Neighbors and concerned citizens are invited to join Councilman Sam Zurier for a neighborhood meeting on Monday, October 15 from 6:30-8:30pm. Invited guest John Marion, Executive Director of Common Cause RI, will join in the discussion of governmental reform and community and city concerns. The event will be held at Nathan Bishop Middle School, 101 Sessions Street. Contact Phllip McKendall in the City Council Office at 521-7477 with any questions.   More

From Officer John Ryan:

On Tuesday evening, police responded to the above location for a report of an armed robbery. The victim, a Keene Street resident, stated that he was approached by a muscular black male armed with a handgun and wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt. The suspect demanded that the victim hand over his briefcase, which he did. The suspect then fled on foot with the briefcase, which contained and i-Pad and other articles.

Numerous units proceeded into the area to search for the suspect. Sgt. Cassidy observed the suspect hiding in the bushes at the corner of Lloyd and Brown Streets. Other units responded to this location, and the suspect was placed under arrest. The suspect, identified as Frandin Cooley (DOB 7-2-90) was found to be in possession of a black plastic handgun, and the briefcase that had been taken from the victim. Cooley was positively identified by the victim as the suspect responsible for the robbery. All items stolen were recovered.   More

If you haven’t seen the rosy-colored State House recently, then here’s a newsflash: it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and in recognition of this, CORE: Center of Real Energy will be offering a series of Pilates for Pink classes. These one-week-only workouts begin on Monday, October 15 and run through Saturday, October 20. CORE is partnering with Shape magazine to raise money for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a non-profit organization and one of the pioneers in breast cancer research. So, if the rainy autumn weather has you feeling blue, boost your spirits with a workout that will benefit your body and mind. All classes are $20, and some require pre-registration, which can be done right on their website. Won’t be able to make it to a class but still want to contribute? CORE will also be accepting check donations at their original studio on Angell Street in Wayland Square and their newly opened location on Governor Street. With 100% of the profits from these special classes going directly to breast cancer research, you can feel even better knowing that your ab-ripping Pilates workout contributed to women’s health everywhere.   More

With Halloween looming, Providence will again be celebrating one of its own creators of horror during the annual H.P. Lovecraft Walking Tour and film series. The tour, hosted by the Rhode Island Historical Society in conjunction with the Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival, will highlight the famous horror and fantasy author's “Providence stories,” written between 1924 and 1935. The tour will cover the site of his former home, as well as numerous locations around the city mentioned in pieces such as The Haunter of the Dark, The Shunned House, and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

The tour begins at 1pm on Sunday, October 28 , departing from the John Brown House at 52 Power Street, and will last for 90 minutes. Tickets cost $18 per person and can be purchased in advance by calling the RIIFF offices at 401-861-4455 or online. Those who attend will be treated to two premiere films inspired by the writing of Lovecraft: Shadow of the Unnamable and The Thing on the Doorstep, immediately following the tour at 2:30. The screenings will be held at the Providence Public Library Theatre, 150 Empire Street. Tickets for the film screening only will be available to the public at the door.   More

“What do you do that no one else does?”

Food writer/TV personality Anthony Bourdain spoke at Johnson & Wales a couple years back, and that was his response when an eager young culinary student asked if and when he would be taping an episode of his foodie travelogue, No Reservations, in Providence. She had no good answer, and he dismissed her with a simple, “Maybe in season 14.”

Season 9, which is to be the final installment, is airing now. Still no episode in Providence.

It was a fair point on Bourdain’s part. The centerpiece of this month's print issue is our annual look at the local food scene, and this year, instead of telling you what we think of it, we’re letting chefs tell you, in their own words. This is because we thought you would be interested in what they have to say, but also because we’re interested too. We want to know where and what they like to eat and, perhaps more importantly, we want their perspective on the state of food and dining in Providence. We’re hoping that they can start to formulate an answer to Mr. Bourdain’s question.

It’s not as if we need to invent some radically new kind of dining in order to be worthy of a TV show – other food shows, including Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and Man v. Food, have visited – but rather, if Providence is truly going to fulfill its potential as a national dining destination, we need to start to construct our own narrative. New Orleans has its Cajun and Creole cuisines. Memphis is a BBQ town. Chicago has established itself as one of America’s most forward-thinking food cities. Portland, Oregon, one of Providence’s closest analogues, has made a name for itself as a farm-to-table Mecca.

So what do we do that no one else does?

Providence, as a dining destination, is currently in that odd position of being both underrated and overrated at the same time. Sure, we get some national accolades – we …   More

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Core: Center of Real Energy in Providence is taking part in Shape magazine’s nationwide Party for Pink campaign in support of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). During the week of October 15, Core is offering six classes for the cause at its two East Side locations (469 Angell Street, 2nd floor and 208 Governor Street). Bring a $20 (or more) donation to class and all proceeds will go directly to BCRF. Contact Core for specific class times and locations, as some require advance sign-up due to space availability: 273-CORE.

With its new, larger location on North Main Street, Rhode Runner has a community room in which they host exercise classes for the public. The newest offering is Bootcamp each Saturday morning at 8am. The class is run by the folks at Providence Bootcamp and the cost is $10. Space is limited, so reserve a spot ahead of time by contacting Rhode Runnner by phone 831-6346 or email staff@rhoderunner.net.   More

Autumn’s New Crop

We always expect the end of summer/ beginning of fall to bring us a bounty from our farms and gardens, but this year the restaurant scene is also providing quite a harvest.

Ama’s, the little shoebox of a restaurant across from the Avery in Luongo Square, abruptly closed over the summer. In its place we have north (3 Luongo Sq.), which brings the considerable talents of Chef James Mark to bear. He was formerly of Nicks on Broadway, but also worked at the Michelin-starred Momofuku Ko in New York City. The opening menu looks impressive and ambitious, freely mixing regional, Latin and Asian influences into things like a Green Curry Lobster Roll or Pork and Clams with coconut milk and fermented shrimp. Check foodbynorth.tumblr.com for updates.

In other “tiny West Side restaurants with one-word names” news, Kitchen is open at 92 Carpenter Street, across from the Public Safety Complex. The recently renovated storefront will be serving breakfast from 7:30am-1pm, Tuesday through Friday, and 7:30am- 4pm on weekends.

Bayal Buffet (50 Ann Mary St., Pawtucket – in the former Shaw’s plaza), offers dishes from around Africa and the Mediterranean, but primarily focused on the cuisine of Senegal. We haven’t had the chance to try it yet, but based on previous experiences with Senegalese food, we expect a lot of rich, well-spiced curry-type dishes, heavy on fish, and bearing the distinct influence of French cookery.

Pawtuxet Village got a welcome addition in the form of the Elephant Room (2170 Broad St., Cranston), a teahouse and creperie. The focus is primarily on serving loose leaf teas from around the world, but there is also coffee, wheatgrass shots and “daily specialty waters.” Those looking for a bite to eat can choose from pastries, salads and crepes both sweet and savory.

The old Mile and a Quarter House at 375 South Main Street has been sadly empty since the beloved Barnsider’s …   More

Who: Joe Perez

What: Designer

When: 9pm, Friday, September 8

Where: His loft, address withheld

Why: He’s got some serious credentials and impeccable taste

Okay, so maybe I’m a little biased: I’ve known Joe for 16 years and he’s a close friend of mine. Still, when he suggests a film/artist/album/whatever, I run to check it out. He hasn’t failed me yet. Someone else who trusts Joe’s judgment? Kanye West. In fact, Joe has been working for “Ye” for the past five years and recently designed his Cruel Summer album cover, set to drop September 18.

After graduating from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California – the RISD of the West Coast – Joe designed and maintained websites, including two popular fashion blogs he created in collaboration with his brother. One day after having moved back East, his phone rang. Kanye was on the other line.

I arrive at Joe’s loft around 9pm. In typical fashion, the lights are dimmed and mellow music casts a chill vibe on the space. He’s dressed in black and white, what I refer to as his uniform, with not a hair out of place. “Can I offer you a drink?” he asks. Joe sets his glass of scotch whisky down and pours me a generous bit of wine. We sit.

It’s been a while; we’ve both been so busy with work. From start to finish, it took Joe an estimated 700 hours to design and execute the album cover and packaging. “My art director, Guido Callarelli, and I worked directly with Kanye on the cover. I’d like to thank Guido and my creative director, Virgil Abloh,” Joe says. “Also, I have to thank my parents for their support.”

The process was a complex one — beginning first with a female from a classic work of art and slowly chipping away at her, carving each cheekbone and every curve, as if she were made of digital stone. “Now she’s the perfect woman,” Joe says with a …   More

Recycling can be daunting. While you might fully commit to going green, if your neighbors aren’t doing anything to contribute, it can feel like a wasted effort. Mayor Taveras wants to show us that if we all recycle, we can see some tangible benefits – BBQ benefits, to be precise, and to do it he launched the Neighbhorhood Recycling Challenge. The Providence neighborhood that increases its recycling rate the most between now and September 7 will win a community barbecue with the mayor. Taveras will also bestow upon the victorious district five new trees – a green reward for the greenest community.

Mayor Taveras says that increased recycling saves the city money – as much as $250,000 if residents commit to the task – and those are funds that the city desperately needs. So if BBQ wings, trees or a cleaner environment are not your thing, maybe the promise of keeping property taxes down for another year will be enough to ensure your participation.   More

Time magazine correspondent Michael Grunwald is the author of The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era, a new book that examines the president’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the stimulus package. In an insightful interview with Slate.com, he discusses the difference between the White House’s nuanced, deliberative attempts to promote the bill to the American public, and the Republican response: “The Republican message was much simpler: No.”

Later, he talks about the current Republican nominee’s approach: “There’s a reason most of Romney’s ads feature the stimulus... He’s running against the idea that government can produce positive change.”

This is a nice illustration of the pervasive sickness infecting the conservative movement, or at least what passes for it these days. As many of the ideas of Reagan Era conservatism have been absorbed into the mainstream, as ideological purity has taken precedence over bipartisan pragmatism, as the extremes of the American right have gained more traction, dragging the center toward them, conservatism has taken on a distinctly nihilistic edge. This manifested in various ways throughout the Republican primaries: the dunderheaded, bumper sticker bravado of Rick Perry; the boldly intellectual yet cravenly opportunistic bluster of Newt Gingrich; the frothing radicalism of Michele Bachmann; the appealing vapidity and corporate festishism of Herman Cain – all are symptoms of a disease that corrodes the party’s very soul. And, of course, so too is the resulting candidacy of Mitt Romney, a campaign that has from the beginning attempted to sell its very emptiness as vision. This shape-shifting, weak-kneed, disingenuous, philosophically bereft cipher has taken pains to avoid specifics or sticky definitions. In fact, there is only one thing he has been willing to be, one identity he has been willing to fully inhabit at all times …   More

Who: Tom West

What: Artist & Providence Artist Campaign (PAC) Founder

When: 7pm, Tuesday August 7

Where: Dusk, 301 Harris Ave, Providence

Why: He’s running for artist… and that’s reason enough

Every Tuesday night at 8pm, an assemblage of creative minds flock to a badass little bar down by the tracks: Dusk functions as headquarters to the Providence Artist Campaign (PAC). The concept was developed two years ago by Tom West, the likable ball of energy who’s running for artist… or asshole, depending upon which sticker you look at first.

The campaign started when West forced one of his friends to run against him in an attempt to have some fun while calling attention to the arts community. Tom came with so much heat – stickers, flyers, posters, shirts – he ended up running unopposed, and seized the (totally fake) title of Providence Artist.

I spot Tom setting up his oversized boards on the sidewalk out front. He uses his head-in-hole paintings (a medium he says “never gets utilized smartly”) to tackle heavy topical issues such as teen pregnancy, race relations and politics. “The public then engages your art and subject matter,” he says. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

“I set these up at last year’s Foo Fest [at AS220],” Tom notes, nodding towards his tongue-in-cheek characterization of President Bush. “Kids always end up sticking their faces through this hole,” he says with a laugh. “I can tell which parents are cool and which ones aren’t based on how they react.”

One thing that’s unequivocally cool is the way in which the campaign has grown. “Over the past year, I realized the concept had real legs as an artistic community builder,” Tom says. “Artists will be running for Providence Artist 2012, replicating the approach of the average campaigning politician.” Well, sort of.

Artist …   More

The local nonprofit Project Undercover, which provides things like socks, underwear and diapers to needy children, is going to have a good day on Tuesday, September 18. How do we know? Because on that day all three Rhode Island Whole Foods locations (601 North Main St., 261 Waterman St. and 151 Sockanosset Crossroad, Cranston) will donate 5% of the day’s sales to benefit the charity. It's a great opportunity to support a great cause while buying things you already need anyway.   More

Another opening that has previously gone unheralded in these pages is Providence Coal Fired Pizza, which arrived downtown earlier this summer. Its custom built oven is fired with Pennsylvania coal, making it unique among other pizzerias in this state. The result is a crust with that perfect balance of crispy outside and chewy inside, and the menu offers a variety of simple, but well-chosen options. There are the classics like Margherita and Tomato and Mozzarella, and fancier choices like the Clam (rosemary, pancetta, clams, fingerling potatoes and Parmigiano Reggiano) and the Conrad (roasted onion and peppers, sausage, rosemary, mozzarella and Pecorino). The Baby Bella, topped with oyster mushrooms, truffle oil, mozzarella and ricotta, is a textural marvel, with the gooey melted cheese playing off the meatiness of the mushrooms and the crispy crust underneath. The oven is also put to good use on starters like the Coal Fired Wings with sea salt, rosemary and roasted onions. The spacious, comfortable restaurant also has a full bar and is open seven nights a week, as well as lunch on weekdays. It’s a welcome addition to downtown.   More

One of our former "10 to Watch" honorees and a former "Most Eligible Singles" cover girl respectively, performers Kristen Minsky and Miss Wensday are heading out on tour. Their adventures in vintage jazz will take them from Providence, through Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, DC, North Carolina and back home, picking up cleverly stashed-away members of their band, The Cotillions, along the way. Of course, with the price of gas these days, it can be tough for a gal to make a living. That's why they've started a Kickstarter campaign to get their show on the road. In exchange for a little travel budget, they're offering everything from autographed prints to show tickets to command performances. We love to see PVD performers going out to conquer the world (or at least the mid-Atlantic), so check them out before the deadline on August 31.   More

We need a few amateur photographers to be our eyes on the street looking for style. Snap an Instagram shot of a fashionable person, clothing item, shoe, accessory, scene, etc. and post it to our Facebook wall. Some of our favorites will wind up on the cover of our September "Street Style" issue. And our absolute favorite will win a profile in our monthly style column, "The Look."   More

Writers are an odd lot. They choose to spend their time in solitary pursuit, forever erasing and deleting, cursing themselves at regular intervals. Blame it on writer’s block or lack of talent, but occasionally a writer just gets... stuck. If you can relate (who can’t?), you’ll be relieved to learn of Frequency Providence, a community of writers who band together to help each other grow creatively.

The arts group offers a range of writing workshops, volunteer assignments (such as editing non-fiction publications) and events so that participants can network, engage and learn. If you’ve been shy to share your writing thus far, now’s the time – get feedback from your peers or from the instructors, all of whom have many years of experience under their belts. It’s a supportive environment that can only help your creativity flourish.   More

Recently, I was taking a class up in Boston that required me to spend a bit of time every Monday night in the North End. What struck me every time was not so much the wealth of great Italian food available on Hanover Street – surely Providence can give Boston a run for its money in that department, at least on quality, if not quantity – but rather how busy the streets and businesses are. On a Monday night. Sadly, there isn’t anywhere in our fair city that can boast that kind of volume that early in the week – and that was just one of many busy streets in Boston.

That contrast got me to thinking about Providence’s density problem. Simply put, there just aren’t enough people in this city. We now live in the third largest city in New England, with just about 178,000 people in Providence proper, where not too long ago we were second only to Boston. Now Worcester has a higher population. While some of you may be thinking, That’s exactly why I live in Providence: because it’s not overcrowded, I would counter that cities are supposed to be crowded. If you want room to breathe and stretch out, move to the suburbs. Cities thrive on a bustling, dense ecosystem of businesses, commercial thoroughfares, residents, visitors and workers that is surprisingly delicate. The very things that make cities such interesting, exciting places to be – whether theaters, restaurants, the arts, festivals, parks – can’t survive without enough people around to patronize them. And as with any other business, the rates of return and response are pretty low: if you want to get 10,000 people to attend a festival, you need to be drawing from a population of several hundred thousand. With developers and city leaders clamoring for more housing Downtown, stocks of unsold condos around the city, and the increasing number of boarded up houses on the West End and South Side, the city could easily support a population of 225,000, …   More

Get your om on outside for a great cause. Body Kneads Yoga in Cranston is offering free Yoga on the square classes each Sunday in August from 4-5pm at the Gazebo in Garden City. There is no cost to participate, though donations to Big Sisters of RI are welcomed. All attendees who donate will receive a goodie bag from the series sponsor, Whole Foods Market. No pre-registration necessary; just drop by with your mat. 

Keep your summer workout mojo going throughout August – it’s still bikini season, after all. Each Thursday morning in August at 7am, work out with Josh Bird of CrossFit Providence, who will be leading a complimentary CrossFit-inspired Boot Camp class. The class will meet at the Lululemon Athletica’s Wayland Square showroom, at 145 Wayland Avenue in Providence. Participants will then run to Brown Street Park to get the workout started. This free community class is a great way to try something new or to supplement an already intense workout schedule.   More

August 15 would have been culinary legend Julia Child’s 100th birthday, and in honor of that centenary her longtime publisher Alfred A. Knopf has organized Julia Child Restaurant Week.

From August 7-15, 100 restaurants around the country will participate by with special menus inspired by the woman who taught so many Americans how to cook. Among those 100 is our own Al Forno; proprietors George Germon and Johanne Killeen were personal friends of Child, and contributed recipes to two of her cookbooks. The a la carte menu will include two starters, two entrees, two desserts and a cocktail. Highlights include George’s Silky Peppers with Burrata, Osso Bucco with Orange and Lemon, and a Triple Citrus Tart.

Check out jc100.tumblr.com for info on the 100th birthday festivities.   More

While making an effort to keep cool this summer, you can support a good cause too. Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is a charity committed to finding a cure as well as making a difference for children with cancer everywhere. The foundation also funds nursing grants in an effort to improve the quality of life and care of children who are living with cancer.

Old Navy in the Providence Place Mall will be hosting an Alex's Lemonade Stand next week, starting this Saturday July 21st until next Saturday July 28th. During regular mall hours you can stop in to Old Navy, located off of Francis Street, and grab a refreshing cup of lemonade from Alex's stand. Good lemonade for a good cause, why not?   More