Providence, Rhode Island

[Wilfrid]

So near and yet so far. Trying to remember the name of an excellent restaurant there. Googling Mouthfuls and Providence results in this snippet: "The context for all this is, again, my trip to Providence a week ago where the restaurant with the casual setting was sending out finer food than the formal ..."

Yes, that's me and that's the restaurant. Dammit, the formal place was Gracie's. Page not found of course.

Time to scroll back to 2021 on Instagram.

[Wilfrid]

Persimmon. Still open. Wasn't too hard to find on IG.

 

[backyardchef]

I love Providence. There's a lot of good eats there.

My favorite thing is fairly blue collar-- a breakfast at the Classic Cafe. 

[Steve R.]

We met some friends from Boston in Providence a couple of months ago & thought that Mill Tavern was good.

[cinghiale]

I like Rogue Island.

[Wilfrid]

I pushed my trip back a few days and avoided Monday’s storm. Kicking things off with a St George “Terroir” martini at The Eddy.

Good decision also as some restaurants don’t open early in the week.

[backyardchef]

On 12/9/2023 at 2:25 AM, cinghiale said:

I like Rogue Island.

That looks good! My wife and I are going to Parkside in a few days. 

[GerryOlds2TheReturnofGerry]

I don't have much PVD experience, but I will eat at any of the Sukles' restaurants after my meals at Birch (RIP) and Oberlin. Their new raw bar, Gift Horse, looks good. If you're a hot dog fan then the hot wieners at Olneyville NY System (there are a few other spots that specialize in them, too) are worth a detour. And I'd be remiss not to mention Mike's Kitchen (a Ben Sukle recommendation), the Italian-American restaurant that operates out of a Cranston VFW hall, which has exceptional RI-style calamari and stuffed artichokes.

[Wilfrid]

Rogue Island does look cute in the old Arcade building. I walked by Oberlin today; closed but the staff were busy tasting a bunch of wines.

Persimmon tonight. Right now I am in The Walnut Room, a cozy cocktail bar on a night when cozy is welcome.

[Wilfrid]

Hemenways last night started well but got stodgy. Excellent local oysters, then a calamari appetizer that was barely average.

A special of scallops “Oscar style” had a lot of good scallops, topped with lump crabmeat and lapped with Hollandaise, a battery of asparagus and a mountain of buttery potatoes. Not tweezer food. I left a lot of it.

Best way to go here is probably to share oysters and a lobster. Most people were on lobster and martinis.

[Wilfrid]

Persimmon must be one of my favorite restaurants outside New York. An open kitchen, correct service and fine dining in a very simple space with a surprisingly young crowd.

I had seen venison on the online menu but it wasn’t on the physical menu. Server said it had been taken off yesterday, but he knew the kitchen had saved some for the tasting menu; and nobody was ordering the tasting menu. I got my venison.

First, oysters topped with sea urchin and caviar. Then a typical Persimmon dish. Housemade cotechino wrapped in puff pastry like a slice from a huge sausage roll; garnished with tiny balls of apple and quince and pear batons.

The venison came with wild mushrooms and more little apple balls. Stilton to finish with a 20-year old tawny port.

The bottles list is long and impressive but the wines by the glass had an Alain Voge cote-du-Rhône. Had there been two of me I would have been tempted by the $149 Voge Cornas.

[MitchW]

31 minutes ago, Wilfrid said:

a very simple space with a surprisingly young crowd.

 

For some reason, this seems to happen more and more. I wonder...

[Wilfrid]

I mean, clearly students (of which there are many in the neighborhood) munching on truffle beignets. Same last time I was here.

[MitchW]

Clearly old enough to imbibe.  And evidently, carry credit cards (though they may get some help paying the bills)!

[Wilfrid]

The student population here does not look impoverished!

[Wilfrid]

Three quite different cocktail bars this week. Tonight, Needle & Thread in an old tailor shop. Reservations preferred so I expected something formal. No, a large welcoming space with sports on TV. Black-owned. I haven’t had a bad drink in any of these places.

Next up, out of sheer curiosity, an old French bistro I have never got to before because it is open for dinner only twice a week. How does that business model work?

 

[Sneakeater]

It keeps costs down!

[Steve R.]

3 hours ago, Wilfrid said:

Next up, out of sheer curiosity, an old French bistro I have never got to before because it is open for dinner only twice a week. How does that business model work?

Pot au Feu?  It was packed the night we were there and it was ok, nothing more (or less - which I guess was a relief).

[Wilfrid]

Yes, and nothing more than okay. The owner is going to do his limited thing and is making money from the event space upstairs.

Good thing, the mark-ups on the list are minimal, as they were at Persimmon, so I had a 2017 Guigal Cotes-du-Rhône at merely double the retail price rather than a few glasses of anonymous reds at $12 each. 

[hollywood10]

The Guigal CdR is very reliable.

[Wilfrid]

At $35 the bottle, in a restaurant, it’s great. 

[Sneakeater]

This is weird.  On my phone (but not on my computer) all this thread will display is @Wilfrid's initial post (which obstinately continues to be marked as unread).  The rest of the thread won't display.

This is the only thread that happens with.

Why would that be?

[Steve R.]

This MF re-boot has a “block this member from reading” feature.  It requires three posters from the thread to agree. That wasn’t hard but, apparently, we mistakenly only blocked the phone.  BTW, it automatically unblocks if any of the restaurants on the thread are subsequently reviewed by Sietsema.

[Sneakeater]

Oh, OK.  Thanks!

[Wilfrid]

So I got back home, guys.

The last night, headed for Needle & Thread, I happened on a used book store I hadn’t noticed before. Not for profit, apparently benefiting students somehow (I must look it up). The guy running it said they were closed but I should come in anyway and I had to buy something but he’d give me a 40% discount. Okay.

We got into talking about where I’m “from,” then into the Harlem Renaissance, and the big picture of Langston on the wall, and how I bought a used complete poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar last week.

He said he had some signed Robert Frost at $900. I walked out with a complete Francis Thompson for $12.