Bluefin Grille
Bluefin Grille Restaurant is the restaurant in the hotel and has sustainable, fresh seafood and uses locally grown ingredients.
There are a handful of casual and fast food places within one-half mile walking distance, including a Whole Foods Market.
Providence has a good restaurant scene, and is particularly known for seafood, Italian food, and Portuguese food. Most of these are not within close walking distance to the hotel but easily accessible by taxi, Uber, or Lyft.
There is also a very robust delivery (grubhub/doordash) scene.
Local food oddities
A quahog (pronounced co-hog) is a big clam; get it stuffed. Schrod is a young haddock or codfish. Scupp is a small, sweet, (very) bony white fish. Clam chowder should never be made with tomatoes, but some places will have it that way. Ask!
If you order a ‘regular’ coffee, it will have plenty of milk and sugar in it. Eclipse Coffee Syrup and milk is a local thing; the company, Autocrat, also makes other flavors. Iced coffee is acceptable any time of year. Dunkin’s rules, but for those of you who prefer burnt coffee, you can probably find the occasional Starbucks. You’re likely to pass three Dunk’s on the way.
Atwells Avenue, just over I-95 is the Italian district, and the place to go to get good Italian food. Expect a lot of pasta & red sauce.
It’s not a hoagie or a grinder, it’s a sub. Though you can order an Italian grinder in most sub shops, which will have a variety of meats and cheese, lettuce and tomato, and be dressed with Italian salad dressing. Let them know if you want ‘hots’ – a spoonful of marinated hot Italian peppers. Most sub shops are run by Greeks or Syrians, if not run by Italians, so you can often find souvlaki, gyros, kebabs and baklava on the menu.
Del’s Frozen Lemonade is an intense, lemon-flavored Italian ice, with chunks of whole lemon (including peel) in it. Amazing.
Old-time Rhode Islanders put white vinegar on their French fries.
The New York System is a small, local diner chain, known for its cheap (but good) hot dogs, aka wieners, and cholesterol-laden, egg-based meals (like any good diner).
It’s not a milkshake or a frappe – it’s a cabinet. Unless you’re going to Newport Creamery, in which case, get the awful-awful. (However, “frappe” is understood everywhere.)
Although Rocky Point Park, an amusement park, died in the mid-90’s, they are still remembered for their clam fritters, and you may find them on local menus.