>> Providence East Neighborhoods

[Liamlunchtray]

Smoothie King?

They have cardboard up over the windows. Closing? Renovating? Anyone care seeing as smoothies are sooo 1996?

There's a new mediterranean place where the Pizza Grill was for two minutes next to Ben & Jerry's. I almost went in for lunch, but opted for Spikes instead.

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I really loved to see them destroy that space for no real reason and then go under so quickly.

Liam

[Garris]

Smoothie King?

They have cardboard up over the windows. Closing? Renovating? Anyone care seeing as smoothies are sooo 1996?

There's a new mediterranean place where the Pizza Grill was for two minutes next to Ben & Jerry's. I almost went in for lunch, but opted for Spikes instead.

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Yeah, Pizza Grill was there and gone in the time it took to down a slice. Also new down that street is a Princeton Review storefront, which is probably a great fit for the area near Brown. They did a great job restoring that house's facade and they have an upscale, classy-looking sign.

I'll actually miss Smoothie King if they are indeed gone. Smoothies may be so 90's, but I really enjoy them. I could have sworn a sign there previously said they were going to be under new management. Who knows...

This interesting tidbit was in East Side Monthly:

"...The College Hill Neighborhood Association remains concerned about the unabated proliferation of liquor licenses along Thayer Street. Our fear is that increasingly the area will become all clubs, restaurants and bars. The latest application is for the new Shanghai Restaurant that will be opening in the second floor space above Berk's Shoes. The Board voted to oppose the application. If unsuccessful, we at least hope to insure that liquor cannot be served after midnight, will be limited to beer and wine and is non-transferable."

Also from East Side Monthly was news about the new Thayer Restaurant:

"Some Changes for Thayer Street

There are two new openings on Thayer Street... with a couple more on the way we're told. The space left by the Gap has quickly been filled. City Sports will be opening this month for the athletic (in appearance or deed) among you. Also opening is a new restaurant/bar called Laluna. Occupying the space where Max's used to be (now how RI does that sound?), the new addition will offer American cuisine, a martini bar and special champagnes and will cater to the student and young professional market. And for you who are under twenty-one, it should be noted that the owner, Simon Sarkison, is also a Providence policeman. Consider yourself warned. "

- Garris

[Cotuit]

Also new down that street is a Princeton Review storefront, which is probably a great fit for the area near Brown.  They did a great job restoring that house's facade and they have an upscale, classy-looking sign.

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That used to be a pretty good used bookstore.

This interesting tidbit was in East Side Monthly:

"...The College Hill Neighborhood Association remains concerned about the unabated proliferation of liquor licenses along Thayer Street. Our fear is that increasingly the area will become all clubs, restaurants and bars. The latest application is for the new Shanghai Restaurant that will be opening in the second floor space above Berk's Shoes. The Board voted to oppose the application. If unsuccessful, we at least hope to insure that liquor cannot be served after midnight, will be limited to beer and wine and is non-transferable."

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I heard they got it, but if they even sneeze, it gets yanked, and it is non-transferable.

[kinematix]

I heard that smoothie king is just closed for the winter... Also I tried laluna the other night for dinner- save your money. It's trying to get in on the Paragon/Kartabar crowd but the food just doesn't stack up. That said I'd still like to see it do well- all they need is some minor improvements made to the menu.

[Liamlunchtray]

I heard that smoothie king is just closed for the winter...

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There used to be a sign saying that they were closed for the season, but then that came down and they covered all the windows with cardboard. Nothing would please me more than to see them go under.

Liam

(being petty)

[Cotuit]

There used to be a sign saying that they were closed for the season, but then that came down and they covered all the windows with cardboard. Nothing would please me more than to see them go under.

Liam

(being petty)

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What's your beef with them, just miffed about how they treat the building (which is beef enough, for sure)?

[kinematix]

I'd be happy to see them go too. Mainly because of what they did to that building but also 'cause I don't like smoothies. Still don't love what subway is doing to the old Harvey LTD building either but at least they aren't changing it too much.. hopefully they won't put an awning or something out front which would cheapen the structure even more. A carved wooden sign would have been nicer than the illuminated one they stuck up there...

[Garris]

A carved wooden sign would have been nicer than the illuminated one they stuck up there...

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Agreed... The current sign doesn't look that good...

I'll defend Smoothie King for a minute, and not just because I like smoothies... First, I don't know what the previous building looked like, so I can't comment on that. Smoothie King, though, was on a critical and highly trafficed intersection (Thayer and Angell) and was always brightly lit, highly trafficed during the summer, and was open late. Driving by, I always found it's warm glow (and thus Thayer St) to be inviting me to stop off and walk around at all hours. I don't think a lunchtime place that closes at 8, for example, would be nearly as dynamic in that critical spot. Tealuxe is also on that intersection but closes so early that it doesn't have much drawing power.

- Garris

[Cotuit]

Tealuxe is also on that intersection but closes so early that it doesn't have much drawing power.

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Tealuxe is also not open in the morning when I'm heading into work. WTF!? Sometimes, when I'm being super lazy, I'll ride the trolley up to Thayer so I can walk down the hill instead of walking up it from South Main. On those days I'd be all over going to Tealuxe for an iced chai, but they aren't open, this is at 815-830am.

So I usually go to The Pain.

[Garris]

Tealuxe is also not open in the morning when I'm heading into work. WTF!?

[snip]

So I usually go to The Pain.

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And the Pain is expensive... I don't get Tealuxe. I remember once my girlfriend and I went in there at like 9:50 PM one Saturday night, and they said, "Oh, sorry, we're closing." We were like, "What? We're just heading out!!"

In most urban areas, especially college oriented ones, the night doesn't start until 10 PM. In Minneapolis or NYC, the restaurant's "dinner hours" were 8-11 PM. Not in Providence... See my "Off Topic" post about this...

It's kind of frustrating...

- Garris

[Liamlunchtray]

What's your beef with them, just miffed about how they treat the building (which is beef enough, for sure)?

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Just the way they treated the building. My wife worked at Geoff's for a few years and I just really loved that place. One of the other kids who worked there had (on his own time) refinished all the epothicary drawers one by one. When it was all complete it looked just beautiful. It was also the only storefront on Thayer that was completely pristene and unmolested, surviving a zillion different tenants.... Until Smoothie King.

Liam

(Not too sad about Harvey Ltd, but does this signify that the Ivy League Preppy is now officially dead? Where are they going to buy Blue blazers and polo shirts?)

[Cotuit]

Where are they going to buy Blue blazers and polo shirts?

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The mall.

[kinematix]

I think the last non-chain prep shop on college hill is Briggs next to cable car. Plent-o-collared shirts and blazers to be found there

[Garris]

Not too sad about Harvey Ltd, but does this signify that the Ivy League Preppy is now officially dead?

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I think it's been dead for quite a while as Ivy mainstream. It was already quite dead when I was at Yale in the mid-90's. There was one store remaining there too, J.Press, where I bought my Trumbull College scarf, but it was the last outpost (like Harvey Ltd) and closed its New Haven branch near Broadway years ago. I don't know if it closed altogether or moved to a different (less expensive) part of town. Rather than being the clothier for Yale as in days past, it had become more a tricket curiosity, as in the scarf I bought...

Like much of WASPy culture in the mainstream society, that Ivy Preppy that you refer to still exists to a mild degree but is now just one of dozens of subcultures that exists in the enormously diverse modern Ivy Campus. Where you do see signs of it (for example, in the style of Yale's new B&N run bookstore), it is more of an Epcot-like marketing branding than some living, breathing campus culture, for better or worse. GQ did a "Men of Yale" style photo shoot a few months back, and I had to giggle at the expensive, high preppy style that they had the student models wearing. If a student were to walk around Brown looking that way today, they'd get the most bizarre looks... It was hillarious... The public perception and reality not quite matching...

It's quite amazing how dynamic and diverse our mainstream culture and campuses have become in so short a time. To a (minimal) degree, I can understand the anger of many in the Republican Red States in the Heartland. The America they know (and loved) has changed dramatically since they were children and continues to change dramatically from year to year. Rather than suck it up and adapt, they're angry and want to change America back... Bring 'em on. Let the battle begin...

- Garris (gettin' WAAAY off topic)

[kinematix]

garris,

J.Press still has a store in Harvard Square...

... just in case you ever need a new scarf

[Liamlunchtray]

Somewhat off topic, but I had been reading through the Art In Ruins Thayer St Tour and wrote up a list of corrections/additions. Feel free to add anything else. Im sure Im missing some of them or my memory doesnt go back far enough.

1) Brown Dorms, top of Thayer

Miko was once in one of these storefronts before it was an Adult store. There was also a few computer shops/Internet cafe type places. Nothing ever seemed to last up here.

2) the Oops building, newly constructed circa 1998

This Building was built somewhere around 1989 or 1990. Before that it was a multifamily house. Previous tenants included In Your Ear, Allston Beat, Pecks Bad Boy (which became Lunasea), a Rollerblade store owned by Nancy Kerrigan, Optical Shop, a Music Store, and various other short lived enterprises

3) Beadworks, a candy bar (formerly Supercuts), and a bagel store (formerly Ronzios)

If memory serves Beadworks was Skate-Away which then moved to the rear of the building and became Savage Brothers

4) CVS

5) Urban Outfitters

[Soren]

I live close to Thayer and am there a lot. I will never look at it the same. That was amazing!

[provid]

great post

[Garris]

garris,

J.Press still has a store in Harvard Square...

... just in case you ever need a new scarf

[Cotuit]

great post

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Indeed, I wish I had some gold stars to give out!

Thanks, I was wondering where to go if I ever needed another  .  I think they also have a Manhattan branch as well.

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Yes, on 44th Street between Madison and 5th. I used to smoke cigarettes out front during my breaks from my office next door.

[Liamlunchtray]

Liam: Amazing post!!!  It seems the only constant for Thayer St. is change itself...  Is it fatiguing as a long-time local to see nothing ever take root and stay there?  You don't want to emotionally invest in a place just to see it flee...

- Garris

PS: I always wondered why Maximillian's was way the hell up there near Blackstone and Hope and not down by Thayer...  Apparently, they *were* there at one time and didn't make it.  With B&J's there and Cold Stone readying to open, it makes one wonder...

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Thanks for all the compliments everyone! That was just kind of quick and off the cuff. I would like to spend more time and do something much more thorough. My wife went to high school at Moses Brown and was a bigger Thayer Rat than I, so I would like to see what other additions she could come up with. Some of the buildings had so many different tenants that its hard to remember them all. (The building where Urban Outfitters was one. Tom's Tracks and Taco Maker were constants but everything else changed over and over.) In addition it might be nice to try and detail some of the shops on the side streets too. I have a hard time remembering them all.

As far as Maximillians - This was actually a second location, and I think there may have even been a third at some point, but Im not entirely sure. The main store was always on Hope as far as I can remember. It seems like the local stores dont always do so well when they try and branch out (There used to be 2 Cassertas! There used to be a second Fellini's near PC!)

It is indeed tiring to see the constant change. There have always been constants, but in the last 3 or 4 years many of them have moved or closed as well. College Hill bookstore and In Your Ear closing were both really sad.

Liam

[Garris]

As far as Maximillians - This was actually a second location, and I think there may have even been a third at some point, but Im not entirely sure. The main store was always on Hope as far as I can remember.  It seems like the local stores dont always do so well when they try and branch out (There used to be 2 Cassertas! There used to be a second Fellini's near PC!)

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Wow, very interesting. I wonder why the 2nd branches of local places don't work... I can understand something failing near PC. I would imagine that's a tough commercial area. Where was the 2nd Cassertas?

Maximillians is so, so good. It's hard to imagine them failing on Thayer, but I guess anything is possible there...

Yes, on 44th Street between Madison and 5th. I used to smoke cigarettes out front during my breaks from my office next door.

Thanks for the info! Even better... I'm glad to hear that they survive somewhere. Trying to remember NYC correctly (boy, it's now been almost 5 yrs since I moved from there!), that's a pretty tony area, correct?

- Garris

[Cotuit]

Thanks for the info!  Even better...  I'm glad to hear that they survive somewhere.  Trying to remember NYC correctly (boy, it's now been almost 5 yrs since I moved from there!), that's a pretty tony area, correct?

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Half a block from Grand Central. I worked in the Brooks Brothers corporate offices next door.

According to their website, J.Press has locations in NYC, Cambridge, Washington, and New Haven. I don't know if they have any desire/ability to expand, but I could see them here.

[ArtInRuins]

I am fascinated by Thayer Street probably because in the big bad eighties it was the only street I was allowed to visit in Providence, being the rathole that it was. My parents would let me go to Thayer for the afternoon, but little else. And that was fine for me, seeing as it had great things like the Watershed (anyone remember where that was? That's where Shepard Fairey stenciled the first "Andre has a Posse" sticker) and Tom's Tracks and In your Ear. Romantisicm, mostly. I think Thayer will always be dominated by the fickle forces of consumer kids from Brown and RISD.

[Garris]

Wayland Square update:

I believe the casual women's clothing store chain "Chicos" opened in a pretty slick storefront on Wayland Ave. At the same time, I think that "Caroline's: A Boutique" closed a few storefronts down (I have no clue what they sold there).

Everyone go to "Twist" yet?

- Garris

PS: Anyone know if "Shanghai" or "Cold Stone Creamery" are open yet?