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/
By Sam Burgess
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
By Jackie Delamatre & Torin Mathieu
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!
On a traditional dark and stormy night, about 40 adults and a dozen children sampled their way through the Summit Neighborhood Association’s fifth annual cookoff a few days before Halloween.
Gathering in Seven Stars bakery on Hope Street, the cooks brought a total of 11 entries, all with apples as the major ingredient. The dishes ranged from ice cream, muffins, cookies and cakes (spicy and cheese) to butter, cookies and turnovers with an apple onion galette thrown in. The audience brought their appetites and savored each offering, voting for their favorite as they went. Adding to the flavorful ambiance was a tasting of oils and vinegars by Olive del Mondo, also a Hope Street merchant.
After the votes were counted, SNA President Dean Weinberg and board member Emily Spitzman, who coordinated this year’s event, announced the winners.
First prize, a gift certificate to Seven Stars, went to Sandy Kohring for Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars,
Second prize, a gift certificate to Stock, a kitchen-supply store on Hope Street, went to Jade Rosendale for Apple Onion Galette.
Third prize, a gift certificate to Olive del Mendo went to Jenna Lafayette and Kimberly Aherne for Apple Butter.
The prize for best costume, a gift certificate to Hope Street emporium Frog & Toad, went to Cadyn Rosendale, 8, for her realistic portrayal of Hermione Granger.
All that was left was to polish off the last crumbs, take a final sip of coffee and head out into the storm – for which the event has been blessed for most of its life. At least there was no snow this year.
The winners and the recipes are below.
Cadyn Rosendale
Sandy Kohring
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
For crust
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup cold butter, cubed
For cream cheese layer
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
For apple layer
3 medium tart apples, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
For streusel
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup cold butter, cubed
For topping
1/3 cup hot caramel ice cream topping
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350°. In a small bowl, combine flour and brown sugar; cut in butter until crumbly. Press into a well-greased 13×9-in. baking pan. Bake 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned.
Jade Rosendale
Apple onion galette
Ingredients
pre-made pie crust
1 small butternut squash
olive oil
salt, pepper, herbs de Provence
1 baking apple
1 medium yellow onion
fresh-cut rosemary
fresh and dried thyme
Dijon mustard
Cornmeal for dusting
1/3 cup goat cheese
I adapted this recipe from the Food Network where it was a Stilton cheese with more herbs, less mustard (they used a seeded brown) and no cornmeal. I tried without the cornmeal and it split as I removed it.
Directions
-Let the pie crust rest for 45 minutes.
-Meanwhile, split and seed the squash, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle both sides with salt, pepper and herbs de Provence.
-Roast in oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, keeping oven at temperature for final baking. The squash is easily pierced with a knife, so remove the flesh from the skin and cut into cubes or wedges.
-Slice apple and onion in half and quarters, then each quarter into 4 or 5 wedges.
-Drizzle apples and onions with 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 ½ tbsp fresh-cut rosemary and mixture of ½ tbsp fresh and dried thyme, 2 tbsp Dijon, salt and pepper.
-Toss together, then add at most 2 cups of cubed squash and mix again.
-Dust a pizza tray with cornmeal, roll out the pie crust and brush entire surface with Dijon.
-Dump the filling into the center of the crust and arrange, alternating squash, onions and apples, leaving a 1″ or 1.5″ ring around the perimeter.
-Fold the first edge up over the filling, moving counterclockwise and lifting a hand-width portion at a time, overlapping the crust as you spin the pizza tray around. Fix any tears as you go.
-Bake for 55 minutes, but at the 45-minute mark, add the goat cheese across the filling. Resume baking.
-Let cool and slide off pan.
Jenna Lafayette and Kimberly Aherne with Quinn.
Apple Butter
Ingredients
7 medium sized apples (we used McIntosh)
1 cup apple cider
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon allspice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon vanilla
Directions
| Since autumn is upon us, this is the time for baked goods made from that New England staple – apple. The Summit Neighborhood Association’s annual bake off competition is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28 at Seven Stars bakery, 820 Hope St. and the featured ingredient is apple. Everyone in the neighborhood is invited to make their favorite apple dishes and bring them to the friendly competition – in quantities sufficient to allow dozens of people to taste them. Then prizes will be awarded for the most delicious. And since the festivities will be held just before Halloween, dressing in costumes is encouraged and there will be prizes for those too. There may even be olive oil and wine or beer tasting, but that’s still in negotiation. In past years, there have been snow and rain storms, but the show must go on and is sure to be a gala seasonal happening. |
The Miriam Hospital plans to submit its Institutional Master Plan on Oct. 20 to the Providence City Plan Commission. In advance of that presentation, the hospital encourages its neighbors to attend a community forum to discuss plans for the main campus.
The forum will be Thursday, Sept. 17 at 6:30 p.m. in the Hurvitz Board Room (located next to the gift shop) in the main hospital building.
In general, the hospital isn’t submitting anything new for 2015, but the IMP requires that its plans be submitted every five years. As the previous two submissions have indicated, the hospital hopes to create single-patient hospital rooms in Building A some time within the next five years. Director of Community Relations Monica Anderson has indicated that the plan does not have any designs or rendering to date, nor is there current funding for the project.
Kindly RSVP for the discussion meeting by calling the Neighborhood Hotline at (401) 793-4040. Refreshments will be served.
Parking on Hope Street has not reached the point when management by parking meters is needed.
Parking meters will not, repeat not, be coming soon, if ever, to the Hope Street commercial district.
That was the message relayed by Pernilla Frazier, co-president of the Hope Street Merchants Association, to the regular meeting of the Summit Neighborhood Association’s board of directors.
She was reporting on a presentation by Providence Parking Administrator Leo Perrotta to the merchants group on the city’s plans to expand the use of parking meters.
Frazier said Perrotta told the business owners that there were no plans in the immediate future of six months to two years for parking meters on Hope Street and perhaps not at all. He said the Summit area is unique in the concentration of residential streets abutting the commercial area and the resulting problem of parking overflow is extremely complex. Perotta also said a solution might have to involve some sort of residential permits, and the city is not prepared to undertake that at this time, Frazier reported.
Although the city says there is some evidence of stagnation of parking along the Hope Street business district, it is currently not worthy of being solved by the imposition of meters, Perotta said. If a survey shows that 85 percent of available parking spaces in an area are taken, the city tries to intervene with management by metered parking, but that concentration has not been demonstrated on Hope Street.
In addition, there is still the question of how to define a parking spot as a right or a privilege, Frazier said, adding that the HSMA is planning to consult with an urban planner on the issue.
The SNA board, which has not formulated a position regarding parking meters, promised Frazier to work closely with the merchants as the situation develops.
SNA sponsored an open mic at the Hope Street Merchants Association's block party on Saturday and all sorts of people took advantage of the opportunity to take a shot at a show biz career. They ranged from young people . . .
. . . to very young people . . .
. . . to intense people . . .
. . . and even to a wandering giraffe with an excellent singing voice.
Come join your neighbors at the Hope Street Block Party Saturday from 12 to 6 p.m. put on by the Hope Street Merchants Association. SNA will host an open-microphone at a table in front of Blooming Blossoms flower shop with acoustic guitar and keyboard. Bring your songs and your courage and we’ll provide the mic. Talent is encouraged – but not required. For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/973201962698928/
