Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
7
7
Places to Eat in . . . Providence, Rhode Island
Over the past 40 years, Providence has become a sort of Cinderella city. A showcase
of effective urban revival, it's also a burgeoning culinary hotspot, and the two renais-
sances have come hand in hand.
Just as Providence's long-forsaken downtown began
transforming in the late 1970s, the groundbreaking
restaurant
Al Forno
(577 S. Main St.;
&
401/273-
9760;
www.alforno.com) opened in 1980 in a nearly
200-year-old iron warehouse on the fringes of down-
town. Though Johanne Killeen and George Germon's
casual-dining menu carried an Italian stamp, featuring
wood-fired pizzas and open-grilled meats, it had so
much more verve and sophistication than the tradi-
tional red-sauce restaurants of Federal Hill's immigrant
Italian neighborhood, it touched off a dining revolution
in a city spoiling for change.
In the decades since, Providence's dining scene has
become one of the most vital in the nation, even as the
cityscape has been resurrected. When Al Forno moved
in 1990 to more spacious digs in the revived Main Street
warehouse district (where there's still a wait for tables,
such is Al Forno's popularity), Killeen and Germon helped
Bruce Tillinghast open
New Rivers
(7 Steeple St.;
&
401/751-0350;
www.newriversrestaurant.com) in Al
Forno's old site, serving a bold and inventive multicul-
tural cuisine in that intimate 40-seat space. The name
references the global mix-and-match of Tillinghast's
menu, as well as the uncovering of Providence's long-buried rivers in the late 1980s,
set off in 1994 by the stunning downtown Riverwalk development. Right on Riverwalk,
Café Nuovo
(One Citizens Plaza;
&
401/421-2525;
www.cafenuovo.com/cafe
nuovo) offers white-linen fine dining; chef Tim Kelly turns out exquisitely presented
plates of creative fusion cuisine using top-dollar ingredients sourced from all over
the globe. It's a particularly elegant place to dine during
WaterFire,
festive nights
Al Forno helped launch a culinary
renaissance in Providence.
