The Duck & Bunny.

The Duck & Bunny

312 Wickenden Street

Providence, RI 02903

401. 270. 3300

The Duck & Bunny is a snuggery. And no, owners Jessica and Daniel didn't make up the word, but they've certainly made their new restaurant live up to its meaning: a cosy and comfortable place. Part bar, part tea shop, the Duck & Bunny is nothing if it isn't cozy and just a little bit fancy, too.

Full disclosure: I visited the snuggery for the first time a few weeks ago, but the end of the semester meant that I didn't have a moment to write about it before now. Busy or no, I wouldn't dream of leaving Providence for the summer without writing about the tastiest small bites of all. I'm talking about cupcakes, and at the Duck & Bunny they're all made in-house by Johnson & Wales pastry chefs. When possible, the chefs integrate local flavorings, like those used in the buttermilk honey glazed cupcake with lavender buttercream frosting that I gobbled a few weeks ago.

Daniel and Jessica source their food through Farm Fresh RI, which provides restaurants with weekly emails and lists of available ingredients from local farms. According to Jessica, the process couldn't be easier. Want local honey? Check out the Farm Fresh list, and if it's there, it's yours. On a chilly spring day like this one, hurry to the Duck & Bunny for a little local treat and hot cuppa.

The Liberty Elm Diner

The Liberty Elm Diner

777 Elmwood Avenue

Providence, RI

401.467.0777

Sometimes after a long week the only thing that will make me feel better and get me geared up for another one, is a Sunday morning breakfast out on the town.  When I was little, my family would sometimes go to a local diner on weekend mornings and my sisters and I would fill up on hot chocolate with whipped cream before our short stacks had even arrived. These days, I'm a little more concerned with actually leaving room for breakfast, but hot chocolate or no, these weekend meals are just as much a special treat.

After seeing Jen's post featuring the The Liberty Elm last week, I couldn't help myself but to try it out this weekend. Besides, this women-owned diner is housed in a 1947 Worcester Lunch Car* and with all this talk about Food on the Move having my breakfast cooked up in a vintage lunch car seemed like a must.

The diner serves its fair share of eggs and bacon, but it isn't your average greasy spoon. Liberty Elm supports the use of local and regional products and you can rest assured that you'll be eating happy eggs with your preservative-free bacon. My own breakfast was a crust-less quiche made with Narragansett Creamery herb and garlic Angelito cheese and Allen Farms pea greens and it was every bit as delicious as it sounds. Locally roasted New Harvest Coffee was the perfect accompiament to the eggs, but the real treat was the freshly squeezed orange juice made with Liberty Elm's brand new juicer, happily cranking out fresh juice at the rate of 24 oranges per minute.

If you're searching for a traditional Rhode Island treat, then it's the Johnny Cakes you're after. They're made with Kenyon's Gristmill White Cornmeal from Usquepaugh and drizzled with real New England maple syrup. And if you're feeling especially hungry for locally-sourced goodness, be sure to check out this week's Earth Dinner, a prix fixe all-local farm-to-diner menu being served on April 22. See details, here.

*If there are any other history nuts out there, you might be pleased to know that in January of this year, the Liberty Elm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You can read more about the Diner's History, here.

Truck Farm

Ever seen a farm on wheels? Well, if you haven't yet, you'll have your chance soon enough! On April 19, filmmakers Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney of King Corn and The Greening of Southie will be wending their way to Providence, urban farm in tow.  Last spring, using green-roof technology, lightweight soil and heirloom seeds, they transformed their vintage Dodge into a traveling 12-member CSA. Ian and Curt planted seeds, parked the truck on a Brooklyn street, and waited for the sun and rain to work their charms. 


Truck Farm's story has been told everywhere from NPR to The Washing Post to Japanese morning TV. And now it's coming to Providence. Ian and Curt are using the farm to explore the burgeoning movement of urban agriculture. Part public art, part media phenomenon, part film, Truck Farm is a vibrant symbol of how growing and eating well can be fun. 

At 8:00 on the evening of April 19, Ian and Curt will speak about the importance of local and sustainable agriculture and share segments of their work-in-progress film, Truck Farm. The event will be held in Salomon Center, DeCiccio Family Auditorium on Brown University's campus. The event is free and open to the public and we envision the evening as being one where Rhode Islanders from all walks of life will come together to learn about the thrills and pitfalls of planting gardens where you least expect them. 

The event is being held in conjunction with Food on the Move: America's Traveling Tastes, a collaborative exhibit between Brown University's M.A. program in public humanities and the Johnson & Wales Culinary Arts Museum. The exhibit opens to the public on April 16. And, if Truck Farm isn't Food on the Move, we're not sure what is. 

Special thanks to all of our sponsors:

The John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage
Whole Foods Markets
The Brown University Sustainable Food Initiative 
ecoRI
The Center for Environmental Studies - Brown University
Brown Dining Services
emPOWER

Julian's.

Julian's

318 Broadway

Providence, RI 02902

401.861.1770

"Handmade with love and imagination," is the tagline that folks at Julian's best like to describe their style. I sat down a few weeks ago with manager Brian Oakley to dig a little deeper. As a recent transplant from North Carolina, I had nearly fallen off my chair the first time I ate at Julian's and saw the menu's promise of fried house pickles. Delighted, I quickly scanned the menu for shrimp and grits. And while my desire was met on that particular night with a special of shrimp and beet infused grits, Julian's doesn't resign itself to only southern cooking. Chef Mike Nice explains that his inspiration comes from all over the place and that having developed a trusting following, he has the freedom to experiment with different flavors and culinary traditions. The menu reflects the variety of influences with dishes ranging from naan white pizza with white potato-leek sauce, watercress, oyster mushrooms, mozzarella, and balsamic reduction, to a pesto-tofu scramble, to a tempeh sausage cassoulet. 

Julian's is perhaps best known for its brunch offerings and Star Wars figurines, but lately its dinner menu has been getting special attention, too. Monthly Beer Dinners have been selling out within hours, eager customers craving the dinners that pair an assortment of beers with six courses of carefully selected menu items that bring out the best of the brews' flavors.

But even though Julian's offers customers an impressive international beer list and a range of dishes with influences from Asia to France, the restaurant hopes to serve foods that come from places a little closer to home. And their committment to handmade comes out in the dinners they prepare using goods from local sources. Poultry is delivered from local poultry company Antonelli's on Atwells Avenue and last summer Julian's paired with local chefs in RAFT's heirloom vegetable grow-out. Getting supplies from local farms is standard practice for Julian's. Farmers like Catherine of Red Planet Vegetables, drop by the restaurant on a weekly basis, offering up the week's garden favorites for the chefs to incorporate into nightly specials. Julian's doesn't even have a walk-in refrigerator, so they can guarantee you're getting only the freshest ingredients. And condiments from ketchup to mayo are all house-made.

As for the atmosphere inside the restaurant, it somehow manages to be equal parts cozy and frenetic: neon road signs paired with a giant hanging whisk and rotating displays of works by local artists all contribute to the scene. And Julian's latest over-sized acquistion? An English double-decker bus--soon to be outfitted with a kitchen. Now we're talking about food on the move...

Fresh: the Movie

tonight's screening has been postponed to 4/27 due to the rain. stay dry!

What are you up to tonight? I'm headed down to Local 121 for a whole evening dedicated to good food. Local 121, one the forerunners in the Providence restaurant scene, is known for serving food that is not only delicious but also locally sourced. They'll be serving a buffet of local treats and screening Ana Sofia Joanes's Fresh, a film that celebrates the people responsible for re-thinking our food system. Doors open at 6:00 and the film will begin at 7:00. Tickets are $12.00. Hope to see you there!

Kafé Lila.

Kafe Lila

250 Main Street

Pawtucket, RI 02806

401.305.3050

Kafé Lila is one of my very favorite weekend spots. When I moved to Providence from North Carolina in August, I immediately began the hunt for my favorite coffee shop. I found it in Kafé Lila, and I haven't looked back. Not only is the place cozy and quiet, it also serves up really good locally sourced food.

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to sit down for a chat with owner Karen Pace. As most good ideas are apt to do, the idea for Kafé Lila began with ice cream. A few years ago Karen, a trained textile artist, began making ice cream and selling it out of a bicycle cart. Once the ice cream business took off, Karen decided to open up a storefront and found herself a place in Pawtucket's Grant Building. Three years later, the café's still in full force, and Karen's still churning out ice cream, all of which is made using Rhody Fresh milk and in flavors that only a genius could dream up--blueberry ginger, vegan coconut chili, local quince, olive oil, organic coffee--the list goes on, and I promise you, you'll want to try them all.

{The view from inside the Grant Building}.

But more than offering delicious varieties of homemade ice cream, Kafé Lila keeps you well fed and caffeinated. Karen tries to use as many locally sourced whole foods in her cafe as possible. With the help of Schartner Farm's frozen vegetables, Kafé Lila feels summery even in the wintertime. In growing season, vegetables from Red Planet Vegetables and Southside Community Land Trust's gardens also wend their way to Pawtucket. And it's the tomato jam served on top of Kafé Lila's signature frittata (made, of course, with eggs from Rhody Fresh) that keeps me coming back for more.

{Frittata with tomato jam}.

{Kafé Lila's sweet treats}.

Beyond serving up local foods to hungry customers, Karen has plans in the works to continue with her goal of educational outreach--starting up a series of edible gardening classes and cooking instruction that focuses on making good meals using simple ingredients. In the meantime, a morning stop into Kafé Lila will leave you feeling like you just spent an hour in your grandmother's living room--if, of course your grandmother's living room is the sort where you can find sweet treats, warm coffee, plush vintage furniture, and homemade ice cream.

{Mid-century furniture finds from Rocket to Mars in Providence}.

Erin

Erin's the woman behind the design of the website here at Small Bites. But in addition to making sure that everything's running smoothly on the blog, Erin can be found ducking into local restaurants who source their food from nearby places.

Having gotten her first taste of the sustainable farming world during her work on the outreach campaign for her brother-in-law's film, King Corn, Erin has become a local food devotee. Here at Small Bites, Erin's interested in finding the restaurants serving up locally sourced foods and in getting the stories of the places and people who supply these fresh goods to local restaurants.

Contact Erin.