The Flavor of Providence

“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 routinely rank near the top of the dining categories in Travel + Leisure magazine’s annual “America’s Favorite Cities” poll – but too much of our culinary identity is built on the red sauce glory days of Federal Hill. While that neighborhood’s iconic status is more than justified, we can’t simply rest on it as our sole claim to fame – not if we want to keep pace with food cities like Boston, Portland, Oregon and even, God help us, Portland, Maine.

On the other hand, we have the restaurants that represent Providence’s potential. This work was begun by some of the pre-Renaissance eateries that have since become local institutions – think Pot Au Feu, Rue De L’Espoir, Café Nuovo, Hemenway’s – but it’s being carried on by a new generation of food-forward chefs like Derek Wagner of Nicks on Broadway, Ben Sukle of The Dorrance, Beau Vestal of New Rivers, Nemo Bolin of Cook & Brown and, of course, The Matts: Jennings (La Laiterie), Gennuso (Chez Pascal) and Varga (Gracie’s). They form a solid core, but we need to build on that and expand it if we’re going to keep the national food media knocking at our door.

Why is this important? As they say in presidential elections, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Hospitality and tourism are pillars of our local economy. People want to visit, and even move to, cities with thriving, exciting dining scenes, because a city with great food almost always has much more to offer than just that.

Many, if not most, of the elements for greater success are already here. We need to continue to build on them. Diners should demand more of the restaurants – enough with the endless iterations of the same damn calamari and pasta dishes – and the chefs, in turn, should ask a little more of the customers. Challenge us a little. Give us something a little different, a little more ambitious than we might otherwise go for if left to our own devices. But most of all, we need to learn to tell our own story, to be able to offer a clear, cohesive narrative about what makes Providence uniquely delicious. Then maybe we can convince Mr. Bourdain to keep going until season 14.