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Sura Korean Restaurant & Sushi Bar
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Jacky's Waterplace & Sushi Bar ...
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... in the Waterplace Luxury Condominium Towers's patented Flying Nun hat
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Sally Fields will visit. Don't worry, she'll be late!
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P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Providence Place
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Eddy & Westminster, before Bowl & Board closed, soon to house Teriyaki & Korean House
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Sign announcing new restaurant. Shouldn't it be Teriyaki & Korea House?
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Dear Dr. Downtown: Do you see any significance in the efflorescence of Asian restaurants in downtown Providence? -- Kon-Tiki in Canonchet
The doctor recalls 2006 when Capital Grille had to gird its loins to compete with three new steakhouses in downtown ("Downtown lights, steaks and droogs," Sept. 28, 2006). Not only did all of the steakhouses open -- Fleming's in the Westin, Ruth's Chris in the GTECH Building and Shula's 347 Grill (no e) in the Hilton -- but they are all still grilling ("I be chillin' while they be grillin,' " to paraphrase a wise old apron of the doctor's acquaintance).
Now, Dr. Downtown's old standby on Mathewson Street, Dragon 2000, must gird to fend off new Asian hordes pouring into downtown. Already, Sura Korean Restaurant & Sushi Bar has opened, last spring in the Burgess Building on Westminster Street, and Jacky's Waterplace & Sushi Bar has opened in the Flying Nun's hat of the Waterplace Luxury Condominium Towers. (The doc and especially his wife were rooting for the desserterie originally planned.) P.F. Chang's China Bistro is opening where the Napa Valley Grille used to be at Providence Place, to judge by the concrete horse that recently appeared on the sidewalk of Francis Street. The horse is cloaked in what the doctor takes to be the ancient battle raiment of a warrior's steed in the Chang Dynasty. And to top it off, right across from Sura, in Bowl & Board's old space at Westminster and Eddy, Teriyaki & Korean House (was Solomon's Market, on Benefit) will be opening soon. The doctor is impressed.
Dear Dr. Downtown: Kon-Tiki didn't ask you to provide a long and tedious list displaying the doctor's knowledge of establishments that no longer exist or never did. He demanded a portentous pontification. What does it all mean? Don't stall! -- Impatient in Peace Dale
Well, the doctor hesitates to pronounce on what it signifies when a round of steakhouse openings is followed, five years down the pike, by a round of Asian restaurant openings. Have all of the empty condos finally been purchased by those famous lovers of Chinese takeout, the Jews? (Dr. Downtown can make that kind of joke; he's a Jew, and a self-stereotyping Jew to boot). A more plausible explanation is the explosion of Asian college students in the city. America's in deep hock to the Red Chinese. Repayment can start with chopsticks. (As they say, in for a dime, in for a dollar.)
Dear Dr. Downtown: You are a monster. But leaving that aside, what do you think of the fecundity of the local restaurant scene? Will it continue? -- Not Famished in Frenchtown
The refusal of the restaurant scene here to experience a culinary recession never ceases to amaze the doctor. How extraordinary that the Rhode Island economy -- to the extent that it has an economy -- sustains the entire list of steakhouses that so angered Impatient in Peace Dale. Not privy to their books, Dr. Downtown cannot vouch for the day after tomorrow.
Nor can he pledge to solve this longstanding mystery. He is Dr. Downtown, not Inspector Poirot. But permit the doctor to take two shots in the dark: First, students whose families can afford to stake them to Brown and RISD can afford their plastic-fueled excursions to steakhouses. Second, maybe the dark shadow of the city and state pension overhang has a silver lining etched in restaurant patronage.
Obviously, the doctor is scraping the bottom of his explanatory barrel. And since he doesn't claim to be Nostradamus, he must also pass on whether our restaurantopia will continue. On the other hand, a doctorate in prognostication is not required to suppose that unprecedented hard times for the state might betide unprecedented hard times for its restaurants. But local restaurants have dodged such bullets before. The doctor expects to be dining out, and dining outside, for many decades to come.
David Brussat (dbrussat@projo.com) is a member of The Journal's editorial board. His blog at projo.com is called Architecture Here and There.
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During extensive travels between 1995 & 2011 I noted Chinese restaurants in many cities -- for example, in Lviv, Ukraine. In general, adults worldwide like Asian restaurants, children want McDonald's. So Dr. Downtown may have been too much looking into that nutty telescope of his. This is bigger than Providence.
Jim Bulger
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