Tini — the new restaurant from Al Forno owners George Germon and Johanne Killeen — is now open on Washington Street. I guess it’s been open for four weeks, but yesterday was the first I noticed it. Not too surprising, considering that the diminutive front makes it seems almost like a side room of Gracie’s. As promised, it’s a small space, seating only 19. Check it out at 200 Washington Street, right across from Trinity Rep.

The Ives St renaissance continues with the opening United BBQ — 3 years in the making, and I don’t think proprietor Claude Goldstein will take offense at the admission that some of us weren’t sure this day would ever come. Best BBQ seitan I’ve ever had, among the many vegetarian options. (Properly filing us veggies away in the ‘weirdo’ corner of the menu.)

Here at United BBQ we are making our own history, starting now. Our goal is to bring you authentic, pit-smoked barbecue using the freshest, quality ingredients available. We want to unite your taste buds with some great barbecue!

We use green packaging options and local produce whenever we can. We offer a selection of vegetarian meat alternatives and sides. All of our waste oils are recycled by Newport Bio-Diesel for use as home heating fuel.

It all gets me jazzed up for Claude’s next venture, the re-opening of Babe’s on Wickenden, as Abe’s, I believe.

Thursday, October 23rd, 7:00pm

Join urban grower RJ Ruppenthal for an evening workshop and talk. Author of Fresh Food From Small Places: The Square Inch Gardeners Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting, Mr. Ruppenthal will talk from over 30 years of experience growing fresh food on rooftops, window sills, garages, and everywhere in between. Combining traditional methods and creative space-saving techniques, Ruppenthal will demonstrate how you can grow up to 20% of your fresh food, even if you live in a city appartment!  Come find out how:

Thursday, October 23rd, 7:00pm
Brown University: Smith-Bounanno Hall, Room G18
95 Cushing St. Providence, RI (off Brown St.)

*Sponsored by the Brown Sustainable Food Initiative

9 PM at a secret location (see hint to the right then stop thinking about McFadden’s or Finnegan’s or Patrick’s or Fatty McGee’s because it’s not any of those.) It’s the first Guerilla Gay Bar Providence event. I can’t promise that it will be fun, but I can promise delicious, delicious bar food.

UPDATE: It’s not Murphy’s, either.  Unrelatedly, who knew that the orange stars in Lucky Charms used to be marshmallow Stars of David?

I’m not sure why this has been bugging me for the last twelve hours, but it really has, to the point where I may have even had a dream about it last night:

Yesterday I worked late and skipped dinner, but then decided to head out to the Black Rep for some SoundSessioning.  Because the only things to eat in my house are oatmeal and old spinach and uncooked rice, I decided to grab a slice of pizza at a certain place downtown whose name rhymes with Fizza Tween.

The girl working there seemed like she was crazy, or on drugs, and interrupted my order twice to yell at someone else working there for not helping.  Fine.  Whatever.  Feeding the drunks downtown is probably a really irritating job, although one would think that it would be less stressful at 10:30 when the place only had two customers.

So then after I order she gives me the pizza and I sit down, whereupon she starts yelling at the other guy, saying things like “stupid” and “fucking” and “fucking stupid” and “I want a cigarette.”  The line (of one) goes down and she’s about to go outside when the phone rings.  She picks it up and makes really dramatic faces while somebody orders a pizza.  She repeats questions like the person on the other end is stupid.

Then, after the guy’s done ordering and she says it’ll be forty-five minutes, she hangs the phone up all dramatically and then screams–literally screams–”FUCKING FAGGOT! FUCKING FAGGOT!”

Then she goes outside to have her cigarette and then has a conversation on her cell phone loud enough that I (and probably half of downtown) can hear.

But seriously–what would you do in a situation like that?  Sheepishly eat your pizza and then move on?  Say something?  Try to find someone else to say something to?  I can’t decide.  One of the things I like about living in Providence is that I’m not particularly exposed to homophobia ever, and I know people deal with way worse stuff than this every day.   But this was so sudden and strange that I felt like I needed to blog about it in a semi-public forum.

I spent many terrible Friday nights as a child in a white basement with a dropped ceiling on a side street off Pocasset Avenue, writhing in agony at the smell of the calimari being eaten with terrible fervor by my mother and my Auntie Lala.

It was St. Bart’s Club, one of a number of restaurants I was always dragged to as a kid, kicking and screaming and hemming and hawing and stomping my feet and gnashing my picky seafood-hating teeth the whole way. Along with Marchetti’s and La Rosa and Twin Oaks and Chelo’s and that Tabor Franchi place off Atwood Avenue that everybody was really into for a while, St Bart’s was a place that my Italian-Cranstonian soul loathed with such passion that I swore I would never set foot in it again. Eventually, my complaining grew to the point that my family stopped going, and I haven’t heard it spoken of in at least ten years.

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Meet David Gracer, proprietor of Providence’s Sunrise Land Shrimp, whose slogan is, “Mmm, That’s good Land Shrimp!” Let’s get this right out of the way: land shrimp are, as far as I can tell, crickets. But that’s not all David eats. As a self-proclaimed entomophagist (dudes who eat bugs.) Mr. Gracer is spreading his message far and wide and will, incredibly, be on The Colbert Report tomorrow, according to his blog, Bugs For Dinner! (top that, Lexi) There was also a story on him in the New York Times Sunday Magazine but he didn’t give us a link to that. Google it, I guess. In the meantime, he has left a helpful gallery here, of all kinds of crickets, water bugs, cicadas, mealworms and grasshoppers frying in pans, pots, on plates, fried, skewered, ground into “cicada flour”, etc.

After you’re done with your Chinese food and theater-hopping at Providence Place, head on up to Boston for the Matzoh Ball. More than a little lame, but the only show in town:Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street.

THE ALTERNATIVE TO JUST ANOTHER “SILENT NIGHT”!
Hosted by the Society of Young Jewish Professionals and Things To Do, the Matzo Ball has been named the “Nation’s #1 Holiday Party” by USA Today. Now in its 20th year, this extravaganza is being held at the hottest clubs in 5 cities and Washington DC is one of them! It’s open season for flirting and the perfect chance to revolutionize your social life with our hip crowd. You can expect hundreds of like minded singles dressed up and ready to party! At Matzo Ball single Jewish men and women get to flirt, mingle and dance the night away. Forget sitting home with Chinese food and a movie! Jewish singles meet at the Matzo Ball!

It’s about time we all agree to stop confusing the genteel with the progressive. This is out of The Independent:

Whole Foods Market, which recently expanded into Britain with a store in London’s upmarket suburb of Kensington, has been discovered stocking tomatoes from one of the most notorious Florida sweatshop producers. Whole Foods ignored an appeal by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to pay an extra penny a pound for its tomatoes.

Providence Wintertime Farmers Market Opening This Saturday!
AS220 - 115 Empire Street
Every Saturday 12-3 pm

As the winter months begin, Farm Fresh Rhode Island is thrilled to announce the opening of a new indoor farmer’s market, happening every Saturday from 12 pm to 3 pm at AS220. This weekly market will begin this Saturday and run throughout the winter and early spring. Market-goers can expect apples, greens like bok choi, kale, swiss chard and collards, potatoes and sweet potatoes, lettuce, fresh herbs, leeks, onions, squash, oysters, beef, pork, cheese, chocolate, coffee and much more. Yum!

More information is on the Farm Fresh RI website.