Hot Wiener Special: A Night in Providence with Balkan Bands

Last month, we drove to Providence for a great line-up of Boston-based Klezmer/circus/Balkan bands; Joel's band, the Somerville Symphony Orkestar, opened the night, followed by the Klezwoods (on their latest CD release tour), followed by Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band. Lots of friends, lots of fantastic music. Unfortunately, although the club (Fête) was a gorgeous steampunk-y space that was perfect for the line-up, it was located in a pretty isolated part of the city, and very few people showed up that hadn't come with one of the bands. Nonetheless, it was a great night of music and an enjoyable change of scenery.

After loading in the equipment at the beginning of the night, Joel and I were ready for dinner, but due to the middle-of-nowhere location, there weren't many options. At the corner of the street, we had seen a diner that looked kind of run-down, but we were intrigued by a sign outside of it that advertised a "hot wiener special." Maybe 'amused' is more accurate than 'intrigued.' After joking about it for awhile, we realized that it actually sounded like a pretty great dinner adventure. It was either going to be amazing or terrible. Either way, how could we not give it a try?

Olneyville New York System has been doling out late night hot wieners to the people of Providence since 1946 (but not pizza, pasta, pastry, poultry, or peppers, apparently). The restaurant - a long counter along one side and take-out-joint-style booths filling the rest of the space - was full of intimidating instructional signage that gave the place a Soup Nazi-esque vibe, but the signs must have just been for decoration as the men working behind the counter were ridiculously friendly. We suppressed giggles and inquired about the hot wiener special, which we learned includes two hot dogs, fries, and a soda. The hot dogs, served in a steamed bun, are topped with a seasoned ground meat, chopped onions, and - the magic ingredient - celery salt. Celery salt is one of those seasonings that's always been lurking in the back of the spice rack, but I've never used it. In fact, I don't think I really knew what it tasted like until I tried it on these hot wieners. (No real surprise: it tastes like celery. And salt.)

The ground meat "sauce" gave me a flashback to my time in Rochester, New York, home of a "delicacy" known as the garbage plate. While there are many variations, classic garbage plates have a few components. First, the plate is half covered with mac salad and half covered with home fries, or completely covered with one of those. (In some places, other options are available too, like beans.) Then, the diner has a choice of meat for the top. In many places, the plate includes two meats, so a diner might get two hot dogs (red hots or white hots), two hamburgers, or one of each. (Some restaurants have even more options, like chicken or fried fish.) The whole mess is topped with various condiments and a "hot sauce" that is actually spicy ground meat, not really a liquid sauce. And finally, white bread is provided to sop up whatever's left on the plate.

The hot wiener special wasn't quite as overwhelming as a garbage plate, but it was still pretty impressive. While the hot dog itself wasn't my favorite - I vastly prefer grilled to steamed - I loved the whole combination of flavors, especially that celery salt, not to mention the overall charm of the old-fashioned greasy spoon ambiance. The crispy, salty fries were the perfect accompaniment.

The hot wiener special adventure was a success, and then we headed back to Fête for the show. Nights in Providence always turn out to be pretty fantastic.

Columbus Day Weekend: Music, Food, Family, Friends

Columbus Day weekend was just a normal two-day weekend for me, but I squeezed in as much fun as possible!

On Saturday afternoon, Joel and I walked over to Davis Square to catch some of HONK! Fest, which we sadly missed last year. (HONK! is a festival of "activist street bands", which often means marching bands with unusual instrumentation, unusual costumes, and a whole lot of energy.) Check out my slideshow for a glimpse of the awesomeness:



Then, we hurried into Providence - and got stuck in massive traffic, of course - to meet up with Joel's parents at one of our favorite Providence restaurants, Red Fez. We were in town to see Joel's brother Dan's old band, Zox, play a reunion show at Lupo's (and Dan's new band, The Stepkids, was one of the opening bands.) It was an early show, and by 11pm, the grumpy staff was shoving us out the door to transition the place into a skeevy nightclub. Gross. The show was pretty fun, although I can't figure out why people up front felt like crowd surfing even to the quiet acoustic numbers. The after party was at Local 121, a restaurant and bar focused on local, sustainable ingredients. We eventually got tired and decided to head back to Boston, but on the way back to the car, we stopped by Haven Brothers Diner (founded in 1893!) for some late night street meat. A diner on wheels, it has a small seating area inside, or you can order at the side of the truck and eat outside. It was chilly; we squeezed inside. The fries were great, but Joel got a strange-colored hot dog that wasn't very good. Homeward bound. Much less traffic on the way back.

On Sunday morning, I headed back to Rhode Island. My cousin David was in from Florida with his wife and kids: two-year-old Joel and six-month-old Anna. I hadn't met either of the babies yet, so my parents and I drove to my aunt and uncle's house in Warwick, RI, where the family was gathered.

My mom with my new cousin Anna

Another Joel!

While spending the afternoon in Rhode Island, I got a text message from my friend Jennie: "We're toying with the idea of having a beer-bottling, homemade ice cream, cedar plank salmon, popover party tonight. Anybody into that idea?" Um, yes.

When we arrived at Jennie's later that night, we were greeted by her adorable dog, Allie, who pees on the floor whenever visitors show up.

First on the menu, not a part of the enticing text message, were fried green tomatoes. Yum! Jennie and her boyfriend Travis are both from the South, so they know what they're doing when it comes to fried green tomatoes.

Jennie recently acquired a popover pan and ice cream machine from a moving sale, hence the dinner theme. Next up, popovers!

And salmon for the main course.

We finished up the meal with some homemade pear ginger sorbet that Jennie made in her new ice cream machine. Delicious.

Spnork? Knifoon? Forspife?

We watched a bit of the beer bottling process (Jennie and Travis made an IPA) before we had to head home. Alas, some of us did not have Columbus Day off.

Thee Red Fez and Firehouse XIII: A Night Out in Providence

A constellation of red Christmas lights dot the ceiling above the bar, giving the room a vivid crimson cast. The walls are covered with an odd assortment of old ads, abstract art, an animal head or two, and of course, a selection of red fez-adorned creepy/whimsical monkeys with cymbals. Darker than a cave and much more cozy, Thee Red Fez feels welcoming from the moment you step through the door.

We were in Providence for the evening because Joel's band, the Somerville Symphony Orkestar, had a gig closing for Humanwine at a performance space in town on the outskirts of town, Firehouse XIII. We had eaten at Red Fez about a year before and really liked it, and we tried to return a few weeks ago but sadly found it closed for vacation, so we were excited to finally return.

A booth was almost ready, so we waited at the bar for a bit, let our eyes adjust, and ordered drinks: a gin rickey for Joel and a mojito for me (of course.) The mojito had cachaça, making it more caipirinha than mojito, a welcome touch of bitterness. A welcome touch of oblivion. Mojito tipsy is the best kind of tipsy. The menu proclaimed that their mojitos are amazing (or awesome or great; I don't remember the adjective) and I was not disappointed. The bartender had really put effort into the muddling of the mint, sending ice flying everywhere, and it paid off. Joel's drink was great as well.

hello mo(ji)to

We scanned the menu while waiting at the bar, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that they were offering a three-course prix fixe Restaurant Week menu. There were three choices each for appetizers and entrees and two shared dessert options.

First Course
For our appetizers, we nixed the salad, the boring third choice, and went for the Rhode Island corn fritters with sweet chile sauce and the mussels in Portuguese-style broth with charred tomatoes, garlic, wine, and chourico (served with grilled bread).

Local corn fritters with tasty dipping sauce

The fritters were fried little nuggets of deliciousness with actual pieces of corn in them. The sweet chile dipping sauce added a bit of Thai flair.

Mussels...but where's the chourico?

Sadly the expected chourico seemed to be absent from this dish, but the tomato broth was still hearty and flavorful. Grilled bread is so simple and so wonderful (for a Boston grilled bread fix, try East Coast Grill, and be sure to get it with the roasted garlic!) While I enjoyed this dish very much, my mussel loyalties will always be with Publick House's moules frites.

Second Course
We decided against the "famous" macaroni and cheese, which I had tried last year, because although it's good, mac and cheese is just ridiculously heavy. We were in the mood for something lighter so Joel could dance around on stage later and I could dance around in the crowd. (Ok, that's a lie. I just stood there with a camcorder when I wasn't playing with Humanwine's adorable dog.) We got the pulled pork plate (slow cooked pulled pork shoulder with bbq beans and garlicky kale) and local bluefish and chips (cornmeal-coated, pan-fried bluefish with Tabasco remoulade, slaw, and Old Bay fries). Joel is obsessed with the idea of Old Bay fries, so it was a given that we'd order that. (I'm using "we" because we pretty much shared everything. Restaurant Week menus are awesome for sharing!)

A bowl of pork 'n' beans. And slaw and kale.

In the dark, it was hard to tell what I was eating. (This photo is illuminated with Joel's iPhone, but in real life, it was impossible to differentiate between pork and beans.) The pork was perfectly tender, the kale was refreshing, and the slaw was even decent; typically I avoid slaw because I hate mayonnaise more than anything in the world, but this one wasn't mayo-y. Joel said the beans were prepared perfectly; I liked the flavor but I just don't like beans no matter how hard I try. The texture bothers me. Overall, definitely a solid dish.

RI bluefish and magical Old Bay fries

A lighter option than a typical fish 'n' chips, the cornmeal-coated bluefish was very satisfying, and the fries were wonderful, as expected. Old Bay is sort of like fairy dust: a little sprinkle, and magical things happen.

Third Course
The choices were a strawberry shortcake or a brownie with bourbon-roasted peaches. Strawberry shortcake is easy to find, and I was intrigued by the chocolate/peach pairing, so we chose the latter. Unfortunately, right before ours was made, they ran out of peaches. The substitute was Chambord-soaked strawberries - still good, but man, I really wanted to try those peaches. I was a little irritated by this because when we ordered the first two courses, we also ordered this one, but our waitress must have forgotten and asked us for the dessert order again after we finished the meal, so theoretically, we might have been able to get the peaches had the order gone in the first time. Oh well, still good! (Plus, the service was otherwise flawless and extremely friendly, so I hate to dwell on a fruit substitution, especially when it still tasted great.)

Brownie with bourbon-roasted peaches Chambord-soaked strawberries and a whole lot of whipped cream

Joel wasn't into the brownie's texture, but I enjoyed it.

Providence Restaurant Week > Boston Restaurant Week
The bill came; it was surprisingly low. Turns out our entrees - two courses each, plus a shared dessert! - were just $15 each. (The price hadn't been listed on the menu, so this was a very nice surprise.) Our drinks made up nearly half the bill (Boston prices, but larger portions). Providence Restaurant Week's official prices are $12.95 for a three-course lunch and $29.95 for a three-course dinner, but Thee Red Fez decided to be extra awesome and offer the dinner as a 2-for-1. Compare this to Boston's official Restaurant Week prices: two-course lunch for $15.10, three-course lunch for $20.10, three-course dinner for $33.10. I'll take a $13 three-course lunch over a $20 three course-lunch any day. (Actually, no, I wouldn't take either - that's a lot of food for mid-day! - but you can see the huge difference in price.)

On to the show!
As we left the restaurant, we saw this fantastic vehicle in the parking lot:

 
Later, I'll update this post to include some photos and video from the show, which was awesome. Due to some minor technical difficulties (read: 10 hours of blood, sweat, and tears yesterday upon realizing that my four-year-old laptop can't handle the beautiful 1080p footage I shot with my new camcorder), the videos aren't ready to go yet, but I think I found a reasonable solution involving converting the files to MPEG-4, reattaching the audio (it doesn't come through with the conversion), and then editing and posting. Some quality might be lost, but I'm not buying a new computer for a very long time. (Any suggestions for a better solution? In short, I have a standard Toshiba Satellite without any extra bells, whistles, or fancy graphics cards, and I'm using a free open source video editing program. The footage was shot at 1080p on an Insignia HDcam.)

To be continued... (dun dun dunnn)