Adventures in Providence
A weekend in Providence, RI to experience the season’s next-to-last WaterFire brought this post by Jessica to mind. There are good, independent restaurants out there but having been chased into the deep forests by development, restrictive liquor laws, and urban planning, they must be carefully stalked. Providence is a city where the restaurants are like shy and furtive orangutans.
We stayed near downtown to be close to the hullabaloo and thought we’d have no problem finding places to eat. Wrong-O. A quick walk looking for lunch became an hour-long odyssey as we roamed the area trying to find an open restaurant. What amazed me was that we were on top of RISD, with Brown just beyond, and yet there weren’t even any bars. (This same situation always left me scratching my head about Cornell: 14,000 students and yet only three or so bars outside the gates. I eventually determined Cornell partying revolves around the frats; apparently Cornell girls like their beer with a rape chaser).
Providence may be the second largest city in New England but even New Haven beats it for eating. Though more populous and denser than the Elm City, the two are comparable for numbers of restaurants according to my unscientific metric. Another stunner was that the locals seemed to think they had it good. When asked for recommendations, both the hotel concierge and passers-by directed us to the monolithic Providence Place Mall, which dominates the downtown like a cinder block.
“I don’t want to eat at The Cheesecake Factory,” replied Mrs. Kuhl.
We did eventually find good local places to dine though they were spread far apart. There’s a Little Italy west of I-95 and a small cluster on College Hill by Brown but downtown is a wasteland. Now I understand why H.P. Lovecraft was malnourished.
This particular WaterFire was to raise money for breast-cancer awareness (that’s the capitol building lit up in pink above). It was fun and worthwhile. At the end of the night, as we slogged back to the hotel with our exhausted Monchhichis, we passed by the mall. Its cornerstone was a glowing Cheesecake Factory.
I asked Mrs. Kuhl, Did you know beforehand the mall had a Cheesecake Factory?
No, she said. I just assumed.
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John A
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Jackson
