Erin C.'s Profile

To my mind, there can only be one Donut Man. It is located in Glendora, California, and serves the most mind-bogglingly amazing donuts I know. So I was actually angry when I drove by during a day trip to western Massachusetts and saw what I considered to be a cheap copy. So angry that, I, you know, went in and had a donut. To demonstrate the superiority of the Glendora Donut Man. To prove a point.

What redeemed this place, at least somewhat, was the chocolate cake donut with buttercrunch coating. It was, in addition to being a really hard variety to find, actually pretty darned delicious. So I will grudgingly concede that while there can only be one Donut Man, Hadley's Donut Man is . . . alright by me, too.

Not a dive bar, but a nice little neighborhood spot. I wish they would turn down the music so that one can actually speak to and hear one's drinking companions, and I wish they would consistently charge me the same price for the same drink. Stil, it's worth the trip around the corner from Seven Stars.

I was tempted to give five stars simply because Rhode Island finally got a Trader Joe's, but this is also a good Trader Joe's, clean and well-stocked with a great staff. My only tiny complaint is that they don't sample coffee along with their food, which is a fairly standard practice at the stores in California. But still--it's a Trader Joe's, and it's in Rhode Island, and it saved me from the perils of Whole Foods and Stop and Shop, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

It's tough to choose between Brickley's and Gray's, but I have to say that Brickley's offers what is probably the best ice cream in Rhode Island. They convinced me that Grape-Nut ice cream was actually delicious, and they convinced my New England-hating parents that there was actually something worthwhile in this state. The portions are huge and cheap, and the staff is always super-friendly. What more do you need to convince yourself?

Together with Kafe Lila, Machines With Magnets is forcing me to reconsider the city of Pawtucket, which I had previously thought of as "the place where Slater Mill and the DMV are." Currently I think of Pawtucket as "the place where Slater Mill and the DMV and Kafe Lila and Machines With Magnets are," but if I spend enough time at KL and MWM, my view will undoubtedly become more nuanced.

Machines With Magnets is a recording studio, art gallery, and performance space that has fast become my favorite music venue and possibly one of my favorite places in Rhode Island. The inside is beautiful, with two large rooms decked out in cool white paint and beautiful hardwood flooring (one floor is stenciled with an absolutely stunning pattern). Art of varied quality adorns the walls.

I have now had the pleasure of attending two shows here--an electronic music performance and Quintron + Miss Pussycat--and I enjoyed them both. Watching bands perform with art as a backdrop is a pleasure. The sound is good and the venue is run fairly efficiently. At the latter show, they quickly cycled through four bands by alternating the rooms in which each band performed. Very smart. The crowds are fun and interesting. Drinks, Dunkin' Donuts coffee, and even pizza are sold for reasonable prices.

During my first visit, a friend turned to me and said, "I wish I lived here." "I wish I could DJ here," I replied. Until either of these things happens, I'll be stopping in periodically for more music and art. You should, too.

Kafe Lila shines like a beacon in oft-dreary downtown Pawtucket. Art, vintage furniture, and quirky antiques are carefully arranged within its brightly painted walls, making it the perfect place to spend a few hours with a good book. The coffee, sandwiches, and baked goods are all excellent. The ham melt comes with slices of crisp, fresh pear and I too loved the cucumbers on the side, which I perhaps mistook for freshly made pickles rather than a salad. The salted chocolate cookies are to die for. And the ice cream is flavorful and good (the texture is not always perfect, but this is to be expected of small batches of home made ice cream). It's almost a bit too precious, but I would be a jerk to do anything other than truly appreciate the care that has gone into establishing and running this fine cafe. So I do.

I don't know what happened, but Phonatic is no longer the restaurant I once knew. Other reviewers' complaints about poor cuts of fatty meat are justified--not only was my last bowl of pho filled to the brim with sub-par meat and greasy broth, it was brought to me without the usual jalapeno pepper, lime, bean sprouts, and basil. When I asked for sprouts (thinking that they had perhaps just forgotten the customary accompaniments), I was brought just that. Sprouts and nothing else. The other dishes seem a bit off, too. Hit hard by the economy? Perhaps. I hope to someday get my old Phonatic back, but I will probably stick with Pho Horn's until I do.

Seriously, if I had to live on a single dish from a Providence restaurant for the rest of my life, it would be Angkor's nam yaa soup with tofu and vegetables (much more flavorful and satisfying than the versions with meat, for the record). Sweet and spicy broth with delicious noodles, hefty chunks of tofu, and perfectly cooked vegetables. They call it medicine soup, and I believe it. I always feel better after I've finished my bowl.

The Cambodian coffee is unusual and flavorful (I recommend trying it hot rather than ordering the standard iced coffee variation that you can get at most Thai and Vietnamese restaurants), the appetizers are delicious, the menu is quite varied (featuring Cambodian specialties as well as dishes from other countries in South Asia), the prices are reasonable, and the staff is super-nice. Eat in the tiny dining room or rent out the top floor for a banquet. (I know folks who have done both.) Just don't forget the nam yaa soup, whatever you do.

I often feel unqualified to review a business establishment after a single visit. This is not the case with The Inside Scoop. After agonizing over which flavor of ice cream to choose (from a fairly extensive ice cream selection that resembled the one at Gray's, right down to the Grape-Nut flavor), a friend and I discovered that we could split a sampler of twelve flavors of our choice for a mere $7.35. We handed over the cash and received a deviled egg tray filled with small scoops of ice cream surrounding a freshly-made waffle bowl. So, after sampling twelve of their flavors, I can tell you with certainty that The Inside Scoop has some fine homemade ice cream. Our favorites included lemon (creamy, lightly-flavored, and fresh, without a hint of food coloring--the best I've had in Rhode Island so far) and maple walnut (pretty much perfect). The vanilla, chocolate peanut butter cup, coffee Oreo, and butter crunch also fared well. Even better, though, was the friendly staff, including an owner who took the time to chat with us and to offer free balloons to the kids in the restaurant.

The available frozen treats include sorbet, sherbet, smoothies, and frozen yogurt as well as the usual array of ice cream, sundaes, and shakes (or frappes or cabinets or whatever you call them in this crazy state). The restaurant also serves coffee, clam cakes, clam chowder, and doughboys (the presence of the later meaning that an offering called a "stuffed doughboy"--a doughboy filled with ice cream and hot fudge--also graced the menu). You can eat inside or outside a or walk up to the window and take your ice cream where you please. The possibilities are endless. Try that sampler if you get too overwhelmed.

Coming here was a pilgrimage for this young donut lover. A rite of passage.

The return trips are just for fun.

Seriously, though, there is not much to say about Doughnut Plant that hasn't already been said a hundred times over. I will note that, as Ellen C. has pointed out, the yeast donuts here are merely okay (I was shocked to find large air pockets in mine), while the cake donuts are to die for. The organic coffee is also impressive, as is the friendly attitude of everyone at the shop. I expect to make many a return trip in the future.