Frank & Laurie’s Is Now Open as a Daytime Cafe
The new daytime dining spot, focusing on fresh-from-the-farm ingredients, is run by chef Eric Brown of the popup Thick Neck, and his partner, Sarah Watts.
The snap pea salad with ramp yogurt and fresh dill and creamy roasted feta with radishes and crispy focaccia. Photo by Jamie Coelho.
The menu at Frank & Laurie’s might seem very simple, but it’s not. Timing is everything with the precious garden, farm and sea-sourced ingredients involved in each dish. And this kitchen team has impeccable timing and execution, serving each herb, fruit and vegetable at the height of ripeness, texture and flavor.
Frank & Laurie’s has already become one of the hottest daytime dining spots, now open on the corner of Doyle Avenue in the former home of Rebelle Bagels. It is owned by the renowned chef of the Thick Neck popup that previously operated out of the kitchen in the Dean Hotel, led by Eric Brown.
Brown opened Frank & Laurie’s, a tribute to his maternal grandparents, with his partner, Sarah Watts. They take every day dishes and glam them up with some of the most beautiful ingredients on the planet, many coming straight from Wishing Stone Farm, Moonrose Farm, Foggy Notion Farm and others. For example, on the day I visited, I savored just harvested snap peas that were grilled and chilled, then served with ramp yogurt and fresh dill. All those flavors melding together combined with the crisp snap peas can only be described as nirvana on a fork. The strawberry galette, and strawberry and cherry blossom spritz? Each was created with just-plucked strawberries from Four Town Farm. If you’ve savored them straight off the vine in the fields where they grow, then you know time is everything as the sun on the skin effects the sweetness of the fruit, creating a flavor bomb effect on your tongue. That same flavor translates at Frank & Laurie’s, which is almost impossible to achieve…because, well, timing is everything.
Strawberry galette and whipped beach rose doughnut. Photo by Julie Tremaine
The choice to become a daytime dining destination reflects on their own relationship. Since Watts has a full-time job during the day, and Brown worked nights in the kitchen, the couple’s only free time that they ever had to spend together was on weekend afternoons.
“Eric and I have very few moments where we are both off together. A lot of times, it will be an afternoon on a weekend, or an afternoon on a weekday to grab lunch,” Watts says. “There are not a ton of places to go.”
When the time was right to open their own spot, daytime dining became the focus. It also tied in nicely with Brown’s fondest food memories, growing up spending summers at his grandparents’ house, where the family enjoyed the pool and harvesting from his grandfather Frank’s garden. His grandmother, Laurie, always made pancakes for him and his three other siblings, Eric being the oldest.
Frank & Laurie’s quiche.
“Whenever we would sleep over my grandmother’s, she would make pancakes in the morning. It was funny to watch her. The first ones would come out so differently from the last ones,” Brown says. “The last ones she would make, she would finally get the heat just right. That’s where I learned how dark you can take a pancake before it doesn’t taste very good.”
Frank & Laurie’s serves very special pancakes with Brown’s own scratchmade recipe, as well as cake-like slices of quiche that almost look like savory cheesecake, sandwiches on hearty artisan bread and market salads made with farm-harvested greens. They completely renovated the Rebelle space to make it their own, incorporating some of their vintage finds, like 1970s tile and other antiques. Even the flatware and tableware is very special, with a whimsical approach reflected on forks and knives, and handmade plates by Slow Bloom Ceramics.
“It’s named after my grandparents and the place where I learned what a perfect runny yolk is like; where I learned how dark to take a pancake; where I learned ranch is good on most things; where I tasted a peach for the first time,” Brown says.
Frank & Laurie’s is a neighborhood-centric spot, where regulars are encouraged to come in same time, same place. “We knew Providence could use a daytime watering hole, where you can come and play it any way you like,” Brown says, adding that they were able to get a liquor license for the location. “If you want to sit and have a bottle of wine and a full lunch, you can do that. If you want to grab a breakfast sandwich or something to go, you can do that, too.”
They are also located across the street from a park and plan to have housemade pastries available, too. One peek at their doughnuts will have you drooling; pastries stuffed with whipped roasted banana cream or a fluffy jelly doughnut oozing with just-picked strawberry preserves, or the more savory version of a milk bread doughnut filled with vanilla creme fraiche pastry cream and topped with salted black sesame ganache, a play on Boston Creme.
A banana cream doughnut.
Brown taps into his previous Chicago culinary experience, working in Michelin Star restaurants, as well as a speakeasy-type mystery dinner party atmosphere he helmed in the basement of a house, called Saint Emeric. There, he served ten-course meals to twelve guests at a time at a communal table in a location that was only revealed to them a day or two before the meal took place.
This new phase of Brown’s culinary career comes after graduating from Johnson & Wales University, working at Gracie’s restaurant with chef Matthew Varga through school, then pursuing experience in the Michelin Star kitchens in Chicago. He more recently returned to Providence with Watts to buy a home and settle here permanently while he operated Thick Neck. Their home is located just around the corner from their new restaurant, and they run the place together. The couple returned to Providence to be closer to family, and because Brown loves the farms and that the ocean is in close proximity to the city.
“I love the restaurant scene here,” he says. “I always used to talk about the farmers here and how great they all are.”
Gone are the days of stealing away for a quick lunch. Now the couple can work side by side, and finally spend more time together. They’ve also created a space where others can spend their valuable time together, too. The restaurant is already fostering a community atmosphere, where people want to sit down and spend an afternoon.
“Frank & Laurie’s is on a major thoroughfare, and there are people coming from other parts of the city,” Watts says. “It’s a huge commuter street, so we want to be that spot that is metaphorically and physically bringing people together.” 110 Doyle Ave., Providence, instagram.com/frankandlauries
Pimento-braised chicken quarter with griddled onions and fresh-plucked herbs. Photo by Julie Tremaine.
