Projo Food Blog

Saturday's Savor Providence to benefit Trinity Rep had a challenge: Tropical Storm Danny. Had this been a traditional "Taste of" kind of event, it would have been held in a single spot, with food tastings set table by table. Rain would have mattered.

But Savor Providence was planned to be far more imaginative. It was more like a scavenger hunt with food or drink as the prize. Participants got a 10 page coupon book with each page representing a food item or drink. They also got a map showing each of the restaurants or establishments serving the food and drink. We want from place to place, got wet, ate and dried off and got wet again.

But it was great fun, wet feet and all, and I would do it again in second.

I made it to five spots. Our favorites were the Blue Grotto, Nancy's Fancies Cakes and Cafe Noir.

The Blue Grotto offered two dishes: a sliced pears and crumbled goat cheese with mixed greens and candied pecans tossed in a pomegranate vinagrette and gnocchi Casalinga (homemade tomato basil gnocchi in a garlic, white wine tomato sauce tossed with romano cheese and topped with fresh herb ricotta). I love gnocchi but the salad was the knockout here with the perfect combination of sweet, sour, creamy and salty. Both dishes made a satisfying treat even if they were served in disposable bowls with plastic silverware. It was two tickets well spent.

From there we walked to Nancy's and had coffee and two homemade biscotti and the cupcake of our choice. I had Red Velvet and F. had a S'mores one with all the same things as the campfire treat. The sweets were just perfect and we took home what we didn't finish.

My friend F and I started the day at Cafe Noir and completely enjoyed the excellent Steak frites, roquefort butter, pommes frites and Pate de Campagne, whole grain mustard, cornichons. Service was lovely and formal. The dishes were delivered quickly which we appreciated since all our stops had to be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and there were more than 20 choices. We got $5 coupons for filling out a card.

Both of us were not fond of the pungent and doughy Ginger plum duck potstickers, tangerine ponzu we tried at Chinese Laundry. The staff was excellent.

We found uninspiring wine (and so little of it) and even more uninspiring cheese at Eno Fine Wines and Farmstead. The servers were not too engaged either. All this was a surprise.

Also surprising was the fact that I only saw one other person tip the servers. The coupons clearly mentioned gratuity wasn't included. Really people, a few dollars were in order.

Now we could have tried much more and many did and no doubt have penciled it in for next year.

The cost of $35 was to benefit Trinity Rep and you had to feel good about that.

 Tags  Blue Grotto Cafe Noir Nancy's Fancies Cakes Trinity Rep

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