Chez Pascal

hake and fennel

Located on the East side of Providence, at the top of Hope Street and almost in Pawtucket is one of the city's better eateries -- and one of the growing number of reasons to forget about eating on Federal Hill.

Chez Pascal, under Matt and Kristin Gennuso not only provides a consistently tasty menu, but they source locally and Matt, like a few other Providence chefs, is a serious dabbler in charcuterie. Whether it's sausages from the Hewtin food truck cruising around town or from their imaginative wurst bar or sitting down to a relaxing dinner (which we did recently), you can't go wrong with these folks.

 But don't come to Chez Pascal for greens or salad alone; while delicious, its the protein that they're noted for so don't hesitate to go for the whatever Matt has prepared that day. I had the pork of thre day, prepared three ways on a nice portion of potato gratin. Deeeelicious indeed!

 Parking is street only but there's usually plenty to go around. Dinner with wine can be a bit pricey -- so if you're thinking budget, opt for the wurst bar and drink the house wines. Great value there!

por three ways on a potato gratin

Nick's on Broadway - March 14 2013

Even though it's been less than three weeks, Susie and I and two friends headed over to Nick's the other evening after a stop at Bin 312 for their weekly Thursday wine tasting. Even though it was early in the evening, not long after we sat down the place filled up with friends, couples and everything in between to enjoy warm conversation, great food and pleasant service. And so we did.

A litte amuse buche of pureed beet soup with local creram cheese:

The four of us shared the charcuterie plate as an app. Consisting of a variety of house-made pates, head cheeses, a rilette and condiments it was a thoroughly grand way to kick off a delicious evening:

Andrea had the roasted Narragansett Bay oysters:

Susie had local herb-roasted potatoes with bacon and pea greens (she also had the salad of baby greens lettuces):

I had the Baffoni Farm chicken on a bed of roasted potatoes and pea greens:

And for dessert we had a light sampling of a Spice Cake Truffle and Fruit:

Alsatian dinner at New Rivers

It's been nearly two months since we've eaten at New Rivers; and in fact, our last outing there was for New Year's Eve, a dinner that the four of us had somewhat mixed feelings about, if you must know.

That aside, we were looking forward to a return engagement and when I discovered on Tuesday last, quite by accident, that they were hosting an Alsatian dinner the next day, we had to snap up that opportunity.

 The party kicked off at 6:30 in the upstairs private dining room. We had no sooner gotten our coats off than we were handed a glass of tasty Cremant d'Alsace. (A "cremant" being any non-Champagne sparkling wine made in the Champagne style, so we were told.) It was a lively and friendly group of about 17 people seated around a u-shaped table. The wines for the evening were all white Alsatian (naturally) from Gerard Metz and presented by the wine rep, Steve Wynn of The Wine Bros. One of the most fascinating aspects of the dinner was the fact that such robust food was matched with white wines, and quite nicely matched, too, I might add.

For starters, matched with a gewurztraminer 2010 (quite dry):

bouchee a la suppepaschete, puff pastry cups with pork, vegetables and cream

bibeleskas, fresh ripened cheese with bacon, potatoes, herbs on toast

Next up, with a pinot blanc 2011 (nearly everyone was amazed at what an incredible wine this was):

flammekueche, thin rich "pizza", topped with bacon, onions and cream

presskopf & spaetzle, crispy lamb shoulder rillettes and spaetzle

For the "entre," and matched with a delicious riesling (lots of residual sugar but very dry nonetheless):

charcroute garni, saurkraut with sausages, smoked pork, potatoes, onions and mustards

For the dessert course, kougelhopf paired with a late-harvest gewurztraminer done in a dry style:

Every now and then Beau Vestal, chef-owner, would drop by and chat about the food. And speaking of the food, it was well-presented, scrumptious and, with the exception of the dessert course, superb. (We thought it odd to offer a traditional breakfast bread for a dessert course, but then the wine served with it  was a bit on the odd side as well, far too dry for a "dessert" wine, in my humble opinion.)

The company was congenial, and, as I said lively. It was a most pleasing couple of hours sharing experiences and ideas about such wonderful food and wines.

Fish night at Broadway Bistro

We missed out on a long-overdue dinner at Chez Pascal thanks to Nemo and then missed a special Valentine's Day dinner at the Duck and Bunny compliments of a raging infecttion following a root canal.

So, last evening we picked ourselves up and drove over to Broadway Bistro to see what Pat had on the menu for the evening.

Now, we usually spring for the ribs n' grits at the very least, but this time we were both feeling a need for something aquatic. Starting off with a brace of proseccos, Susie and I split an app of seared sea scallops (from New Bedford) and found ourselves sopping up the residue with bread to get every last bit of flavor into our mouths.

I had the Hake with roasted fennel over a bed of pea tendrils and oregano mashies.

Susie had the special for the evening: seared salmon on a bed of garlic mashies.

Susie washed her fish down with a Gavi and I had a backup prosecco with mine.

The menu may sound pedestrian but believe me, if anything, the food was, as always, tasty, with robust flavors and hands-down simply superb. It's a broken record by now, but with Ama's gone, Broadway Bistro is the best value around: great food at a decent price. You can't beat that.

Mama Kim's Korean BBQ food truck

Every Tuesday in the summer a small, select group of food trucks park at the corner of Ship and Richmond streets, catty corner from the Brown Medical School and just a few short blocks form where I work. I had to try the Korean BBQ -- and it was superb!

sweet potato fries

Broadway Bistro

olive oil with spices and herbs

ribs n' grits

ribs n' grits

salmon with white bean puree

salmon closeup

bluefish with fingerling potatoes

chocolate truffles

Tini's in Downtown Providence

Another of favorite eating haunts, Tini's, wedged between Gracie's and the Bravo Brasserie on Washington Street in downtown Providence requires a certain suspension of your ideas about what a restaurant should and shouldn't be. The sign above the door says "Food Bar" and indeed that's exactly what it is: a bar that serves food. U-shaped the bartenders are also foodtenders and they do an incredible job of both. The long and short of it is the superb service is outdone only by the incredible food served up by Chef Darius Salko.

Wednesday nights dining out in downtown Providence are often a quiet affair and Tini's was no exception last evening. We started out with a glass of cava for Susie and I had an Ipanema cocktail (Brazilian rum, lemon juice, simple syrup and cranberry juice), both perfectly suited for toasting Susie's late brother, her incredible mother and the future of the French Tarte.

For starters Susie had the bruschetta special and I had Brussels sprouts, followed by short ribs ravioli for Susie and the steak and fries for me.  The steak was prepared nearly sushi-grade (think tuna) but tender, sweet and matched in flavor by Tini's succulent fries -- the best I've found in the city so far. All washed down with a light Bardalino -- a bit light for the steak but nice nonetheless. Susie rounded her meal off with the lemon gelato. Wonderful!

Two suggestions: comfortable stools would be nice touch; the ones there now are like sitting on a plank of wood (which it is) and they're difficult to move in and out. This is a bar after all. . . And maybe a couple of nice full-bodied reds available by the glass?

Tini
200 Washington Street
Providence, RI 02909
tel. 401-383-2400
online: www.thetini.com

Breakfast at Nick's on Broadway - A+ again!

It's been some months since we walked the four short blocks over to Nick's on Broadway for brunch -- this time we were early and had breakfast.

We waited all of 60 seconds for two stools at the counter overseeing the cook line. As always, the service was friendly and the food delicious. we started off with a cocktail special (OK it was 9am but we were celebrating Dad's 102 birthday) of limoncello, prosecco and vermouth. Delicious!

Susie had the black beans with scrambled eggs, salsa and tortillas,

and I had an omelet with Swiss cheese and caramelized onions, with a side of chicken sausage.

If you have never been to Nick's go; if you haven't been in a while, go soon. It's always worth a wait. And this time, one of those rare times to be sure, we didn't have to wait at all.

Our A-list of places to eat in Providence

Providence is a food town -- a really big food town and there seems to be an endless places of eat. That's true, up to a point, for us at any rate. We seem to return to the same places again and again, always for the food first and foremost while service or ambiance typically figure prominently in our choices. Our perennial favorite is Pat Lowney's Broadway Bistro on Broadway (of course) in the west side. Whenever we want delicious comfort food: ribs 'n grits, incredible Brussels Sprouts (in season) or fishcakes or . . ., we never have to think twice about where to go. Whenever we want to just sit and relax over a crisp white or supple red wine, we know where to go.

Broadway Bistro. It's the closet thing to eating in someone's home you're likely to find in a city dominated by the food culture. No pretentiousness, no fancy service, you walk in, peek across the pass-through into the kitchen slide up to the bar or grab an intimate table with a window onto Broadway and you're set for the evening.

Next on our A-list is New Rivers steered quietly, carefully and wonderfully by the dynamic duo of food: Bruce Tillinghast and Beau Vestal. Incredible food and a fantastic wine list (ask Bruce for suggestions).

Next in line -- if such a thing as sating one's hunger for great food at a decent price can be somehow quantified and ordered like so many pieces of furniture -- anyway, our next choices would be:

Chez Pascal
Tini's
Cook and Brown
Derek Wagner's Nick's On Broadway (that street again)
Bacaro's
Al Forno
Iron Wok
Fellini's Pizza (Wickendon Street) tied with Bob & Timmy's Pizza (Spruce Street)

Lili Marlene's on Atwell's Avenue

It was getting to be the tail end of my actual birth day date and since we had planned a serious, and I mean serious meal at Gracie's for Saturday night, I thought, hey let's keep it pretty simple on Friday. And what could be more simple in America, at least North America, than a hamburger and fries.

The challenge was to find the right place.

According to some in the city's culinary world, like Derek Wagner of Nick's on Broadway, when it comes to hamburgers there's one place to go in Providence and that's Lili Marlene's on Atwell's avenue. Named after the famous World War One song "Lili Marlene," which became perhaps the most popular song of World War Two for troops on both sides of the conflict, Lili's is down the hill a bit from the "trendy" part of Atwell's Avenue. Its dark atmosphere and cool music is just the right draw for anyone seeking to change one reality for another, if only for a short time.

The crowd was primarily young people, probably looking for love in all the wrong places -- but no matter. We settled at a table in the middle, and watched two guys play 8-ball on an exquisite table. And this was no bar table either. It had the curves any woman would be proud to call her own, and the pockets which quietly held the balls until they were removed by hand.

Anyway, a waitress soon came over to the table and asked us, "So how do you want your burgers?" My kind of place.

We placed our order -- medium burgers with swiss, bacon and onions -- and added a basket of fries -- Susie had a glass of wine and I had a beer.

It was that simple. And, as things turned out, that good.

The burgers were just like I would have made at home: thick, juicy, great bun, and the fries were perfect, seemed extra crispy to both of us, and not as in overcooked but just, well, extra crispy and delicious.

Parking was easy, right on the street, even though it was a Friday night. As I said, all the hubbub was a few blocks east on Atwell's. The fools. If only they knew. . .

Lili Marlene's
422 Atwell's Avenue, click here for a map and directions
Just drop in.