New Mural Site next to Not Just Snacks on Hope Street.
By Torin Mathieu
SNA is excited to announce a collaboration with the Avenue Concept! We will be bringing a mural to the south-facing wall of Not Just Snacks (abutting the parking lot for Eden Park Cleaners) on Hope Street within the next few months! We are excited for this creative collaboration to beautify our beloved Hope Street.
More on the Avenue Concept: https://theavenueconcept.org/
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Providence in March 2020, Councilwoman Nirva LaFortune convened a call with local non-profit organizations including SNA, Mt. Hope Community Center (MHCC), Jewish Collaborative Services (JCS), and others to discuss how to prepare to help neighbors in need. SNA contributed by organizing a mutual aid list to match volunteers with need and administered it throughout the past year, as well as fundraised to offset the costs of food and goods purchased for folks who were experiencing financial hardship. Volunteer services included picking up medications and groceries for those who couldn’t leave their homes, or who were especially vulnerable to health complications. Over one hundred and fifty volunteers signed on. We also worked with Rep. Rebecca Kislak to run a check-in phone bank to call our elderly neighbors and make sure they were okay, as well as provide information about available resources.
In addition to answering the dozens of individual requests for aid we received, tapping into the outpouring of community volunteers also helped SNA assist MHCC to deliver food bags to people who could not get out, as well as helped Higher Ground International’s Rukiya Center deliver hot meals to those in need. Volunteers were eager to assist and, on Wednesdays and Fridays, up to ten volunteers came to the MHCC offices to pick up groceries and bring them to primarily elderly and disabled community members.
On Friday mornings, a few volunteers also help unload pallets from the RI Food Bank truck at the Camp Street Community Ministries (CSCM) across the street from MHCC, and then bag up the food for delivery. Each of the forty-three to sixty recipient households gets two to three bags of dried goods and fresh produce weekly. This has been a year-long effort of coordination between multiple community organizations and individuals – an impressive feat of endurance!
In addition, local business leaders Milena Pagan from Rebelle Artisan Bagels and Becca Brady from Hometown Poke & Cafe donated or offered at heavy discount a bounty of baked goods and fresh produce to the MHCC’s food pantry over the past few months. A big thanks to these businesses that continue to give more than delicious food to our neighborhood, and to all the community organizers and volunteers who jumped in to support their neighbors!
SNA is grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Helen Dukes, Eugene Monteiro, and Marcus Mitchell at MHCC, Jackie Watson at CSCM, Henrietta White-Holder of the Rukiya Center, Erin Minor at JCS, Rep. Kislak, Councilwoman LaFortune, and to help our neighbors!
Contact Sherry at slwaldman1@gmail.com if you’d like to volunteer – the need goes on!
Plenty of things have changed in the last year, even the local businesses that service the Summit Neighborhood. As they try to navigate the balance between commerce and safety, restaurants have reduced capacity, shops have gone fully online, and businesses have set up no-contact deliveries. However, these changes aren’t preventing new businesses from popping up, expanding, and flourishing!
Notable restaurant Avenue N of Rumford, RI opened its new branch on Hope Street in Providence last April. It has a diverse menu featuring items like Nashville hot chicken buns, Point Judith calamari, free-range organic chicken with local mushrooms, and incredible pizza specials! Check them out on Instagram @avenuenamericankitchen.
Another restaurant opening, Little Sister, is an all-day café & bakery on Hope Street turning out Bolt coffee and breakfast & lunch dishes. They are inspired by tropical comfort foods from the owner’s childhood growing up in Puerto Rico and the bounty of living in New England. This is reflected in house-made pastries like Cubano empanadas, coconut bread pudding, and shakshuka Verde. Check them out on Instagram @littlesisterpvd.
A new salon recently opened on Hope Street: Salon 951. The stylish space has a variety of services including root color, men’s haircuts, and Brazilian Blowouts! Check out their website for more information at salon951ri.com.
We were sad to see Davis Dairy close in May of 2020 due to water damage from an upstairs fire. Davis Dairy had been a Hope Street mainstay for almost seventy-five years and was the last Jewish deli remaining in the neighborhood. On a positive note, we were excited to learn that a new Jewish kosher prepared foods and grocery will soon be arriving! Bubbies Market and Deli is scheduled to open March 1st, in time for Passover, at 727 Hope Street.
After 15 years of serving the neighborhood, fabric and interior design center Kreatelier is expanding its space on Hope Street. It will take over the storefront that ACT 2 used to occupy next door. The expansion will allow Kreatelier to create a display space to showcase wall coverings, home fabrics, and other creative interior decor ideas. Kreatelier has seen a big boom of home improvement projects since everybody is at home and wants to brighten their spaces! Check them out on Instagram @kreatelier.
Even with so many changes in the way they operate, the momentum hasn’t stopped for all the excellent neighborhood businesses. Keep calm and take-out with grace! Are there any other businesses that have opened or closed? Reach out on Instagram at @SNAProv
It has been a challenging few months for many in the Summit neighborhood and beyond. Yet, many local businesses have met the Covid era with inspiring creativity and generosity. From new products to fresh takes on dining to donations, Summit business owners have found ways to keep the lights on all while helping neighbors feel the love.
At Chez Pascal, owners Kristin and Matt Gennuso decided from the beginning not to open for indoor dining until it was safe for their staff and their customers. Instead, they have created a take-out menu that draws customers to their curb every night. They have also recently launched a creative twist on outdoor dining. Dubbed “Apres Ski” dining, their set-up includes Adirondack chairs made from old skis donated by neighbors complete with outdoor heaters, blankets, and warming seat pads.
Kristin said their customers had been up for outdoor eating through the mild start of winter, but it was beginning to get chilly. She and Matt knew they needed to find a solution that would keep people comfortable. They thought about how after skiing everyone wants to eat something warm, and “we just took the whole theme and ran with it.” Instead of multiple courses in freezing weather, they focused on quick, simple, one-pot items. Matt researched foods and drinks found in the Alpine regions, and their menu now includes Tartiflette and Herb Spaetzle as well as a sampler of “very warming” Amari from Italy and Switzerland.
“People have just embraced it so much,” Gennuso said. “The other night Jan,” the owner of Stock, “and her husband came by all decked out in ski gear!”
Four blocks away at India Restaurant, owners have also been ramping up their take-out business — all while donating 100 free meals a day to those in need.
But it’s not only restaurants that are innovating and inspiring. Local Hope Street store, Frog and Toad, had a smash hit of a product at the beginning of the pandemic with its t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Knock It Off” – in honor of Governor Raimondo’s admonishment. Later, the store’s owner, Asher Schofield, pledged to donate one mask to Providence’s schoolchildren for every “PVD Love” mask sold.
At Kreatelier, Summit’s local fabric concept store, they knew immediately how they could be helpful. Mask-making fell squarely in their wheelhouse. Owner Line Deams and her team of nine seamstresses made 25,000 fabric masks. For every ten masks sold, they donated one. A total of approximately 3,500 masks went to Amos House, Dorcas international, local schools, and the elderly. They even gave orange child-size masks to local trick-or-treaters on Halloween.
It’s been a long few months here in Summit, but the local businesses have brought smiles to their neighbors’ faces. We know they are there behind the masks!
Please join us for our Summit Neighborhood Association Annual Meeting, this coming Monday, February 27 at 7pm. The meeting will be held in the main auditorium of Summit Commons at 99 Hillside Drive.
While we do have some interesting items and speakers on the agenda for the evening, the most important item is you. Please come share your thoughts, concerns and questions with us, and join the discussion on how to make Summit an even better place to live (if that’s possible!)..
We have confirmed the Mayor of Providence Angel Taveras will join us and address the room. We will also have Summit’s own State Senator Rhoda Perry and Speaker-of-the-House Gordon Fox. Also joining us will be Summit’s new Providence Police Lieutenant John Ryan, leaders from our Merchants Associations, and a special guest to lead a discussion on the potential of community gardening in Summit.
This is also the meeting where we elect a new Board of Directors for the organization. Nominations will be accepted from the floor. Get there on time, as this item is the first on the agenda!
We very much hope that you can join us for our biggest open meeting of the year. (Of course, all board of directors meetings are open to the public, the third Monday of every month, 7pm at Summit Commons.)
The North Main Street committee of SNA has been hard at work on forming the formal North Main Street Merchants Association, a separate non-profit organization with the purpose of bettering this important and historic commercial corridor. They are very pleased to announce that the first meeting of this new organization has taken place. The organization still needs to be officially formed as a non-profit, and this first meeting was held to gauge merchant interest in such an organization.
On this past Wednesday evening, its first meeting was held at The Sandwich Hut. Present were members of the SNA North Main Street committee, as well as eleven interested merchants. Also, there are several other interested merchants who could not make this meeting, but who hope to join the organization.
It was an encouraging start. We look forward to formalizing the organization and continuing the work of turning North Main Street back into a neighborhood main street that is safe, well-lit, pedestrian-friendly, and full of occupied commercial and residential properties.
Peter Kammerer of the Sandwich Hut has been a major driving force behind this new organization, as well as behind the SNA North Main Street committee since its inception more than eight years ago. Others instrumental to the project include Summit neighbors Anneliese Greenier and Greg Gerritt, SNA Preseident George Schietinger and SNA VP Jim Kelley. North Main Street has a long road ahead, and theirs and others continued efforts are appreciated by all.
