Providence

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Olneyville New York System: Hot Wieners

Hot wieners

The star of the show.

Guest post by Allan Miller

“Sometimes a hot dog is just a hot dog.” Fateful, if slightly existential, and somewhat paraphrased, words from Sigmund Freud. But apparently Freud never had the occasion to visit Olneyville New York System in Providence, because sometimes a hot dog is not just a hot dog, but is instead an Olneyville New York System hot wiener.

Ambiance

Don’t go for the atmosphere.

You won’t want to visit for the faintly greasy-spoon ambiance. You won’t want to visit for the diner-like menu. No, you’ll be going for the same thing that lured me there three times in one week during my short stay in Providence: these are quite frankly the best hot dogs that I’ve ever had anywhere in the world. And I’ve had a lot of hot dogs.

But don’t call them hot dogs. Follow the lead of the friendly and boisterous staff and call them by their true name: hot wieners. Freud would be proud that his name and the name of these heavenly delights share the same Germanic roots.

Here’s your quick tour guide to Olneyville. Get there about 12:30 AM, when life is just starting for the place. Order two hot wieners “all the way” (with meat sauce, grilled onions, mustard, and celery salt), a coffee milk, and a plate of fries. The coffee milk is just a giant glass of milk (take your Lactaid on the way there) with a tinge of coffee flavoring, and serves as an unexpected and delightful complement to the main course. The fries are nothing to write blogs about, but are pretty good and serve as a nice side dish.

Olneyville New York System is something you don’t want to miss if you are in Providence. It’s definitely worth breaking your low-carb diet, as it did mine. See you there in the wee hours.

Olneyville New York System
18 Plainfield Street
Providence, RI
http://olneyvillenewyorksystem.com/

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Roger Williams Duck Boat Tours

It starts out as a bus...

It starts out as a bus…

...and turns into a boat.

…and turns into a boat.

For a year, I lived directly across the street from one of the boarding locations for the Boston Duck Tours. I lost count of how many times tourists waved and quacked at me.

But that fact made me no less excited when we discovered one of the amphibious WWII vehicles boarding passengers at the Roger Williams Park Zoo.

The vehicle tours around the scenic drive of the park, then dives into Cunliff Lake for a boat ride. And they let both my daughters take turns driving the boat, which most certainly never happened in Boston.

Roger Williams Duck Boat Tours
https://www.providenceri.com/parks-and-rec/boating

 

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Ken’s Ramen

Ken's Ramen will cheer you up.

Who says you can’t eat a steaming hot bowl of ramen in the summer?

Many of us think of ramen as something you buy in convenience stores and eat in large quantities as a college student. But you’ve got to figure that something that can be tasty under those circumstances has to be quite stellar when there’s actually some skill and fresh ingredients put into it.

It took us awhile to get to the recently opened and much anticipated Ken’s Ramen in Downcity. There was a long line, or we couldn’t find parking. One time, our three-year-old refused to stay because she thought the music was too loud. So finally, on a weeknight date night, Geoff and I made it over to Ken’s Ramen. I opted for the what they call “the soupless ramen” or Tan-Tan Mazmen, a spicy sesame purée mixed into their special ramen topped with bamboo shoots, kikurage mushrooms, nori and scallions. Geoff opted for the more traditional Paitan Ramen, a chicken broth simmered for over 30 hours, also featuring ramen, bamboo shoots, kikurage mushrooms, nori and scallions. Don’t forget to order some of their homemade pork buns (Cha-Siu Pork Belly).

And don’t let anyone convince you that ramen is not a summer food. In Singapore, everyone eats it all year long, so I don’t see why we can’t too…

Ken’s Ramen
69 Washington Street
Providence, RI
www.kenramenpvd.com

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Pat’s Pastured To Go: From Farm to Food Truck

Chickens roam free and eat grass at Pat's...

Chickens roam free and eat grass at Pat’s Pastured on Briggs-Boesch Farm.

For the past several years, we have been purchasing Pat’s Pastured products at our local farmers’ markets. From their farm in East Greenwich, RI, they raise pigs, sheep, chickens and cows to produce grass-fed beef and lamb, free-range eggs, pastured-raised pork, and, of course, sausage and bacon.

They currently have a week left to raise money through a Kickstarter campaign (http://kck.st/1ieZOIZ) to bring the pasture to plate with a food truck and cart to sell hot breakfasts, lunches, and snacks this summer. We have already backed the project. We thought you might too…

Support their Kickstarter at http://kck.st/1ieZOIZ

Pat’s Pastured
Briggs-Boesch Farm
830 South Rd
East Greenwich, RI.
www.patspastured.com

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Brunch at Barstow Restaurant in Providence, RI

June 2014: Barstow is now closed. Their Facebook page says “The Barstow is now closed. Please look for a new concept and new menu at 800 Allens Avenue coming soon.”

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This Saturday, we had brunch at the Barstow Restaurant in Providence. We arrived about a half hour after they opened at 10 am, and there was no line. In fact, we were the first to arrive — which we decided was either extremely lucky or a bad sign. As it turns out, we were in luck.

I chose one of the specials — a house-made sea salt bagel with Serrano ham, spicy cream cheese, baby arugula and marinated red onion. Apparently, the chef doesn’t always arrive at 5:30 am to make bagels, but I’d certainly be hooked if he did.

The girls shared a mango and ginger steel cut oatmeal with a pomegranate molasses and a buttermilk French toast with grape jam, almonds, and candied ginger. Geoff had the Barstow Benedict — poached eggs, herb-brined pork loin, house bread, and smoked maple hollandaise.

They’ve even got a full bar. Among the brunch drinks, you’ll find a Bloody Mary, a Grapefruit Mimosa, or a Drink Your Cereal with toasted almond scotch, creme de cassis, and Bols yogurt liqueur.

Barstow Restaurant
800 Allens Ave
Providence, RI
www.thebarstowri.com

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Meeting Street Café: The café that’s really a diner

Spinach salad with apples, pecans, gorgonzola and balsamic dressing.

Spinach salad with apples, pecans, gorgonzola and balsamic dressing.

Sometimes I wish we had a diner on Thayer Street. In particular, I fantasize about the Waverly Restaurant moving in within walking distance to my house.

In the meantime, I can still count on Meeting Street Café for breakfast all day, enormous sandwiches (1/2 sandwich = 1 sandwich), homemade soups, fresh salads, and cookies. If you want meatloaf, your partner wants a salad, and the kids want pancakes, you’re in luck here. Meeting Street Café is one of those places that doctors who studied at Brown’s medical school and move elsewhere still talk about years later–a fact I know because my mother-in-law works as a nurse in Ohio.

On our visit today, I ordered their spinach salad with apples, pecans and gorgonzola and asked for a dollop of tuna on there. Geoff had poached eggs.

I still pine for the Waverly’s challah french toast, but, for now, I’ll have to hop the train to NYC or make it myself (with either Seven Stars Bakery challah or Silver Star Bakery Portuguese sweet bread, of course).

Meeting Street Café
220 Meeting Street
Providence, RI
www.meetingstreetcafe.com

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Flatbread Company in Providence

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We haven’t been as excited about a new neighborhood offering since Gourmet Heaven opened last year. A few weeks ago, Flatbread Company, which has restaurants in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, opened its first location in Providence on Cushing Street.

Flatbread offers a simple menu of organic salads and a variety of ‘flatbreads’ which, back in New York, we call pizzas. Theirs are made with their own organic tomato sauce (which you can actually see brewing in their giant cauldron) and cooked in their wood-fired clay oven.

Part of Flatbread’s mission is to integrate with the region’s farms and producers which begets great results, both in community-building and in the quality of the food. Plus, the restaurant space is enormous, which makes it ideal for families, parties, and events. They offer kids both crayons and paper (which turn into their menu covers), and they’ll even give them a bit of dough to work themselves. If anyone gets antsy, they can also head over to their library which now has several couches and shelves of books for all ages, or, of course, to their bar.

We’ve been here four times since they opened a few weeks ago, and nearly every time, we ran into friends (with kids in tow). And next Thursday February 6 from 5-9 pm, they’re hosting a fundraiser for the Providence Children’s Film Festival (see details). What’s not to love?

Flatbread Company
161 Cushing Street
Providence, RI
www.flatbreadcompany.com

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Bavarian Pretzels from Foremost Bakery Co. at White Electric

Foremost Bakery's pretzels can be found at the café at the Providence train station.

Foremost Bakery pretzels can be found at cafés throughout Providence.

Foremost Bakery received a write-up in Edible Rhody, and I was surprised to discover we’d already been enjoying their breads at places like Garden Grille, Small Point Café and Loie Fuller. And I was even more surprised that you can get them with your tea or coffee at cafés like White Electric and Coffee Exchange.

Foremost’s version of the Bavarian pretzel is a bit more bread-like than my ideal (which I found located in Ulm, Germany). Basically, it has the texture of challah bread with an unmistakeable pretzel flavor. Today at White Electric, I asked for one with more rock salt than the others — a common request, a White Electric employee informed me. Apparently, I’m not the only one on a special high salt diet.

Foremost Bakery
Providence, RI
on Facebook

White Electric
711 Westminster Street
Providence, RI
http://whiteelectriccoffee.com/

Coffee Exchange
207 Wickenden Street
Providence, RI
www.facebook.com/TheCoffeeExchangeRI

 

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zipcar and Uber, or How to *Not* Buy a Car

A zipcar in Downcity

A zipcar in Downcity

When I moved to New York City in 2001, I sold my car and Michele put hers in storage in Connecticut. When we moved to Boston, hers came out of storage, but I remained car-free, and I’ve persisted that way in Providence too — thanks to zipcar and Uber (and the occasional taxi).

There’s a zipcar lot 100 feet from my driveway, and gas and insurance are included in the cost of the rental. With a zipcar account, you simply reserve and rent a car by the hour ($8.50/hour and up) online or via your phone, then head to the car, using your zipcar card as the ‘key’. And Providence has an impressive array of zipcar choices — pickup trucks, minivans, luxury cars and hybrids.

For times when I want a car and driver, I use Uber. With my phone, Uber can know where I am, and when I enter where I’m going, Uber responds with how long it will take a vetted driver to pick me up (usually a few minutes). Since you sign up for an account with a credit card in advance, there’s no haggling and no tipping.

With these referral codes, you get a deal when you sign up:

Uber
$20 referral bonus: https://uber.com/invite/ubermeek!

zipcar
$25 referral bonus for Zipcar: http://s.zip.cr/46fFU3G

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The Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake from Pastiche Fine Desserts

The Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake from Pastiche Fine Desserts.

The Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake from Pastiche Fine Desserts.

It’s day four of the New Year, and I’m already tired of the media stories on how to lose weight and get in shape in 2014.

My personal favorite: the coconut cake.

The slice.

So for all of you who have made it their New Year’s resolution to eat more cake, here’s one of my personal favorites–a generous slice of the Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake from Pastiche Fine Desserts in Federal Hill. It’s made with coconut and almond flour and topped with light cream cheese frosting and shredded coconut.

Or select your personal favorite from their extensive menu. Enjoy.

Pastiche Fine Desserts
92 Spruce St
Providence, RI
pastichefinedesserts.com