r/RhodeIsland

There is also a Red Sox game that night. Last time we drove and had to park 20 minutes away and missed the beginning of the show. We could leave from PVD or Attleboro.

Where can I buy a decent clam rake in RI, preferably no more south than Kingston area?

Sorry if this is a stupid question…I went to Water Fire for the first time tonight. From what I saw it was cool. Im not familiar with Providence at all. I parked at PVD Place Mall and walked over. It was really crowded and I caught the end of the procession with the torches and flags. The basin looked cool all lit up but I didn’t really see anything else? Are there street vendors, food trucks, entertainment? I wasn’t really sure where to walk to experience more. All I really saw was the Fan Zone for the World Cup and then the torches on the water. It started raining so we left but I’d like to go back another time if I can. I was hoping there was more to do/see.

I am so tired of Rhode Island getting skipped over or just lumped into a generic Boston season. RI has one of the most fiercely independent, underrated food scenes in the country. People think we are just a novelty joke because of quirky staples, but we have a crazy split personality here. We have world-class fine dining running right alongside gritty, authentic, hole-in-the-wall immigrant kitchens that blow major cities out of the water.

Plus, the logistics excuse is officially dead. Providence just hosted thousands of international fans for the World Cup and the Ghana National Team base camp without breaking a sweat. If the city can handle the World Cup, and Bravo is literally in the state right now filming the new Real Housewives of Rhode Island, they can easily bring a Top Chef crew here.

For the Quickfires, they could test the quirky local culture. They could do a Pizza Strip Challenge forcing chefs to elevate cheese-less bakery pizza into a gourmet, warm appetizer. They could do an Olneyville Speed Test where chefs have to line hot wieners up the arm with the exact meat sauce and celery salt under a brutal time limit. Or they could do a Del's Lemonade Dessert Bar turning that tart, frozen flavor into a Michelin-level plated dessert.

For Elimination Rounds, they should focus on pure substance seafood and global roots. They could do an Anti-Tourist Seafood Feast at the Point Judith docks to cook sustainable, underloved fish right on the water. They could do a Portuguese Tavern Takeover in East Providence mimicking places like O Dinis for traditional pork and clams. They could do a Hole-in-the-Wall Global Crawl tasting test to identify the multi-day broths behind Cranston's best strip-mall pho like Hon's or the intricate stews inside a Bolivian Saltena like Julianna's. They could even do a South American Challenge for real-deal Ceviche Mixto where they are banned from Americanizing or toning down the heat for suburban crowds

For the big finishes, Restaurant Wars should happen at Bayberry Garden in the Jewelry District. Teams would have to design a clean, modern, hyper-seasonal New England menu that complements that stunning, plant-filled, greenhouse-style room. Then the Grand Finale has to be at Gracie's in Providence. It is the absolute pinnacle of fine dining here. They do world-class luxury using their own downtown rooftop garden, but they have zero of that stuffy, corporate, snobby pretension you get in Boston or New York.

Bravo already has production roots planted in the state for the Housewives. Let's force their hand and get Tom, Gail, and Kristen down I-95 to eat some real food.

Imagine randomly walking into one of the main cathedrals in Brussels at 8:30pm on July 4, hearing an ensemble playing, and finding out it's from … Rhode Island:

Ensemble playing inside Église Notre-Dame des Victoires au Sablon in Brussels

Poster for the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Wind Ensemble

They were brilliant, and their music was fantastic in that space.

Talked to a few parents, who were very tentatively trying to explain to me what a "Rhode Island" was until I said "I'm visiting here from Providence"…

Excellent July 4 experience. They ended with Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever. Tomorrow they head to France to play in Normandy.