Sweet Dining Deals

It’s January, and some things become more difficult; like escaping the gravity of a hot shower, or moving your hands after a bike ride. Eating, though, is easier. Epidemiological evidence, the CDC, doctors, science, etc. are all in broad agreement that we don’t need a couple extra pounds for our special winter coat, and that’s true, but it fails to answer the most important question: when else is it going to be appropriate to eat like I’m a knight carousing in a mead hall? Combine the undiminished joy of eating and competitive winter prices, and January starts to look quite special. Don’t smile about it though, you’ll crack those cold-ruined lips.

To begin with, we’ve got Providence Restaurant Weeks, from January 11 to 24. If you’re a frugal foodie, you know the routine. First, you make reservations at all the great restaurants you normally reserve for special occasions. Next, you smile politely at the waiter – who knows damn well why you are there – as they explain you don’t have to get the special prix-fixe dinner. Lastly, you get the check and smile at each other smugly. It’s $14.95 for lunch, and $29.95 or $34.95 for dinner at participating restaurants.

There are restaurant deals aplenty the rest of the month as well, one for each day of the week. On Mondays, Pan E Vino (365 Atwells, Providence. 223-2230) is doing a Wine Lovers Night, where all wine selections are 50% off. Also on Mondays, Hemenway’s (121 S Main St, Providence. 351-8570) is doing a “Classics and Cocktails” bar menu, with a rotating selection of their most popular food to go with a featured cocktail, each item at a very reasonable $6. Tuesdays at Cafe Dolce Vita (59 DePasquale Square, Providence. 331-8240) means half-off your entire check, and Wednesdays is half-off house wine bottles with your meal.

Waterman Grille (4 Richmond Square, Providence. 521-9229) enters the fray with a $10 craft burger and beer, on Thursdays. They offer a rotating seasonal craft beer and design a burger to pair. This is no slapdash burger; at time of writing they’ve got grassfed beef, butternut squash pickles, poblano onion jam and queso fresco on brioche. That’s almost too classy for my mead hall winter fetish, but paired with their Foolproof beer, and perhaps we’re in the realm of a posh viking. Hanley’s Ale House (52 Pine Street, Providence. 861-0001) has a series of deals running from midweek, the highlights being half-off all food on Thursdays all day, and their “Fresh Catch Fridays” where you can pick from $10 fish and chips, $5 mussels, $5 tuna melt or a $5 chowda.