Rhode Island
Sick of turkey on Thanksgiving? Break tradition. Here’s some Rhode Island restaurants to pre-order from. – The Boston Globe
Try literally any other protein this year.
Pat’s Pastured is selling pounds of sweet Italian and savory pork and chicken sausage. You’ll be able to pick up your order at their East Greenwich Farm Store on Friday, Nov. 22, or Saturday, Nov. 23, or at Farm Fresh RI Winter Market in Providence on Nov. 23. Feeling generous? They’re raising money for local families who cannot afford their own turkey this year.
Blackbird Farm in Smithfield ships their antibiotic-free, no-added-hormones, pasture-fed meats. Expect 100 percent Black Angus cattle and 100 percent pedigreed American Heritage Berkshire pigs in their fields; the mean can be sliced into cuts such as sirloin strips and filet mignon, or spare ribs and a loin roast. Learn more about shipping costs here.
Chef Ian Gormley operated the popular pop-up restaurant Our Table Barbecue inside Buttonwoods Brewery in Cranston until early 2023. Now he’s bringing back his famous brisket for Thanksgiving for a second year under the brand Oakey Dokey BBQ. For $175, grab “The Great Holiday Brisket, Charlie Brown” package, which includes a smoked 10- to 12-pound beef brisket and a quart of their own barbecue sauce. The deadline to order is Nov. 20; orders will be ready for pickup on Nov. 26 and Nov. 27 during open hours at Jeff’s Pizza in East Providence.
Try seafood instead this year – we are in the Ocean State, after all. Oysters were first documented in the United States as part of a Thanksgiving meal in 1825 in the Village Register of Dedham, Mass., where locals listed “oyster patties” among their dishes for Thanksgiving dinner. When Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony called for a bountiful feast in 1621, America’s colonists and Wampanoag tribe members mostly ate lobster, clams, mussels, eels, and oysters. Scholars say Indigenous tribe members likely brought the oysters, which were dried, smoked, and strung on twigs.
This year, bring those oysters back to your table. Fearless Fish on Hope Street in Providence offers cuts of salmon, tuna, and local oysters. Market owner Stu Meltzer has been doubling down on a new program at his shop that focuses on ikejime, a centuries-old Japanese method where the fish is killed immediately after being caught; studies have shown this can lead to better taste, texture, appearance, and longer shelf life. He has fluke, scup, monkfish, halibut, and black sea bass that were all handled with the ikejime method. Go ahead and order a tin of caviar while you’re at it.
Before they close for the season, you might want to head to Dune Brothers, the innovative clam shack that plans to expand even more in 2025. Until Nov. 20, you can pre-order online, including clear and white chowders, Jonah crab dip, squid salad, and a few other sides. A very-Rhode Island dish to bring to your out-of-town families should be their stuffie stuffing. Stuffies in Rhode Island are baked quahog clams stuffed with a breadcrumb and clam mixture. If an establishment leans into Portuguese influences, they will likely add some smoky chouriço, too. Dune Brothers will also be an option to order an entire Thanksgiving Feast complete with a whole fish with herbs to roast at homes, with sides or an à la carte offering. Pick ups will take place on Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving.
If you — or members of your family — don’t feel like eating meat now (or ever), opt for some items from plant-based SoCo Vedge. They are preparing a “Gobbler Roast” with caramelized onion gravy. Sides include orange ginger cranberry sauce, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, rosemary and sage stuffing, apple cider glazed Brussels sprouts, green bean and mushroom casserole, and dinner rolls. Everything included is $90, and the full meal serves two people. If you just want the sides, it’s $75. Upgrade your pack by adding harvest bisque for $6, a 4-inch pumpkin cheesecake for $20, or a Dutch apple pie for $30.
Order by Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. Pick up from their kitchen, which is inside The Tavern in Mariner Square in Narragansett.
On what plate and during what holiday is pasta not an acceptable meal? In Warren, Prica Farina Fresh Pasta Co. prepares all sorts of raviolis (450 to 500 pounds per week, to be exact), along with bucatini, tagliatelle, mafaldine, and spaghetti.
If you’re closer to the city, it’s an obvious choice to head to Providence’s Venda Ravioli, an Italian food emporium located on Atwells Avenue in the Federal Hill neighborhood. Grab pasta sauces and various kinds of ravioli, including porcini mushroom, artichoke, lobster, truffle, eggplant, and more.
WHEN NOT EVERYONE DRINKS ALCOHOL
You want to bring something to drink but you — or others in your family — aren’t drinking. Plain water can be bland, so look into trying a few bottled or canned mocktails.
Kristi’s Kraftails, founded by Kristi Dukoff in Warren, sells seasonally-inspired mocktails by the bottle that use locally-sourced ingredients and are low in their sugar content. She has options like hibiscus lavender “daiquiris,” and “Mint to Be,” a play on a strawberry-basil margarita, a mint orange blossom “sour,” among others. Also be sure to grab a bag of her flavored cashews for the cheese board during appetizer hour.
Depending on which candidate wins the presidential race, you can serve “Kamala’s Berry Surprise” or “Donald’s Trumpian Punch,” two flavors from Yacht Club Soda. If you’re celebrating President Biden’s one-term stint in the White House, I hear they still have 12-packs of “Joe’s Bidenomics Berry.” But for most families, politics is one topic that is barred from the Thanksgiving table. So, instead, mix up a 12-pack of their normal flavors, such as cream, ginger beer, birch beer, black cherry, and Rhody Red. All of their sodas are sweetened with cane sugar, so enjoy without the stress of high-fructose corn syrup getting in the way.
We’re in our nonalcoholic beer era, but zero proof is more than a trend. Beaglepuss Brewery — the brainchild of Jarad Rogers, Patrick Ramey, and Kevin Barnes — is a new nonalcoholic brewing company that opened in Providence in late 2023. Their “Strange Happenings” brew is a hazy IPA with fruity flavors of apricot, peach, melon, and pineapple with a slightly piney finish. “Them Apples” is a New England hopped cider with guava, grapefruit, flora, and crisp tart apple. Here’s where you can find their beers in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Buying various cheeses and accoutrements to build your own board is pricey and time-consuming — especially if you’re feeding a crowd. In Providence, head to East Side Cheese & Provisions, where actress Jamie Lee Curtis spent some time this past year while filming “Ella McCay.” Each cheese board includes a range of cheeses, such as soft and bloomy, hard and blue, and various milk types including cow, goat, and sheep. The small board is $85 for four to six people, and includes meats, fruit, honey, small-batch jam, whole grain mustard, olives, pickled vegetables, and more. Prices increase to $185 for a medium board and $255 for a large one. You can also request a “cheese only” board to make it vegetarian.
In Cranston, head to Edgewood Cheese Shop for plated arrangements on a disposable balsa wood board to bring over to the host’s house. A small board feeds 10 for $109; medium-sized boards are an appetizer for 15 people for $159, and a large-sized board feeds 20 for $199. Each board includes cheeses, meats, jam, fried fruit, nuts, sliced baguette, and crackers. Call 401-941-2400 or go online to place your order.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
Three generations of a family, including a two-year-old girl, have been killed during a driving lesson after their car plunged into a Rhode Island river.
Police received a report that a car had driven into the Seekonk River in Pawtucket on Sunday evening at the small boat-launching area, The Boston Globe reported.
After hours of searching for the submerged car, authorities pulled it out of the water Monday afternoon. The 45-year-old woman, a 22-year-old woman and the two-year-old girl inside the car were found dead.
Pawtucket resident Josue Gomez told The Globe it was his wife, Floridalma Arceno, their daughter, Linora Sucely Gomez, and their granddaughter, Ana Sofia Garcia Gomez, who were killed in the accident.
Gomez said Arceno was teaching their daughter how to drive with their granddaughter in the car when his wife called him in a panic and said, “‘It won’t brake, it won’t brake.’’
“It was the last thing she said to me,” he said.
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters that a “Good Samaritan riding a jet ski in the vicinity heard the car enter the water and attempted to help,” The Providence Journal reported.
“While this was occurring, another individual called 911, and first responders were on scene within 3 minutes,” Goncalves said.
Gomez said he hurried to the boat ramp Sunday evening, but the car was already submerged.
Police tried to find the car, but suspended the search around 1 a.m. Monday due to poor conditions, according to reports.
The search resumed Monday morning, and by around 2:30 p.m. ET, a tow truck pulled the car out of the water.
“They were good people,” Gomez told The Globe.
The Independent has reached out to the Pawtucket Police Department and the Rhode Island Office of the State Medical Examiners for comment.
Authorities called it a “tragic accident,” and said there were no indications of foul play, according to reports.
“Preliminary findings suggest the vehicle was in proper working order,” Pawtucket Detective Sergeant Paul Trout said in an email to The Globe.
Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien called the incident a “heartbreaking tragedy” in a statement shared with the media.
“Our community mourns alongside them, and we want them to know they are not alone during this unimaginable time,” Grebien said.
Hear about the $30 million in infrastructure money for Tidewater
Pawtucket’s Tidewater Landing project gets $30 million for infrastructure
PROVIDENCE – Former CVS executive Helena Foulkes still leads Gov. Dan McKee by double-digits in the Democratic primary race for governor, but her whopping 34-point lead of last April has shrunk to 20 points in the wake of McKee’s TV attack ads, according to a new University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll.
The survey sampled 337 likely 2026 Democratic state primary voters, 145 likely Republican state primary voters and 664 likely general election voters between June 18 and June 23.
Among the key findings of the survey:
If the Democratic primary had been held while the survey was underway, 42% of likely primary voters would have chosen Foulkes and 22% would have chosen McKee, with restaurant owner Gregory Stevens and Wil Gregersen each getting 1%, the poll said. Thirty-one percent of respondents were undecided.
“Pluralities of moderates (46%), liberals (46%), and progressives (46%) support Foulkes, while two-thirds of socialists (66%) are undecided. McKee does best among those aged 65 and older (31%) but still trailsFoulkes (46%) among this group,” according to this poll.
McKee has narrowed the gap somewhat since the last UNH poll in April, when 45% of likely primary voters chose Foulkes and only 11% McKee.
Bottom line: Incumbent McKee, a former Cumberland mayor and lieutenant governor who has been governor since his predecessor Gina Raimondo quit mid-term in March 2021, “remains quite unpopular among likely Democratic primary voters: only 18% have a favorable opinion of him, 56% have an unfavorable opinion,” according to the poll released on Tuesday, June 30.
And then there’s this: In a hypothetical matchup between Foulkes, whoever emerges as the Republican nominee and independent Ken Block, the poll showed 38% of likely general election voters would vote for Foulkes, 22% would vote for the Republican nominee and 19% for Block.
If, however, McKee won the Democratic nomination, the potential matchup “would be very close,” with both McKee and Block getting 27% of the likely general election vote and the GOP nominee 23%; 2% would vote for another candidate. Twenty-one percent were undecided, according to the poll.
The poll is the latest in a string of bad news for the 74-year-old McKee, including his failure to clinch the endorsement of the state Democratic Party on June 20.
Depending on how you do the math, he fell three votes short of the endorsement, making him the first Democratic governor in Rhode Island to fail to win his party’s endorsement for a reelection bid since the modern primary system was created in 1948.
In the days since, Foulkes has racked up city and town Democratic committee endorsements, while McKee has only won endorsements from Pawtucket and North Providence Democrats. On Tuesday, June 30, he touted one more from the East Providence Democratic City Committee.
But McKee campaign spokeswoman Sophie Mestas hailed the poll as evidence that “the more Rhode Islanders learn about Helena Foulkes – a corporate executive who built her career on cutting healthcare access and fueling the opioid crisis – the more they want no part of her empty promises.
“More Rhode Islanders now view her unfavorably than favorably, and it’s not hard to see why,” Mestas said. “Rhode Islanders know the difference between a Governor who delivers for them and an executive who cashed in at their expense – and they’re choosing the Governor who’s always fought for working families.”
Her statement reflects disputed allegations in McKee’s TV ads about Foulkes’ record.
On the Republican front, those surveyed chose retired comedian Elaine Pelino, who has campaigned almost exclusively on Facebook (38%), over the state GOP’s endorsed candidate, Aaron Guckian (19%), an advance man and driver for former Gov. Donald Carcieri who most recently worked for the Rhode Island Dental Association.
Flying athletes in with the Special Olympics Airlift
Getting athletes to the games takes more than airplanes. Textron Aviation coordinates the effort while AccuWeather provides forecasting support to make weather-informed decisions.
Rhode Island athletes took home five gold medals, nine silver medals and 11 bronze medals at 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which wrapped up on June 26.
The Rhode Island Special Olympians left for the games in private jets provided by Textron on June 15. A total of 50 members, including 24 athletes and their families, traveled to represent and cheer on Rhode Island.
“Once we went to the hangar on the way out to Minnesota, and there was a big rally, my husband Steve and I were looking at each other saying, ‘This is big. This is huge being invited to the USA games,’” Rena Megrdichian, mother of softball player Garen Megrdichian, said. “I guess we just didn’t realize what an honor this whole process was.”
After preliminary events on June 22 to group athletes accordingly, the medal rounds across multiple sports began the next day.
Rhode Island picked up three gold medals, three silver medals and four bronzes in bowling, swimming, powerlifting and track and field events on June 23. Despite the heavy medal count for the smallest state, one athlete’s finish went viral on social media.
Thomas Poirier, of North Providence, was placed in lane 5 of group 4 in the 400-meter after finishing fifth in his preliminary race with a time of 1:20.54. The race started, and Poirier hustled as hard as he could, but coming into the final 100 meters, he found himself in fourth place. Then, he kicked it into another gear. He passed the runner in third, then second and suddenly he was gaining on the leader he was about 25 meters behind just a few seconds prior. With 25 meters left to go, Poirier passed Noah Lamusga, of Minnesota, and took the lead and the gold medal.
Poirier finished with a time of 1:17.24, three seconds faster than his time in the preliminaries.
“I saw my time in the prelims, and I was like ‘That’s good, but I just need to work harder,’ and so I did,” Poirier said.
The clip of him running the final 100 meters and his post-race interview where he says, “Rhode Island… I’m coming home golden,” currently has over 100,000 likes on Instagram.
“At first I was a little embarrassed, but I slowly and surely got used to it,” Poirier said. “I’m not used to getting fame like this.”
Poirier’s mom, Dora, was able to attend the games with her husband and daughter, Poirier’s twin sister. When they saw Thomas cross the finish line, the only emotions they could convey were shock and tears of joy.
“We couldn’t believe it,” Dora said. “We’re like, ‘Oh my god, he actually might do this.’ I honestly couldn’t believe that he did it. We hoped he would come home with something. I was so happy for him, overjoyed.”
Dora said that the family had no idea that Thomas had gone viral until later that night. They had received a few videos of friends recording the TV when the race first ended, but they kept receiving more videos, and that’s when they realized he had his viral social media moment.
Thomas also competed in the 200-meter run and 4 x 100-meter relay, where he won silver in both with a time of 30.59 and 1:07.83, respectively.
Thomas noted that the quick turnaround to compete in the three events was hard, but he knew he had to power through.
“It was definitely a little hard, but I slowly adapted to it, and I gave it my all,” Thomas said. “In the end, that other guy was just a little faster, but I still gave it my all, and I’m happy with what I came home with.”
Another one of Rhode Island’s five gold medals came from the softball team. The team had lost its first two group stage games 17-8 and 18-3 against Delaware and Connecticut, respectively, on June 22. They were able to salvage one win, a 12-9 victory against Arkansas the next day, before losing to Florida in its final group stage game on June 24.
The team suffered a couple of injuries during the group stage games, one of which was Jamar Abney, who suffered a hand injury in the final group stage game. Abney’s injury was a rallying cry for the rest of the team as they developed a slogan, “Win for Jamar,” that would define the rest of the team’s run, according to Special Olympics Rhode Island President and CEO Edwin Pacheco.
In the first game of the medal round, Rhode Island was paired up against Arkansas once more. The team was down 9-3 at one point but rallied back in extra innings to pull off the 11-10 win and advance to the gold medal game.
“The enthusiasm, the excitement that came from the team was just contagious,” Pacheco said. “You think about all the memorable moments, whether it be the Red Sox or the Patriots, and these come-from-behind wins that people still talk about 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years later, that game between Rhode Island and Arkansas was one of those moments.”
In the championship, it was another rematch, this time with Connecticut. No miracles or comebacks were needed in this game, though, as Rhode Island won 21-7 to take home the gold.
“I feel like in the gold medal match, I thought we had a lot of energy coming into this game,” said Garen Megrdichian, of Hope. “We had some urgency, and we had some confidence, so I’m really happy that we got the gold medal, and I’m just happy for our guys.”
Garen’s mom Rena attended the games and watched her son and his team’s run to the gold medal. The emotions ran high throughout the week.
“The nail-biting and anxiety that the parents go through watching them go through all this, it really was a nail-biter,” Rena Megrdichia said. “We couldn’t be more proud. We really couldn’t be more proud of what not only Garen accomplished, but this whole team, how they came together, [and] how they supported one another.”
She spoke about the team’s camaraderie despite the struggles and the emotions all the parents felt after they took home the gold.
“They just kept saying, ‘We’re going to win this for Jamar,’ and not only did they FaceTime Jamar right after the game, [but they also] called his mother to say we won this for Jamar. So, the support they all had for each other – we were just in tears. It was just one of those times where they overcame being beaten down and not doing well, and then all of a sudden, they turned it around, and they did very, very well.”
Megrdichian’s mom noted that the teams, despite it being a competition, all became friends with one another.
“They want to play each other again,” Rena Megrdichia said. “That’s how much playing against them meant to them that they would love to get together again and play these teams again. Because it was so fun for them and they really enjoyed it.”
Poirier and Megrdichian both described just getting the call that they had made it to the USA Games as a “dream come true,” and that earning the gold medal just added to an already incredible experience.
Special Olympics Rhode Island invites any Rhode Islander with an intellectual or developmental disability to join the organization and participate in a sport at no cost, according to Pacheco.
Find the full results of the USA Games here.
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