RI Food
 

Is Rhode Island known for any particular types of food/dishes?

My wife and I are going to be in and around Providence, Newport and Westerly. Any suggestions on good, cheap local food?

Coffee Milk (official state drink)

Whole belly fried clams (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives featured them Evelyn's in Tiverton as their speciality but I think you can get them in many places)

Excellent seafood.

Maybe Portuguese.

Del's Lemonade

We just returned from 10 days in Newport. If you love seafood you are in a great place. Fresh lobster, mussels, clams, awesome clam chowder, lobster rolls etc.

Newport is expensive so finding cheap is hard to do but definitely doable.

Flo's Clam Shack had inexpensive items. It has an upstairs balcony looking out at Easton Beach. Quirky and fun spot.
www.flosclamshack.net

The Black Pearl on the Patio. Inside has more on the menu and outside has bar fare. On the water.
http://blackpearlnewport.com/patio.htm

If you can go to Castle Hill Inn even if only for a drink. Grab a lawn chair and enjoy the view of the bay and all the boats sailing by. Beautiful spot.

Definitely a Del's lemonade!

We have been in the area many times & all of these are worth visiting. None should break the bank. Don't know much about Providence area though.

Coast Guard House
40 Ocean Road (scenic 1A)
Narragansett
401-789-0700 Good food, GREAT views, fair prices. Take a walk on Ocean Road. VERRRY Nice.
Make Reservation for sunset
The place to go on 1st visit


SPAIN of Narragansett
Portuguese/Spanish/American
1144 Ocean Road
401-783-9770
Very good food, reasonable prices. No view
Reservations

Twin Willows
865 Boston Neck Road (scenic 1A)
Narraganset
401-789-8153
Bar/Restaurant… nice view from outside or window.
Best Fish & chips in RI. Highly recommend for lunch

Newport:
There are some good restaurants & clubs along Thames St. We like these:
Brick Alley Pub
140 Thames St
(401) 849-6334 Good for lunch
Newport Blues Café
286 Thames St
(401) 841-5510 Good food… good entertainment (bands), dancing
Reservations are good idea
This was our favorite Newport spot.

About a mile north of Newport in Middletown is Flo's Clam Shack (very popular w/locals) and across the street is Atlantic Beach Club. Great food a bit on the pricey side but worth a look at the menu.

Have a great time/

A coffee cabinet will be a coffee milkshake but I can't remember whether it contains ice cream or not since in New England, milk shakes don't have ice cream but frappes do. Providence restaurants can be expensive. You might want to visit Federal Hill for local Italian food.

Clam Cakes are my favorite RI food...we used to get them at a seafood shack in Point Judith.

This website has some fun facts about RI food: www.quahog.org/cuisine/

You have to try a "stuffie" a stuffed quahog (hard-shelled clam). The Portuguese-style ones will have linguica and lots of hot pepper. Flo's, both in Portsmouth and Middletown serve them this way.

WOW...thanks for all the help. I can't wait to try all the seafood!

Any thoughts on these places?

TICKETS Bar and Grille
Easton's Point
KJ's Pub

Just to narrow it down:
My wife and I are very casual early 30's beer drinkers that like to try local. We are not looking for dress-up, reservations, fancy, wine drinking establishments.

Thanks!

Well, all 3 of them are within walking distance to each other.

Tickets is a sports bar, although downstairs is more of a restaurant. The food is OK, nothing great, but for watching a game, having a pizza, or sandwich or wings it's perfect. Place gets packed during late season baseball games and football Sundays, not very crowded at other times.

Haven't been to Easton's Point or KJ's in a while, but they are both pub type places with average casual food. Not a bad place to mingle with the locals.

If you like seafood (oops, just saw that you do), or just want to grab a beer/drink at a funky place, head across the street from Tickets to Flo's.

Also for some local nightlife around there (there isn't too much because you're close to downtown Newport) try Rusty's behind Flo's very casual beach/local bar with live music on weekends.

If you head into town (Newport), the Brick Alley would fit the bill for casual, local, good food. It will be busy with tourists too, but if you wait and snag a seat at the bar the bartenders are super friendly, and surprisingly the bar fills with locals at various times because most of th tourists are waiting for tables.

We are going to try a few beers at Coddington Brewing in Middleton. We try and hit as many breweries/brewpubs whenever we travel.

Flo's menu looks yummy and pretty cheap. I actually found a couple of people online saying to stay away from Flo's, that the food was not very good there anymore.

Flo's isn't gourmet quality, that's for sure. But it has a dive ambiance and the prices are low. Shrimp, oysters and lobster rolls weren't bad at all. Clamcakes were doughy and lacking clams, though.

Good suggestions above -- will vouch for coffee milk, Del's frozen lemonade, and any kind of seafood, especially clamcakes or lobster as well as fried or steamed or stuffed clams. There's also a version of clam chowder unique to the state -- it uses a clear broth, as opposed to the cream-based New England version or the tomato-based Manhattan version.

There's a unique hot dog mini chain with an outpost in the Olneyville section of Providence, called Olneyville New York System hot wieners. They're small dogs in buns topped with a crumbly sweetish chili, mustard, and celery salt.

Also, check out Federal Hill in Providence, which is the Italian part of town. Lots of Italian restaurants, delis, bakeries, and such.

Trinity Brewhouse in Providence has great beer (brewed on premises) and pretty good burgers/pub food.

Not to expensive.

In the Westerly area you will encounter a local sausage called "soupy" -- distantly related to the Italian soppresatta. You can buy some at Dunn's Corner Market, usually. The sweet is mild, the mild is hot and the hot is incendiary.

Good clam fritters at the Hitching Post, down the Post Road in Charlestown. This is just a roadside fast food place.

And do try the above mentioned RI clam chowder (sometimes called "Niantic" after the town in CT), with clear broth.

If you happen to be in Providence some night make sure you stop at Haven Brothers - its a truck of sorts parked in front of City Hall. Best hamburger grinders in the world and a Providence tradition. It was featured recently on the Today Show - they actually hauled the truck all the way to Manhattan to be on the show.

Johnnycakes!! Yummy for breakfast, and most R.I. diners have them.Try the Hope Diner in Newport.
and clamcakes- at Evelyn's, in Tiverton,R.I.Autocrat coffee syrup is a must- as is Del's lemonade. And R.I.clam chowder- not as thick as others, but oh so good.