Best Italian restaurants on Federal Hill

Federal Hill is Providence's Little Italy, with so many restaurants, Italian markets and gelato shops lining its main street, Atwells Avenue, that it's hard to know where to go. When people ask me, "What's the best Italian restaurant on the Hill?" I give them this list. To say which is the best depends on what you're in the mood for and what you want to spend. Fortunately, the several-block Atwells Avenue restaurant strip is short enough that you can park and stroll, looking at posted menus as you go.

Zooma is youthful and high-energy, with a lively bar scene and fold-back windows that open to the sidewalk in good weather. Siena (shown at left) is the current foodie-favorite, with warm Tuscan contemporary decor and food. By contrast, just a few doors away are two Old World classics: the Old Canteen (shown at right, above) and the Blue Grotto.

Mediterraneo is a see-and-be-seen place, with sidewalk dining in good weather. Camille's is just off of Atwells on Bradford St., and it's the original Italian on the Hill, once called the Roman Garden. Big on ornate style, Camille's is ever-popular with Providence power players. At the other end of the dining spectrum is homey Casa Christine, one street over from Atwells on Spruce Street. Christine's is no-frills, no Web site, no credit cards, no seating after 7:30 p.m., and BYOB. Owner Christine Calise rules the dining room, while husband Bill cooks his red-sauce classics in the kitchen.

Where to go for Italian on the Hill? It all depends on what you're in the mood for.

If you want to sample the menus at more than 30 restaurants on the Hill, you can purchase a $30 ticket to the annual Federal Hill Stroll, Tues., June 10 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets online.

Two-for-one at the new Nat Porter

For those of us who dine out a lot, tax season is a sobering time. Seeing all those restaurant amounts neatly toted up in the 12-month credit card statement makes you all too aware of what else you might have done with all those dollars.
A few weeks ago, Retired Guy and I resolved to eat in more, and we've been pretty good about it — so good that last night we decided we deserved a meal out. I recalled that the new Nat Porter in Warren was offering a variety of specials, including 2-for-1 entrees Sundays through Tuesdays from 4 to 6 p.m. We squeaked in just under the wire, about 5:58, but the waiter said we were good for it.

The Nat has always been a beautiful place, an elegant restaurant in a Colonial-era captain's house on Water Street in Warren. A pair of youthful owners called quits on the place last summer after a three-year stint that was marked by some highs and some lows, but new owners took it over last fall. Their new menu shows a little more Italian influence than the old one did, but there's a nice variety, with most entrees priced from $17 to $26. We were well satisfied by grilled pork loin with sauteed apples and mashed sweet potato for $17 for both us (2-for-1), a glass of Shiraz for $5 and an apple and gorgonzola salad split between us for $4. Even with dessert (carrot cake, $6) and a Cosmopolitan for me ($8), our pre-tip bill was just $44.
The place was lovely, the service perfect, the background music a Sirius Coffeehouse mix — altogether, just the sort of tax-season economizing I favor.

Nat Porter, 125 Water St., Warren. (401) 289-0373. On Wednesdays through April, $36 dinner for two includes bottle of wine and live music beginning at 9 p.m.

Tribal breakfasts II: Nicks

Nicks on Broadway has been a foodie-favorite on Broadway for nearly a decade, always earning raves from the local press and always packed with a hip-looking crowd, a loyal cadre who followed chef/owner Derek Wagner to his present location (in 2006), which is several blocks closer to Olneyville than his original spot on Broadway was.
This is a tribe that loves to tell you that Nick is not Derek's name — it was the name on the real workingman's diner that used to be at the restaurant's first location. And they leap to correct you when you spell Nick's with an apostrophe, which it doesn't have, apparently just to be alternative.

Open for breakfast daily except Mondays and Tuesdays (from 7 a.m., except 8 on Sundays), Nicks has been crowded since it opened and is even more crowded now that it's so much larger. This was the case even during the several-month period last year after the restaurant had moved but didn't yet have its sign up. If you dine out a lot around Providence, you're bound to see people you know at Nicks, maybe even some that you saw dining out the night before.

But more and more, I'm hearing from people that they don't go to Nicks anymore, because it's just too crowded, too noisy, and too expensive. A cup of coffee for $3? Breakfast for two (not brunch, mind you, this is basically eggs, bacon, toast and homefries) for close to $30 with tip?
Last time Retired Guy and I went to Nicks, we were seated elbow-to-elbow with two people who were discussing the intimate details of a loved one's cancer treatment. Our tables were touching, so there was no way that the two of us could avoid feeling like intruders in what should have been a personal conversation.
Every table and counter stool is always occupied at Nicks. On a previous visit, we had been seated at a high table that was squished between the front glass window and the line of people waiting for a table, their elbows continually brushing us.

One of the things I liked about the old Nicks was the easy friendliness of Wagner and the other chefs as they worked the grill just behind the counter. He'd make you an omelet, or mix you up a yogurt parfait, based on ingredients he knew you liked. Back then, you really felt as if you were part of the neighborhood crowd. Now, the grill is so far removed from the counter and the place is so much larger that you never get a chance even to say hello to anyone. I don't recognize the waitstaff and I don't know who's cooking. To paraphrase the famous Yogi Berra line: "Nobody goes there anymore: It's too crowded."

Tribal breakfasts: Louie's

Whenever I've written about Providence breakfast places, someone tells me I've left out Louis, or Louie's, which is at 286 Brook Street one street over from the Brown University campus. So yesterday I went there again, just to be sure I hadn't missed something. At 10:30 a.m. on a Monday, the place was packed with college students who looked as if they'd just rolled out of bed. One young woman continued a lively discussion with five of her tablemates while she got up to do some yoga stretches in the cramped space between tables. She was wearing that beatific smile common to yoga-people and seemed blithely unconcerned that she was getting in the way of the busy waitress. The background soundtrack seemed to be an Ethel Merman medley, and the students were talking over it as loudly as if they had earbuds in.

Perhaps the secret of its obvious popularity is that Louie's is a no-frills diner-type of place that attracts a mix of tribes that you don't often see together: blue-collar workers and students. Specials include "Barack Your World and Hillary's Delicious Soup," Edamame Xanadu, and plain old Number 2, which is two eggs, bacon, hash browns and a pancake ($5.95).
It's a place where the parking-enforcement guy or campus maintenance man feels just as comfortable as the sociology professor does. You can get breakfast for a few bucks every day of the week, all day, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.

But as before, I found nothing special about Louie's food. The pancake was fat and flabby with no particular flavor, and when I asked if there was any real maple syrup, the waitress, who was wearing camouflage sweatpants, gestured silently to a plastic bottle of no-name kiddie syrup that was already sitting on the table.

At breakfast time, in particular, people like to be with members of their own tribe, whatever it is: College student or workingman, foodie snob, business-person or mom with stroller. From the number of people that go to Louie's, it's clear that it's a favorite of more than one tribe.

More on Providence breakfasts tomorrow.

Place of Good Lunch: Au Bon Pain

In a recent post, I complained of the lack of good deli-style lunch places in downtown Providence. I said that I miss Mark's Deli, which used to be at the corner of Washington Street and Union. News travels fast in the blogosphere — ask and you shall receive. And so in short order I have this update to offer: Try Au Bon Pain in the Bank of America building on lower Westminster, across from the old Arcade. I had completely forgotten about it.

In French, Au Bon Pain means something like "place of good bread," but there is much more than bread at this high-quality Parisian-inspired cafeteria chain that was started by Bostonian Louis Kane in 1978. There's a great sandwich selection, and they build them behind the glass case while you watch. There's also a salad bar full of fresh and good-looking selections, several soups, and of course, good French and other types of bread, as well as pastries.
When I was there the other day, they were passing around samples of fruit smoothies and sandwich bites of chicken, pesto and roasted red peppers on ciabatta bread. Everyone was helpful and friendly, and the place was immaculate and bright with its big windows facing south across Westminster. You can eat in the cafe or just outside it in the atrium, where many downtown types were picnicking at green garden tables under towering palm fronds.

More on Mark's: A reader left a Comment on the Missing Mark's post of Mar. 4, reminding me that some of the deli's specialty sandwiches were named for celebrities and locals, like the Suzy Cute (for Susan Farmer, who then ran Channel 36), the Larry Bird (turkey), and her favorite and mine, Jaws (tuna with bacon and cheese). Of course, since the deli is gone, it's all just nostalgia, but you can find Mark's complete menu still on the Web at MenuPix.

Restaurant shakedown

Rumors are flying that several high-profile Providence restaurants are soon to close. Following the announcement last week that long-established Raphael's was closing its doors, this spreads something of a chill around the city's dining scene, which has been touted for so long, to the point of overload.
The news doesn't come as much of a surprise to those of us who have looked in restaurant windows, or sat inside, and seen in some cases more waiters waiting than diners dining.
Sure, part of it might be that when the economy sours, people don't dine out as much. But I suspect that a larger factor is that a city the size of Providence simply can't sustain the number of expensive and trendy restaurants that have opened here in the last few years. It was a bubble that was going to burst, and it did, right after Christmas.
In the past week or so, I've heard rumors of closure about Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, open barely a year, L'Epicureo in the Hotel Providence, and now Mills Tavern, which recently received a top rating in the Mobil Guide.

If the rumors are true, it's sad to see an owner's dream die, and it will be hard for the people who work there. But the truth is, the field has become too crowded, and that's when — just as on all those reality TV shows — somebody's not going to be there next week. Stay tuned for more.

Great expectations: Dining at the Z

Recently we went back to Z Bar, the Wickenden Street restaurant that is on my short list of places to eat and drink in Providence.
I just deleted the word great in there, because that might be overstating the case, unless you mean by it (as I do) that Z Bar has consistently met or exceeded my expectations over many years.
There are many restaurants in Providence where you can spend a lot more on dinner in the expectation that they will absolutely slay you with flash and dash and (maybe) great-tasting food. (The recently opened Chinese Laundry leaps to mind.) But more often than not, such places will disappoint you. A year later, they will be last year's big thing, and then they die. Remember Empire? Kestral? Lot 401?

Or, in another scenario, it might be that a restaurant does have really spectacular food that is so expensive that people only go there for special occasions a few times a year. So the place goes into an embarrassing and sometimes prolonged period of decline and then dies, as Raphael's Bar-Risto did (Mar. 9).

Interestingly, Z Bar doesn't even have a website — and that in itself says a lot. (Some restaurants have such impressive websites that you wonder how much time is being spent on the food.) Here's what we had to eat there the other night: A three-course prix fixe special of a satisfying roast-chicken-and-white-bean minestrone served in a wide flat bowl, a salmon filet sauteed in an herbed beurre blanc sauce, and a wedge of chocolate mousse with raspberry coulis (that's sauce, only more intense and less of it.) Three courses for $19, and not a disappointing note among them.
For $17, we had a petite filet of beef in a cabernet demi-glace, with mashed potatoes and perfectly cooked whole green beans. Glasses of a perfectly serviceable Australian Shiraz were $6.25.
Sure, a Cosmo was $10.25, but I didn't have to have one, did I?
If I hadn't had it, dinner for two with wine would have been $48.50 before tax and tip. Hot slices of fresh Portuguese bread as soon as we'd sat down in our prime corner windowseat, a lively (and somewhat loud) bar scene, warm colors, and the solicitous attention of longtime waiter Paul.
Rate that a great restaurant? Well, yes, I guess I do.

Z Bar and Grille, 244 Wickenden St., Providence. (401) 831-1566. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Reservations only for parties of 6 or more.

Phantom dining Downcity

Going out for breakfast seemed like a great idea yesterday after Retired Guy finished stacking his pine logs and I figured out how to reset the clocks on all the electronics. RG has his rituals, and it's not easy to talk him out of going local for the first meal of the day, but he agreed to drive into the Great Metropolis to try Downcity.
I must have eaten breakfast at the original Downcity a hundred times before it burned down, back when it had different owners and was located a few blocks west on Weybosset, opposite from Johnson & Wales - or, in Rhode Islandese - where the Outlet used to be. Back then, DC had the best breakfast around.
But soon after DC reopened in its new location about a year ago, I went with a friend and was impressed only by its stylish new look, the service being the biggest negative.
Now I had a feeling of deja vu as the same expressionless waiter seated RG and me at the same table I'd had before and left us there with drinks menus but no breakfast menus. After a few minutes, I went up to the bar to ask for menus. "They're on the table," the woman bartender said. I went back and looked again. "Those are drinks menus," I went back to explain to her. "We'd like to order some food."
"The menus are on the back of the placemats," she snapped, as if I were a fool not to think of picking up and turning over my laminated placemat!
Well, it went downhill from there. We last saw the waiter rubbing a waitress's shoulders at the bar and showing no sign of returning to us at all.
So we left. I'm one diner who never hesitates to bail when the winds whisper, "Bad dining experience dead ahead."
But by now we were really hungry. With the time change, it was an hour later than our stomachs told us it was, and every foodie-favorite breakfast place in Providence had a line outside its door. There was nothing for it but to join the masses at Bickford's in Seekonk, proving RG right that there's no place for breakfast like close to home. There were maybe a dozen people waiting in a comfortable area inside the door, but the place is so big and so efficient that we waited no more than five or ten minutes to be seated at a window booth.
Bang! there was the smiling waitress with our coffee, and Bang! RG was off to the $11 all-you-can-eat brunch buffet. His take is pictured below, topped with a pair of chocolate-covered strawberries that he smuggled to me. I ordered from the menu: eggs over hard, crisp bacon, and a waffle ($5.99) with real maple syrup for another $2.
It wasn't the best breakfast I've had, but it wasn't bad. And certainly it put a great big smile on RG's face. He just loves being proved right.

Providence after dark: Drinks at Temple bar

Night out last night with Charlie, sipping an espresso martini (he a Manhattan) at the bar at Temple, the excellent restaurant downstairs in the new Renaissance Hotel across from the State House. Providence was looking good, and so was Charlie, tanned from a vacation in Puerta Vallarta and singing the praises of a great restaurant he found there. Boca Bento, he told me, was so good he ate there three times solo and was introduced to the chef, who seemed to think Charlie might be a restaurant scout of some kind. (He does sometimes review Rhode Island restaurants with me.)
Charlie has owned a restaurant in the South End in Boston, knows a lot about food, and he said the food in general in PV was superb. "When you find a place that can give you french fries that are so hot and so good you want to eat them even if they'll burn your mouth, that's a great restaurant!"
Temple was pretty hot, too. We shared a pair of "Snacks" from the menu: mini lobster rolls, which were loaded with chunked fresh lobster meat, and a fat crab cake coated with crumbed pretzel. The place looked incredibly chic and was busy but not so busy that you couldn't have a great conversation at the bar, something it's hard not to do with Charlie anyway.

Missing Mark's Deli

For such an up-and-coming "Renaissance City," Providence has remarkably few places to just get a quick sandwich downtown. Lately, I've been missing Mark's Deli, which used to be at the corner of Union and Washington Streets, behind the Biltmore, and was a convenient place to pop in for an egg sandwich (around 99 cents) up till 11 a.m., or any kind of deli sandwich you wanted till around 3:30. Mark's was nothing fancy, but you knew you could get a good egg salad there, or corned beef, or whatever you wanted for $4 or $5. It wasn't going to have some kind of grain-fed roast beef or locally made cheese or whatever, but it was going to be fast and good. The skinny guy behind the deli case would make you a sandwich almost before you had the words out of your mouth. You could eat it at the table there, in a basket with a sprinkle of potato chips, or you could take it back to the office.
Now there's a Dunkin' Donuts where Mark's was, and that's fine. Starbucks was
starting to take over downtown, and we'd lost a Dunkin' on Fountain Street some years back when the company started putting in latte machines and there just wasn't room for a barista at that particular hole-in-the-wall. But now, where do I go for a plain sandwich? I went around today and looked, and here's what I found: Local 121, Bravo, Tazza, Cuban Revolution. I had a Best Cuban Sandwich half and a cup of black bean soup at Cuban for around $8. With tip, $10. It was okay, but I miss Mark's.

Edible Rhode Island

Along with my latte at Seven Stars Bakery yesterday, I found a stack of copies of this free magazine, published four times a year and exploring the foods and restaurants of the Ocean State. Apparently, Edible Rhody is part of a family of such publications that also covers New Hampshire, Cape Cod and other destinations around the country. It makes for a good read over coffee and a nibble and makes you feel happy to live in such a great state. The spring issue has features on Charlie's maple sugarhouse (see Post for Mar. 1 below) and the trendy Providence restaurant, also on Broadway, Nick's. Shown in this photo is Seven Stars Bakery. We'll post a photo of Nick's as soon as we can get over there for dinner.