Garden City dining, top-paid state workers, Swift wedding. Journal top stories

Here are some of The Providence Journal’s most-read stories for the week of Jan. 11, supported by your subscriptions.

Here are the week’s top reads on providencejournal.com:

Cranston’s Garden City Center has announced two new restaurants that will be opening their doors this year and in 2027, and confirmed the sites for two other previously announced restaurants.

Each of the four restaurants will open its first Rhode Island locations at Garden City Center.

Journal food editor Gail Ciampa fills you in on the new lineup, where you’ll be able to get everything from noodles to bagels to authentic Mexican specialties and New Haven-style thin-crust pizzas.

Dining: Newport Creamery is gone. These restaurants are coming to Garden City.

University of Rhode Island men’s basketball coach Ryan “Archie” Miller was once again the highest-earning state employee of the year in 2025, marking his third year at the top and among familiar faces.

A list of the state’s top 200 earners provided by the Department of Administration tallied up employees’ wages in 2025, until Nov. 15. It had little variation from previous years and saw the same five highest earners as 2024.

Each employee earned more than $200,000, and as usual it was overwhelmingly full of URI administrators and coaches, along with state police, correctional officers and health care staff at state hospitals.  

Political Scene: Which RI state employees made the most money in 2025?

I asked Anna Gruttadauria if the terrible news of the Swiss nightclub fire had brought back memories of her daughter Pam.

Yes, said Anna – but really, she has thought of Pam every day since losing her almost 23 years ago in The Station nightclub fire in West Warwick. One hundred people died in that tragedy, and Pam Gruttadauria was the last. She persevered for three months at Massachusetts General Hospital before succumbing to her injuries at age 33.

The fire that killed 40 people at a club called Le Constellation at the Crans-Montana ski resort in Switzerland was remarkably similar to the Station fire. Both were caused by indoor pyrotechnics that ignited flammable materials inside.

Anna Gruttadauria and her husband, Joe, can’t help but ask themselves: How is it possible that the lessons of the Station fire were not learned?

Mark Patinkin: Swiss nightclub fire brings back memories for family of Station victim

Imagine a crowd of A-list celebrities descending on the village of Watch Hill in Westerly this summer to attend the wedding of mega celebrity Taylor Swift and football star Travis Kelce.

To Chuck O’Koomian, who owns Airline Express Limousine and Car Service with his wife, Ginny Cauley, it’s like a scene out of a horror movie.

“It’s going to be a logistical nightmare,” O’Koomian told The Providence Journal, as part of our survey of wedding vendors about what it would take for the Ocean State to host a wedding befitting the world’s most popular woman.

No date or location has been announced for the nuptials, but here’s what would be involved in getting a large celebrity crowd to a wedding held at Swift’s Watch Hill mansion, the nearby Ocean House or the Watch Hill Chapel, where former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo and football star Christian McCaffrey tied the knot in 2024.

Local news: Why a Taylor Swift wedding might shut down Westerly streets

Amy Henion doesn’t live in a tiny house, per se, but her apartment is about as close as you can get to that in Providence. 

She lives in the Arcade, the first indoor mall in America, which has been partially repurposed for residential living (there are 24 apartments each on the second and third floors of the old mall). 

Henion, who used to work for a tiny house blog and has written a book and even given a TED Talk about small living, moved in four years ago.  

She now runs a public Instagram page − “I Live in the Mall” − dedicated to life in the mall and her micro-apartment. 

What are the pros and cons of living in an apartment the size of three parking spaces? Read the full story to find out.

5 questions: Providence mall resident’s ‘dream’ apartment is just 250 square feet

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