“This is not a sad story,” declared Daniel Crenca on the closing of his family restaurant, NicoBella’s, in downtown PVD, after a 10-year run that weathered a pandemic, a partial bridge closure, rising rents, and a dramatic hike in electricity costs. The final straw was, facetiousness aside, the rising price of eggs. “It is a celebration, particularly for me and my son Armando,” Crenca continued during an interview on a Saturday morning at his eatery, located on the corner of Dorrance and Westminster Streets. He sat with his son at a corner table beneath paintings of surrealistic images created by his brother, artist Umberto Crenca.
By the owner’s reckoning, NicoBella’s has employed scores of people to serve a quarter million customers in the span of a decade. “We’ve met people from all over the world,” he said, including a fair number of celebrities, such as actors Paul Rudd, Manu Bennett, Ralph Macchio, a couple of the Impractical Jokers, and Robert Plant, the lead singer of legendary Led Zeppelin. Armando waited on the rock star’s table. “It was wild,” he said. “Working with my Dad gave me the opportunity to meet a large group of different people, and to be a part of their life briefly.” Sometimes he’d see someone who was having a bad day. “We’d give them food, and conversation, and help them get through it. We wanted this to be a place where they could always come on those bad days.” That inspired Armando to pursue a career in healthcare. He recently completed the medical assistant training program at Lincoln Technical Institute. “I like helping people. And one time, when I was in the hospital, it’s the people who were like a light in the dark for me,” he said. “Armando made the Dean’s List,” his father proudly added.
Crenca named his restaurant after his oldest daughter, Nicolina, and his youngest daughter, Arabella. He said he considers the restaurant, which, with an Italian flare, served breakfast, lunch and dinner, to be a legacy of his family. “I’ve been in the restaurant business since I was 15 years old,” he said. Crenca started out washing dishes at Railroad Deli and learned to be a shortorder cook there. He then served dinners and worked in the kitchen of his cousin’s restaurant, Alfredo’s, on Thayer Street. At 18, Crenca started working with one of the Ocean State’s leading chefs, Nino, at Capriccio, on Pine Street. The restaurant’s owner, Vinny, became a mentor, and a friend for the past 40 years.
Armondo followed in his father’s footsteps. In the early days, he’d go to the restaurant after school, finish his homework, and then start washing pots and pans in the kitchen. Crenca recalled looking through the window of a downtown storefront and having a vision of the restaurant he wanted to establish. NicoBella’s has a retro look harkening back to the heyday of diners. His brother’s artwork lines the walls, with pieces from his collection Fragments and his series Divine Providence, and there is an eclectic collection of nicknacks like Santa statues sprinkled here and there. Midway through what would be the lifespan of his restaurant, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. During the lockdown, downtown was a ghost town. Subsequent strict social distancing mandates led to the demise of a number of the smaller restaurants because they could at most serve only an unprofitable fraction of their regular customers. “I came in every day during the pandemic. One of my waitresses and I would clean the place, and prepare for the day when we could reopen. It kept alive the spirit of NicoBella’s,” Crenca said. Had they not done that, his restaurant might not have reopened.
But the pandemic’s effects linger to this day. “This building has gone from ninety percent full before the pandemic to thirty percent full. The streets are empty Monday through Friday,” he said. Foot traffic at lunchtime is but a shadow of the once bustling downtown. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the December 2023 closure of the westbound lanes of the Washington Bridge due to critical safety concerns gave another wallop to downtown businesses. Cars, buses, and trucks were stuck in snarled traffic, adding hours to commuting. “The whole thing threw off the rhythm of our steady customers. The only business we do now is tourists and events,” Crenca said. So it came as no surprise when the building’s owner asked Crenca to return the keys to the restaurant, making it the fifth downtown eatery to close in recent months. Ironically, the owner had contacted Crenca when he was just starting to plan a celebration to mark his restaurant’s tenth anniversary.
Crenca announced the closure on his Facebook page. Hundreds of comments came in. It meant the world to the owner. “I read all of the Facebook messages to my wife. I was crying on the couch,” he said. The celebration did go on though. It was held on Sunday, April 27, throughout the afternoon. Crenca and his son offered a free buffet to everyone who came to say goodbye, along with a cash bar, and with his brother’s paintings selling for half price. “Amando and I want to thank everyone all over the world who’ve come to NicoBella’s,” he said. Any regrets? None. “Ultimately, if all I get out of this after 10 years is to have shared this experience with my son, then that has been the greatest experience of my life,” Crenca commented. “And I’m not done.” So what’s next? Plenty.
Working with a guy who goes by the moniker Tom the Junkman, Crenca will be the developer and manager of Angell Street Galleries on the East Side. In addition, the two are developing another gallery, called Art Studios, which will be located at the corner of Dean Street and Westminster Street. And behind the Biltmore, they’ll run a Welcome to Providence store. Its proceeds will go toward PVD Santa, a nonprofit whose mission is to bring a smile to the faces of the children of Providence, according to Crenca, whose white beard would make Santa jealous. “I tell people all the time,” Crenca concluded, “I get up in the morning, and I live my life.” No matter where life happens to be at the time: whether in a restaurant, in an art gallery, or at a nonprofit, he’s always serving up something in the city he loves. •