Food

60 bottles and 1 can: Great samplers, and a gloriously sticky beer

Bottles and cans and just clap your hands
In the gift guide a few columns back, I recommended variety packs as an ideal present, a gateway to craft brew exploration, a great deal, and a way to avoid mix-a-six anxiety.

By: LOU PAPINEAU | February 10, 2012

Review: Mill's Tavern

An elegant prix fixe experience
When a restaurant has survived eight-plus years on the Providence scene, you know it must be doing something (or several things) right.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | February 08, 2012

Review: Siena

Close your eyes and it's Tuscany
I can't imagine that anyone returning from a visit to Tuscany fails to wax rhapsodic about the cuisine, perhaps as soon as the customs inspection.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 31, 2012

Gateway to beer heaven

Local pros share their first loves and choose their ‘forever’ brew
The craft beer biz is booming . The evidence is everywhere: on tap, as more bars and restaurants diversify their offerings; at the stores, where shelves are crammed with a dizzying array of product; and on the ledger sheets.

By: LOU PAPINEAU | January 26, 2012

Review: Canfield House

Not just for robber barons
Interesting atmosphere in the lobby. A wealth of surrounding wood paneling, an Art Deco tasseled lamp on the host station, and the pièce de résistance: a tall roulette wheel, beckoningly still.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 25, 2012

Review: Vine Yard East

Come for the wine, stay for the food
The spelling of this six-month-old restaurant's name indicates one of its primary draws: an emphasis on wine.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | January 17, 2012

Anticipation – or, new year, new beers

Bottles and cans and just clap your hands
In 2011 we welcomed great brews from Firestone Walker, Sixpoint, Breckenridge, and White Birch to the state.

By: LOU PAPINEAU | January 11, 2012

Review: Ralph’s Bull & Claw Tavern

So much more than pub food
Time was, a place that called itself a tavern purveyed meals as well as drinks to weary travelers. Nowadays at most such places you might snag some buffalo chicken wings at best.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 10, 2012

Review: El Tapatio

Transported to the border
Although El Tapatio is a full-fledged Mexican restaurant, with distinct Tex-Mex and Cal-Mex accents, it has certainly adapted to one Rhode Island tradition: bountiful portions.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 03, 2012

Review: Bella

The taste of Sicily in Glendale
All jokes about Foster/Glocester weather reports aside, the village of Glendale is also very much off-the-beaten-track of the Greater Providence metro area.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | December 27, 2011

Review: Eleven Forty-Nine

In a line of fine restaurants
Four years ago, it was no surprise when a new restaurant opened in the space where Jason's had closed.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 21, 2011

A bevy of huzzahs!

The year in beer
Reflecting on the Year In Beer, it's the singular moments that stand out.

By: LOU PAPINEAU | December 21, 2011

Review: English Muffin

Breakfast worth waiting for
If the five plastic-resin benches lining the sidewalk to English Muffin's entrance don't trigger an image, then the banquettes lining the lobby just might.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | December 13, 2011

Give the gift of beer: A suds-soaked shopping list

Bottles and cans and just clap your hands
We're working beer-related gifts in Bottles and Cans land. You like beer, yes? Chances are your friends like beer, yes? So give 'em some beer!

By: LOU PAPINEAU | December 07, 2011

Review: Mosaic

A Latin American tapestry
With all the pan-Asian restaurants around, it only makes sense that there would be a pan-Latin restaurant thriving in Providence. Mosaic, a Latin American bistro, is doing a good job of it on the outerskirts of Olneyville.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 07, 2011

Review: Simply Thai

Plain and fancy
The restaurant is named Simply Thai, but the food you can expect to get there is not so simple at all. It's set up like a fast food place but it serves flavorful, complex Thai dishes I wanted to linger over.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 30, 2011

Need mead? Plus, Revival’s here and Lagunitas Sucks

Bottles and cans and just clap your hands
Pete Seeger sang, "We will pray just like the Druids/Drinking strange fermented fluids/Go dancing naked through the woods/They're good enough for me." Those "strange fermented fluids" were mead.

By: LOU PAPINEAU | November 22, 2011

Review: Ed’s Roost

Breakfast worth crowing about
When local East Greenwichers fly the coop in the early morn, they often land at Ed's Roost, with all the other hungry chickens . . . er, customers. I might be forgiven the slip since the chicken — or more specifically, rooster theme — is so prevalent at Ed's.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | November 22, 2011

Review: Clarke Cooke House

A meal for every mood
Although it looks a lot more welcome in the middle of Newport's Bannister Wharf than the proverbial blind man's elephant, depending on where you sit in this sprawling 18th-century building, the dining atmosphere can impress you as fun or formal or in-between.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 15, 2011

A talk with Greg Koch; plus, the perfect beer for Thanksgiving

Bottles and cans and just clap your hands
Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, the founders of the revered Stone Brewing Co., both cite Anchor Steam as their gateway beer to the wonderful world of craft.

By: LOU PAPINEAU | November 10, 2011