Some of the best benevolent ideas can come from unlikely and unexpected places. A few years ago, Bonnie Combs, marketing director for Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, was crossing a city intersection that was covered with litter. She took note of the quote stenciled on it: “Keep it Clean, Protect Your Water” and took […]
In addition to writing about culinary adventures in Motif, I lead guided food tours every weekend with RI Red Food Tours. We traverse the streets of downtown PVD, eating small bites from seven different restaurants, and one of our stops is Knead Doughnuts. At least once every tour, I hear the comment, “Wow! I’m not […]
The first time I tried Vic’s craft ice cream, formerly known as Fountain and Co., was through the Stock Culinary Goods’ window on Hope Street. I didn’t realize that Victoria Young, the woman who founded Fountain and Co., and now the new owner of Vic’s Hand-Crafted Ice Cream in Barrington, was one of the […]
Lanna Nawa and Saroj Bhandari reacted to the devastating 2015 earthquake in Nepal by raising more than $10,000 through various fundraisers with assistance from some of their college friends. They used the money to build their own school in Ramche, Nepal. To keep the school funded, they set up pop-up shops at various locations, selling backpacks […]
Evelyn’s Drive-In is the real deal. There are a lot of excellent places to get New England seafood around Rhode Island. Restaurants serving clam cakes, clam chowder, lobster rolls and fish n’ chips are in solid supply in the Ocean State. But how many of those restaurants include these directions on their website? “Motor slowly […]
The long-awaited drama Vault, based on the audacious 1975 robbery of the Hudson Bonded Vault company in PVD, a private safe-deposit company used by big-time criminals to store their loot under the protection of organized crime, opens to the public June 7 for a RI sneak preview at Showcase cinemas in Providence and Warwick (the […]
Abundance by Michael Fine (320 pages, PM Press, published May 1, 2019). Doctors among warriors occupy an unusual position in society, witness to much yet trusted and expected to respect confidences. The character Doc Daneeka in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 1961, defines the title that has become a standard idiom of American English. MASH: A […]
The Broth Bros are lighting up Instagram feeds around New England with scintillating pictures of noodles, chowder, ramen and all things soup! I caught up with Stephanie Martineau, the creator and social media manager of the Broth Bros. She was on holiday in Thailand, but luckily for me she hit a solid wifi zone and […]
Starting a business can be a lengthy process. For Urban Greens Co-Op, the wait has been worth it. It was founded in 1999 as a buying club for a small group of people with a mission to supplement the lack of grocery store options in Providence’s West End. Since then, it has grown into a […]
Increasingly, consumers are making an effort to shop — and eat — more sustainably, with an effort to prioritize eating local foods that reduce one’s carbon footprint. Traditional Styrofoam packaging, plastic cutlery and take-out bags can wreak havoc on the environment, and several RI eateries have taken note. So Motif has come up with a list […]