Rhode Island Monthly published its “Best of Rhode Island” issue this month that includes a reader’s poll as well as staff picks. Plus, Jamie has a recommendation for Portuguese dining in East Providence
Interview highlights:
This year’s staff picks for “Best of Rhode Island”
Jamie Coelho: Our team spends about a whole year researching and vetting restaurants. We take reader recommendations and we look at social media to find out what people think is the best of the best, and then we go out and test it ourselves. I focused on food. With a couple of freelance writers, we came up with our picks. This year, we decided to go back and award some of the classic places that have been around for a long time and stood the test of time. Places like Alforno and its great grilled pizza, and we also love Pastiche for its wonderful desserts. And of course, the Eddy is the original cocktail bar in Providence that has inspired so many other cocktail bars that recently opened. We thought it was important to award those great places along with a lot of the newer businesses too.
The local celebrity cameo on this month’s cover
Coelho: The cover has been one of our best projects to date. We had a handbag designer, Kent Stetson, who's local, design a custom handbag with the Best of Rhode Island logo on it. And then we decided to have one of the Real Housewives model it. So we have Ashley Iaconetti from Audrey's Coffee House and Lounge holding the bag, and if you flip it open, you will see the cover reveal in there. She also has some trendy nail art. That was created by a custom nail artist and you'll see she's got the big blue bug, Autocrat coffee, like all of the symbols for Rhode Island. So it brings it all together to be a celebration of local businesses.
“The Dish” section of the magazine features Cafe Alma of East Providence
Coelho: It’s a Portuguese inspired cafe, and it's basically from a whole family that started Matos Bakery in Pawtucket, and they wanted to do an extension of their baked goods and their dishes in East Providence. You can go to it during the day and they serve wonderful coffee drinks and pastries, like pastel de nata. They also have a cafe latte with a little pastel de nata treat perched on the side of the glass, And then at night and on weekends it turns into a restaurant and you can get their bitoque and that's their steak, which is topped with a fried egg and spicy peppers, gravy, and their hand hand cut fried potatoes as well. So it really is like going into a cafe in the Azores and having that community feeling in there. It was very popular during the World Cup too for all the matches and they held a viewing party in the parking lot. And now everyone knows about it and we all love to check it out for all their pastries and coffee drinks.
What the staff of RI Monthly is excited about from Providence Restaurant Weeks
Coelho: There's more than 80 places to choose from, so my team and I, we do a post, which is all of our top picks on our website. And every year we look through the list and we decide, but I have to say for my favorites, I have to go with Marcelino's. They just won a Pinnacle Award for their bar program, and they're doing a cocktail pairing with a dish from their menu. So it's not like the same prix fixe three course dinner. It's more like a cocktail with a dish pairing. But if you want to do the three courses, then you’ve got to go to Nick’s on Broadway. They just were nominated for a big James Beard Award for best new chef, and this is a great experience to go try it. Tried and true: Oberlin and Gift Horse are on there too. You can't mess with those two places. And a newcomer is Thermia in Providence too, which is great. And you can also get out of Providence and go to Warren to Metacom Kitchen, which is a personal favorite of mine.
