ Tavern by the Sea Waterfront European/ American bistro. 16 W Main St, Wickford, 294-5771. LD $$ The Cove A traditional bar and grill serving burgers, sandwiches, and classic New England seafood favorites. 3963 Old Post Rd, Charlestown, 364-9222. LD $$ Twin Willows Fresh seafood and water views in a family-friendly atmosphere. 865 Boston Neck Rd, Narragansett, 7898153. LD $-$$ 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 $-$$
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
EAST BAY / NEWPORT Aviary Creative, locally sourced menu featuring rotating craft beers and fromscratch cocktails. 2229 GAR Highway, Swansea, 508-379-6007 BrLD $$ Black Bass Grille Classic seafood, historic waterfront setting. 3 Water St, South Dartmouth, 508-999-6975. LD $$ Blount Market & Kitchen Traditional New England seafood summer favorites offered year-round for dine-in and takeout. 406 Water St, Warren, 245-1800. LD $$
East Bay Oyster Bar Local seafood meets innovative preparation in a rustic setting. 308 County Rd, Barrington, 247-0303. LD $$ Ichigo Ichie Traditional Japanese cuisine, creative sushi, and hibachi. 5 Catamore Blvd, East Providence, 435-5511.LD $-$$$ KC’s Burger Bar Burgers, hot dogs, and sides enjoyed in a retro car-themed diner. 1379 Fall River Ave, Seekonk, MA, 508-5571723. BLD $$ Redlefsen’s European-style dining with a waterfront view focusing on traditional German foods. 444 Thames St, Bristol, 254-1188. LD $$
Bluewater Bar and Grill Casual restaurant with modern seafood dishes, patio seating, and live music. 32 Barton Ave, Barrington, 247-0017. LD $$-$$$
Tav Vino Waterfront dining with an Italian and seafood focus. 267 Water St, Warren, 2450231. D $$
Chomp Upscale comfort food featuring award-winning burgers and sandwiches. 440 Child St, Warren, 289-2324. D $$
The Old Grist Mill Tavern Fine dining located over the Runnins River. 390 Fall River Ave, Seekonk, 508-336-8460. LD $-$$$
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www.eastgreenwichchamber.com ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
65
HIDDEN PVD
Words and photo by Robert Isenberg
Dr. Kim Wojik gives Riley the two-ties sloth his routine exam at Roger Williams Park Zoo
IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE ZOO? Taking a trip to the vet with a two-toed sloth at Roger Williams Park Zoo Riley needs a check-up. The medical exam is routine, but two-toed sloths can be a handful. “They’re faster than you think,” says his zookeeper, Jen Hennessey, who has worked with animals for the Roger Williams Park Zoo for 19 years. “And they’re surprisingly strong.” To keep things calm, Dr. Kim Wojik gives the animal a sedative, and Riley goes limp. The zoo employs a range of veterinary specialists, who can care for the diverse menagerie – from giraffes to yellow banded frogs – living on its sprawling grounds. At 21 years, Riley is considered middle aged for a sloth, and Dr. Wojik must check for any anomalies. She glances inside his mouth and checks his pulse, as she has done many times before. She shines a light into the rubbery orifice on the side of his head. “He has the cutest ears,” Wojik chuckles.
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ProvidenceOnline.com • September 2018
The three-person team works in a sizable, unassuming room. Riley lies on a metal examination table, and a screen monitors his vitals. All around stand counters, cabinets, and medical equipment, which must accommodate all kinds of species and their potential maladies. Nearby, a handler pulls fish out of a refrigerator to feed to some giant Amazonian otters, which have recently arrived from another zoo. Like all new animals, the otters have been quarantined, and their diet is carefully managed as they adapt to their new environment. Riley’s exam ends well; he remains healthy, to say the least. “When we last weighed him,” says Hennessey, “he was 10 kilos. Most sloths weigh between five and ten. So – he’s a big guy.” 1000 Elmwood Avenue, Cranston. RWPZoo.org.
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