Tini's is open

The much-awaited new restaurant by George Germon and Johanne Kileen, is open at last. Located on Westminster street, directly across from Tinity Rep, which is housed in the gorgeous Emery Majestic Theater, Tini's (as in the back half of Martini's) is wedged between Bravo Bustro at one corner and Gracie's at the other. While the space is incredibly small, in fact tiny, the interior is slick, modern and apparently the menu is presented via HiDef TV. Seating is at the bar only, very sush-like.

I hope to have a more reliable report soon.

Nick's on Broadway

Sunday morning -- the place is packed (as usual) and the wait is more than a half hour (as usual). but it's only a three block walk from our home and the food is terrific so we stand in line and enjoy the loudness (sort of), the smells (assuredly) and the people watching.

We eventually get two seats at the counter -- our preference in fact -- give our order to the pleasant young woman standing across the counter from us and apparently oblivious to the chaos behind her, and commence to fuel ourselves up for the rest of the day.

Susie orders a half-order of French toast, one egg and crispy bacon. I get the bacon n' cheese (cheddar) omelet, wheat toast and a half order of pancakes. Look, you go to Nick's ya gotta splurge -- no half way there when it comes to food, no sirreee.

Delicious as always. The wait is nothing compared to the great food at the other end.

Lucky Garden on Smith Street

It's been some weeks since I posted here. In fact, not since early August, I'm sorry to say. Anyway, we have eaten some pretty good in Paris in the interim -- and after we returned we had delicious pizza at Fellini's (again) and another scrumptious Sunday brunch at Nick's on Broadway (again) and a delectable dinner at Broadway Bistro (again). As you can see by my broad array of positive adjectives, it was all good food as usual and well worth your time and trouble not to mention your hard-earned bucks.

So in the spirit of going back to places we've been before, Friday I had the good fortune to join with the folks of the Johnson & Wales University Web Team and visit Lucky Garden on Smith Street for a lunch of epic proportions.

Name this person

This young woman works at a restaurant in downtown Providence. What's the restaurant and who is she?

Broadway Bistro for a family outing

Friday night, August 1, Susie and I met up with six members of her large and very extended family for an early dinner at the Broadway Bistro. (They were coming up from OCS graduation in Newport on their way back to CT.)

Service was very good -- although the place filled up nicely by the time we left, we were never left feeling unattended. Food, as always, was delicious -- I had the gnocchi, which were quite large, in a scrumptious meat sauce. Most of the group had the Fish fry on risotto that evening -- lightly battered and fried they were a really big hit.

Again, you can go wrong here. 205 Broadway. Go tonight.

Gracie's Rooftop Garden

As more restaurants seek to establish a solid foundation on using local growers, at least one place has added a unique twist: Gracie's has set up its own rooftop herb and vegetable garden on top of the Peerless Building in downtown Pprovidence. How cool is that?

Gracie's wine flight

This past Wednesday Susie and I dropped by Gracie's -- well for her she simply came home, showered, changed clothes and returned to Gracie's. Anyway, we got in the car and drove the 3 or 4 minutes it took us to get to the restaurant.

It was quiet when we arrived but by the time we left the place was abuzz, mostly with folks either enjoying the wine flights or having a quiet drink and a light dinner in the lounge. We had no sooner sat down at the bar than the rest of the seats quickly filled up with small groups, mostly friends it seemed to me, there to enjoy an evening sharing food and wine.

The wines this past Wednesday were all reds, Malbecs from South America: two from Argentina and one from Chile.

For the food pairings Joel in the back of the house prepared steak, duck and added a hard unpasteurized cow's milk cheese from Wisconsin to the chef's tasting portion of the wine flights. Incredibly good match we thought later.

Over the years we've been underwhelmed with the handful of New World wines from south of the equator -- but this evening we learned how wrong we could be. The Chilean Escudo Rojo 2005 was the starter and it was a superb example of what happens when the French start dabbling in wines abroad: in this case the Rothschild family from Bordeaux. This wine had a pleasant nose and while it was a bit jammy on the palate it was very nicely matched with the food; this was followed by the Argentinian Les Perdices, a lesser wine we thought but not unpleasant, and finally the Luca Malbec, another delicious wine which was a superb match with the food, particularly the steak.

After wine flights we couldn't bring ourselves to leave -- it was comfortable and cozy so we decided to stay put and have dinner. A wonderful treat. Susie had the soup and a salad. I had steak and pommes du terre two ways.