Best Rhode Island Summer Food Events
Thursday, June 21, 2012
With the warm weather officially here, our thoughts turn the plethora of food and wine events we host each summer. Rhode Island’s beautiful summers provide the perfect backdrop for local and national chefs to wow us. We wanted to find 5 local food events that you and your family can enjoy this summer…
Providence Restaurant Weeks, 7/8-7/21
“The first one was so good we added another” was the motto of the Providence/Warwick Conventions and Visitors Bureau when diners flooded the capital city’s top eateries in the off month of July. July in Providence is one of the slowest months of the year as people take vacations and avoid the scorching downcity heat. Restaurant Week was started to help bring some life to these less than crowded streets. The idea was so successful that a second week was quickly added. The concept is simple and effective: during lunch hours, every restaurant offers a 3-course lunch menu (usually with choices in each course!) for the amazing price of $14.95 and a 3-course dinner menu for $29.95. All the restaurants offer their usual menus in addition, so if you want the pre fixe and your significant other wants the dish she orders every time…no problem. With more than 90 restaurants participating we promise you won’t be bored! www.goprovidence.com or check the individual restaurant websites.GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
Rhode Island Food Fights Ice Cream Showdown, 7/21
On July 21st, Wayland Square will be bustling with ice cream loving families for the Ice Cream Showdown. We figured we needed to put a family oriented event in with all the adult food and wine and what’s better than ice cream. Since our youths, the summer meant the ice cream man coming through the neighborhood or trips to the shop with Mom and Dad and Rhode Island Food Fights celebrates this tradition on July 21st. They are bringing together some of the state’s best ice cream makers in Wayland square for a smackdown to find the best ice cream. For the $10-or $5 for kids-ticket price you get to sample all the ice cream you want and watch as a panel of judges add their votes to yours and crown a champion of ice cream. We promise the brain freeze will go away sometime around mid-August. 264-0404, www.rifoodfights.com
The 28th Annual Charlestown Chamber of Commerce Seafood Festival, 8/3-5
The Fabulousness of this event cannot be over stated! Not only has it been going on for 28 years – an accomplishment by itself, but it manages to be the most spectacular celebration of seafood around. An extravaganza of Rhode Island’s best seafood, lobsters, steamers, chowder, fish and chips, clam cakes, corn on the cob more, there’s something for everyone. You’ll experience a plethora of summer-festival attractions here, like arts and crafts, rides, rock wall climbing, a car show and a petting zoo – you get the idea. But the real star of the show is the array of chowders, lobsters and other shellfish that are guaranteed fresh – they serve it all up so fast it could hardly be anything but! $8 Adults, Children 10 and under free. Ninigret Park, Old Post Road. www.charlestownrichamber.com
Farm Fresh Rhode Island Local Food Fest, 8/7
We have all been privy to the changes going on in the restaurant world. Large scale suppliers from far away have been replaced by local farms and boats that provide a bounty for local chefs to play with and we have been the winners. The real unsung hero in this movement has been Farm Fresh Rhode Island. People in the know have long known that Farm Fresh is the driving force behind this change in the way we eat. In the past, the problem chefs had with local farms was finding the time to visit them all and work their already packed schedules. Farm Fresh fixed this problem with their Market Mobile program. Now they go to all the local farms and deliver the chefs exactly what they want. Pretty cool, right? Their Local Food Fest brings together more than 50 local food purveyors and chefs in one of the state’s most beautiful settings (The Inn at Castle Hill) for an evening of food, friends and an incredible sunset. It promises to be an amazing night. www.farmfreshri.org
Outstanding in the Field Featuring Gracie’s, 9/12
For more than a decade, Gracie’s has been at the top of the food chain in Rhode Island restaurants. Always boasting a young, talented chef, Gracie’s and owner Ellen Gracyalny have helped push the envelope in Providence dining. They featured some of the 1st tasting menus in Providence and started a roof top garden for the restaurant years ago. On September 12th, Chef Matt Varga will bring his thoughtful, tasty food to the beautiful Aquidneck Farms for a white linen dinner of local-seasonal food right in the fields. If you are lucky, the dinner will include some of Aquidneck Farms’ incredible beef. It is raised locally and has incredible flavor and marbling. Chef Varga is truly an artist at letting flavors speak for themselves and the local flavors of the season are at their apex in late summer. Check the Gracie’s website for more information at www.graciesprovidence.com or through Outstanding in the Field at www.outstandinginthefield.com
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