Last Friday afternoon I was feeling pretty damn happy, sipping cocktails at one of the best restaurants on Block Island, the one at Hotel Manisses, where the historic interior woodwork of the bar is offset by the flower-strewn outside patio with waterfall. Not too shabby a start to a perfect July evening. This Monday morning I got to see how…
It doesn’t look like much, and the first time I walked into it, I walked out without buying anything. I’d been spending too much time shopping in Whole Foods and I guess I felt like if it wasn’t laid out in huge, gleaming displays of overabundance, I wasn’t sure I should be buying it. But then friends – foodie friends…
Planning a wedding on a budget? Or simply inspired to try your hand at floral arranging or invitation design for your big day? Either way, the latest edition of our bridal e-newsletter, Engaged, might be helpful. The DIY-themed issue offers advice from local experts on taking on two unlikely, but very important, elements of your wedding: vows and make-up. In…
I’ve had granita on my mind since we wrote about it in this month’s Current. The Sicilian dessert is real Italian ice, and the consistency depends where you are in Italy–it can be anything from crunchy to creamy. I love it because 1) it’s easy to make, 2) it’s not super-sweet (unless you want it that way), and 3) you…
So I got those bales back at the beginning of May and set them up in my little yard, which is mostly concrete and boasts soil laden with lead.They looked kind of charmingly urban-farmstead and I was pretty self-congratulatory about the prospect of such a cheap alternative to raised beds. So like the crazed obsessive I am, I went to…
To me, the Fourth of July — and the days that surround it — are an eating and drinking free-for-all. There’s no better time to break out the beer and the burgers and fire up the charcoal grill. (I guess now that fireworks are legal in Rhode Island, you could break those out, too). In that spirit, I looked up…
I don’t know how I feel about our state’s mad quest to become New England’s own South of the Border,* but to each his own. Just the other day, I spotted an empty pack of Saturn Missiles out on the sidewalk next to our office, accompanied by the carnage of a dozen blown-to-bits Dunkin Donuts. I can’t really imagine the…
She’s a far cry from the Trailer Park Boys, worthy though they are.On our homepage, you’ll see a link to “Shacking Up," a really stunning photo essay on Carpenter’s Beach Meadow , the summer campground in Matunuck that’s one of the last of the neighborhoods of beach shacks and trailers once such a big part of middle-class summers in the…
Just in time for the festive weather, there’ll be a mini music festival right here in Providence with the recently organized but somehow already huge Sycamore Street Block Party tomorrow. A neighborhood event has grown into the first real happening of the summer, pulling in talent from all over the state for an awesome lineup of entertainment, food and general…
Dave Phayre, the handsome and lightning quick bartender from Local 121 (he’s there Saturday nights, among others) who graces the cover of our June issue on Bars & Nightlife, supplies some yummy cocktail recipes from the restaurant’s about-to-be-released summer drinks menu: Sazerac3 oz. Sazerac Rye WhiskeyAbsinthe coated glass1 Sugar Cube3 dashes Peychaud’s BittersLemon TwistBlackberry Margarita1 1/2 oz. Jose Cuervo Tequila1/2…
