PROVIDENCE: THE RESTAURANT, THE CITY, AND SEVERAL MEANINGS OF THE WORD

What an unexpected fabulous experience I had last month! It was so special that I have to go in the order that this adventure happened.

Some of you may remember over the years that I’ve mentioned my second favorite person in the world, (after Mr. X, of course,) Ronnie Hazel, Jr. I’ve known him since he was born, and have adored him always. (He’s basically my sort-of nephew.) But when he was five, we became besties. Ronnie spent his eleventh and twelfth summers in LA with Mr. X and me. (He’s from Providence, Rhode Island, and I consider his entire family to also be somewhat my own.)

I’ve been taking him to restaurants since he was two, and in those two “Summers of Ronnie” out here, he was even a special guest critic on my show. He’s actually always known food.

Then, when he was nineteen, he met me in New York for the International Restaurant & Foodservice show at the Javits Center. My friends and I have attended many Restaurant Shows there and here in LA, and all of us care about mainly the food. But even though he was young, Ronnie pointed-out other things on display, such as the cutlery and plates! Wow. At one point in life, he wanted to become a chef. (He cooked a steak for me when he was six!)

So, even though we kept in a modicum of touch over the years, I haven’t been back to the east coast in quite a while, and he hasn’t been out here, so we hadn’t seen each other in several years until a year ago, when he finally came out to LA for a weekend. But he got sick right away, so we missed our plans, and got to see each other for just an hour before he left. I felt like a gourmet to simply introduce him to the favorite sandwiches of all my visitors. (I’m sure regular readers know it’s Ike’s.)

As he’s grown-up, he’s become something of a world traveler, and has gone waaay beyond me in his foodie-ness. He’s obsessed with Michelin-starred restaurants while I’m obsessed with cute places.

He was out here recently for only a weekend, and wrote to me a week before to see if I was free on Saturday night, which I was, of course, for him. He did all the planning, and was taking me someplace secret, so he asked me for my food allergies and dislikes. When he saw my massive list, he semi-jokingly told me that I was going to be hungry, but that we were still going.

I had no idea what was ahead of me, even when he told me it was on Melrose near Highland, and to dress up. I was actually worried that it might be a tasting menu eatery, and since I’m the pickiest eater ever, I never go to those.

So, when we pulled up to the twenty-one-year-old uber-classy Providence, I was a mix of excited and trepidatious. (We were there exactly one month and one day before its twenty-first anniversary!)

But we were put at ease right away, before we even entered the premises, when an employee saw us taking pix out front, and he came out to take them for us! He even suggested that we take them in front of a different section of the exterior.

Actually, the entire staff of Providence is the nicest personnel I’ve ever met outside of my favorite ever, iconic LA maitre d’ Dmitri Dmitrov, (now of the Tower Bar.) I honestly haven’t seen service like this since Dmitri led the team at the late Diagliev at the former Bel-Age (now London) Hotel! I regret that I didn’t get the name of every last person we met at Providence, but chief among them were our main server, my fellow Brooklynite Bobby, and our secondary guy, Nik, who’s fluent in at least three languages! Manager Sara even helped us out a bit, and we wrapped-up the evening with Julian at the greeter’s stand. Julian even invited us into the kitchen at the end of the night to see how it all worked. (As you might imagine, kitchens are not my thing, but Ronnie loved it!)

As you know, kindness and personality mean more to me than food, but this seafood-centric menu is basically a masterpiece.

So here’s where that kindness comes in even more. I was going to go with the flow for once, and just keep giving Ronnie my food to eat along with his own. It’s a set tasting menu, and there was not one thing on it that I eat! Nada. It might not have mattered because each “dish” was minuscule. Seriously, just about all of them were one-biters. But all gorgeous! (More on the presentation in a minute.)

Bobby inquired about food preferences right at the top. Ronnie being a pescatarian, and a gourmet, he was fine with it all. I told them to not worry about me, but Bobby told me to not worry—they’d come up with items for me. Which they did. In spades!!!

The courses seemed never-ending. And they were all gorgeous. And all the ones that I did eat were actually delish. And each one was accompanied by different plates and flatware. Ronnie had a flight of non-alcoholic drinks, and all of them came in different glassware, as well.

Each bite had several different ingredients, often unusual ones, so I can’t really tell you what I ate because they were made specially for me. But, in the midst of all the exoticness, I was surprised to see a…bread course! And I loved it! It actually came with my favorite detail of the entire experience—a tiny wooden “shovel,” which looked like a matchstick, to take special salt out of a little trench to put on the butter. I loved that presentation. (I’m still sick that I didn’t ask to take it with me because it’s something they have to throw out, not wash.) But all the accouterments were attractive and creative. I have no idea how anyone came up with so many different presentations.

Since we were starting at 5:30PM, Ronnie had told me we should be done around 8. As our time at Providence flew by, I finally noticed the little window at the top of the dining room wall, and saw that it was totally dark out! So I looked at the time, and…it was 10:30PM! And we weren’t finished yet! I told Bobby and Sara that they need to turn the place into a Bed & Breakfast because I could have used a pillow and nap right about then.

The very last course was dessert, of course, which, also of course, was my favorite, especially because most of the components were chocolate. There was a small ice cream situation, and then a trio of tiny bites—a chocolate macaron, a blueberry tart, and a sticky white thing with sticks. (Good description, right?) And chocolate tea accompanied it, with a substance that looked like honey but was chocolate “simple syrup.”

And you know what—I was actually very stuffed by the end!

And then they brought us…candy bars! Made of their signature Peruvian chocolate. I swear—I was sure that pillow would be next because they had thought of everything else.

I think the only thing we missed doing that night was seeing their herb garden on the roof. (Bobby showed us a book about it, but I didn’t think to ask to pay it a visit.)

I told some of the servers that Ronnie and I met in Providence, Rhode Island, and then I immediately added that it was when he was born because he’s my fake nephew, so that nobody would think that it was a Joan Collins situation! But I wanted them to know our connection to their establishment’s moniker.

And guess where the chef and co-owner of Providence, Michael Cimarusti, is from? Ready? Philadelphia. Just joking. Providence, of course! I wish I had realized it that night, so we could have asked to meet him. I’m sure we’d have a lot of Rhode Island things, especially foods, to discuss.

By the way, the third usage of Providence for me that night fits several of its definitions. It was “fate, destiny, luck, or divine care” for us to wind-up at that eatery, and Ronnie’s “foresight, prudence, forethought” to get us there. So it was truly providence that we Providence peeps wound-up at Providence that night! I’m sure that we will never forget the experience, and I have a feeling that neither will anyone who worked there that evening! I may quite possibly have worn them out. They’re all hoping that I don’t show-up there for another twenty-one years!