Memorial Day report [East Bay RI/MA]

Regional Dining Discussions Boston, New England
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I wasn’t going to write up this up, but @caractacus inspired me (we ate in an historic restaurant which was fun).

We headed to RI this past Saturday for Memorial Day weekend. Made a quick cioppino for an early dinner because we had 8 pm tickets for the Lion King, which we’ve never seen, at Providence Performing Arts Center (Spring Onion loved it).

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Sunday, we had to go to Lowes due to some unfortunate property damage we incurred at the RI house, so we grabbed a late lunch beforehand at The Old Grist Mill in Seekonk which, in name-only, has been around since 1745. I hadn’t been there since I was in high school when a friend’s parents used to treat us girls once in a while for dinner. B loves places like this, which remind him of his dearly departed mom. An older gentleman who was a veteran was playing the piano in the tavern side, patriotic songs. We chatted with him afterwards and thanked him for his service and for his lively piano playing. B and Spring onion played chess while we waited for a table and I browsed the little store (I bought 2 jars of pickles from a local new-to-me place Wagglebees in Taunton; I left them at our RI house so I won’t be able to try them until we’re down there again in a couple of weeks). Great service, the guys loved their food (my veggie pasta was meh… basically the only vegetarian dish). I ordered the cabbage soup of the day which our awesome server neglected to inform me that it was a chorizo and cabbage soup but I should’ve known, this being SE Mass. Still I sipped the broth, ate the cabbage and beans, and handed it over to B who gladly finished the cup. B had some sort of grilled chicken sandwich, SO had chicken fingers. Homemade chips are good.

Untouched/unedited photos by SO.

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Monday we had to rush out to make a 2 pm glass-blowing class, so we got anti-good pizza from a local shop (nice people, though). Well, Spring Onion liked it. Interestingly, the glass-blowing studio (which was a lot of fun) has an attached ice cream parlor and they do ice cream making classes, which I think will be in our future.

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I worked there throughout college. It burned to the ground in a massive fire in 2012, I did not realize they had rebuilt and re-opened. And I had completely forgotten its claim to history. It was a good job/good money for a college kid back then.

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I had no idea of you working there or of the fire. I thought it looked a bit different than when I went as a kid.

ETA: I just looked up the fire. An 18-wheeler flipped over on its side and barreled into the building, rupturing gas lines. I see the old images and that’s what I remember…a gray-weathered building, much smaller than the current incarnation, with that beautiful hearth. I can’t even imagine how horrifying that must have been for the neighborhood.

I had to pick the photo with the inflatable lobster.

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Completely new building. The fire was bad. My college years and work there was significantly farther back in history, lol. When I worked there it was a special occasion type of place and we’d get local celebrities in.

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Was the complimentary cinnamon bread a thing back then? I don’t remember it but I’m picking up Spring Onion now from his afterschool activity and he’s reminding me about the cinnamon bread, which he loved.

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No cinnamon bread. Absolutely massive salad bar with scali loaf I believe. Prime rib, steaks, king crab legs (remember those?), baked stuffed shrimp. Baked potatoes or rice pilaf.

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I remembered the huge salad bar which was a shadow of itself (I even told B that it was much smaller than I remembered; we did not partake). There was still a line-up for it.

I was a vegetarian all through high school so I only ate the salad bar and baked potatoes, which made for a fine and hearty meal. I love a good scali bread.

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We could have salad bar and baked potatoes for free. I about turned into a salad bar and baked potato as a student, as did my co-workers.

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