Rhode Island
The City of Providence's Twin Flame is a Los Angeles Restaurant – Rhode Island Monthly
Michael Cimarusti. Photo by John Troxell.
The city of Providence has a twin flame in the form of a restaurant in Los Angeles. The restaurant’s name is literally Providence and it’s an homage to the seafood of the Ocean State. Executive chef and restaurateur Michael Cimarusti, the 2019 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: West, leads a spectacular team at the West Coast restaurant that is named after the city where his father and grandparents are from. Cimarusti has run Providence for two decades, where he and his team have maintained two coveted Michelin stars for over a decade and recently added a newly minted Michelin green star. Cimarusti got his start with Wolfgang Puck and worked in some of New York City’s finest restaurants including Spago and Le Cirque.
Recently, I got to meet Cimarusti at a symposium for students at Johnson & Wales University’s School of Culinary Arts. While the chef himself graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, he spoke highly about culinary education at Johnson & Wales. Cimarusti addressed students and media representatives from around the country – including “Good Morning America,” Travel & Leisure and Saveur – about the connection between the restaurant and Rhode Island. Mainly, it’s the Ocean State’s incredible seafood that inspires him. The Providence and Warwick Convention and Visitors’ bureau and Cimarusti’s public relations team took the chef, his wife, team members and journalists from national media outlets on a three-day journey throughout Rhode Island to experience some of the best dining and drinking destinations in the state, including Oberlin, Gift Horse, Dune Brothers, Dolores, Persimmon, Sakonnet Vineyards, Sly Fox Den Too, Dolce & Salato and more.
“My roots in Rhode Island go way back. My grandparents were born in England but raised here in the Ocean State. My parents met here and were married here,” Cimarusti says. “My love of cooking and seafood, in large part, was found here in the Ocean State. My love of fishing is what inspired me and led me to the kitchen.”
He learned how to fish from his grandfather, Ted, and he later named his second restaurant, Connie & Ted’s in West Hollywood, after his grandparents, Constance and Edward, who lived in Providence all their lives. That restaurant serves clam cakes and Rhode Island-style chowder, stuffies, calamari, Portuguese fish stew, and yes, even coffee milk.
Providence restaurant, on the other hand, features an elaborate tasting-style menu that changes every few weeks. Sustainable fish species are key to the creation and execution of the cuisine. “We try to base every dish we do around a single ingredient,” Cimarusti says. “Of course, seafood is always at the core but then what we surround the seafood with is only good for a couple of weeks so the menu has to change all the time.” The renowned chef spoke at length about the importance of adhering to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, and recommended students print out the guide and keep it in their pocket, or download the Seafood Watch app to check the status of specific seafood species before cooking with them. “What remains a constant at the restaurant is our staunch belief that sustainability has to be at the core of everything that we do,” Cimarusti says.
The interior of Providence restaurant. Photo by Daniel Collopy.
What first snapped him to attention was when Gourmet magazine editor Caroline Bates visited his restaurant and wrote a nice review, but commented that she couldn’t bring herself to eat the bluefin tuna, because the species was potentially threatened at the time. “She wanted to try it, but just couldn’t do it out of good conscience,” Cimarusti says. “From that moment, it became clear to me that it had to become part of what we do on a daily basis. Now it’s central to everything we do at the restaurant.”
Courses in Providence’s tasting menu. Photo by John Troxell.
Cimarusti learned everything he could about seafood sustainability and joined the Monterey Bay Aquarium Blue Ribbon Task Force, a group of chefs that assemble to discuss issues of sustainability. “It changed the way I think about the ingredients I purchase and the impact I might have as a chef,” he says. “I think this is something all of you as young culinarians need to think about: What is your impact on the world going to be and how will you affect the world?”
He spoke about environmental and sustainability issues, including how drought affects the wild salmon population, when fish can’t make it back to freshwater to spawn; and how some farmed salmon is raised in crowded small pens, which causes disease and releases excessive nitrogen, or effluent, that is then pumped into oceans. Some farmed salmon might even escape and breed with wild salmon, which weakens the species for generations to come. He also mentioned how lobster trapping may endanger the threatened population of Right Whales that can become entangled in lines that lead from surface buoys to traps at the bottom of the sea. While there are many issues with seafood, there’s also hope. Because of our seafood regulations and guidelines, he says the bluefin tuna population and swordfish are both rebounding.
Though bluefin’s status is improving, it’s still on his personal watch list. But Cimarusti is optimistic. He hopes to one day serve it without a guilty conscience. “Salmon is salmon or cod is cod or tuna is tuna is not the case,” he says. “There’s not one ingredient in the world that I want to cook with so badly that I’m willing to risk the health of the ocean or risk the extinction of species.”
Michael Cimarusti. Photo by John Troxell.
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The Rhode Island Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 8, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from June 8 drawing
03-24-34-43-49, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 3
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Numbers numbers from June 8 drawing
Midday: 5-1-4-9
Evening: 6-0-8-6
Check Numbers payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Wild Money numbers from June 8 drawing
02-04-17-22-32, Extra: 16
Check Wild Money payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from June 8 drawing
20-25-40-50-55, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes less than $600 can be claimed at any Rhode Island Lottery Retailer. Prizes of $600 and above must be claimed at Lottery Headquarters, 1425 Pontiac Ave., Cranston, Rhode Island 02920.
- Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot winners can decide on cash or annuity payment within 60 days after becoming entitled to the prize. The annuitized prize shall be paid in 30 graduated annual installments.
- Winners of the Millionaire for Life top prize of $1,000,000 a year for life and second prize of $100,000 a year for life can decide to collect the prize for a minimum of 20 years or take a lump sum cash payment.
When are the Rhode Island Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 10:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 10:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Midday): 1:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Evening): 7:29 p.m. ET daily.
- Wild Money: 7:29 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Rhode Island editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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With time running out and no action scheduled yet, advocates are escalating their campaign to convince lawmakers to pass the Rhode Island “Voting Rights Act” introduced by Senate President Valarie Lawson and House Majority Leader Katherine Kazarian.
But it appears the bill has already been declared dead for the year.
Lawson, House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski and Secretary of State Gregg Amore issued this joint statement on Monday, June 8:
“From the beginning, we have all understood the importance of passing a strong Rhode Island Voting Rights Act. But we also understand that as the federal administration continues to work to make it more difficult to access the ballot box, we have to do it right.”
“Advocates and other parties raised several concerns,” the statement said. “It is imperative that we enact as strong, enforceable, and defensible a bill as possible. With those priorities in mind, we recognize there is more work to do.”
“As drafted this year, the provisions of the Voting Rights Act would not take effect until the 2028 election cycle. Therefore, we will work over the course of the off-session to put forward as strong a bill as possible for consideration in 2027 and will continue to prioritize the Voting Rights Act in the upcoming session,” the statement continued.
The reaction from one angry advocate, Sen. Tiara Mack: “I’m not done fighting.”
How did we get here?
The legislation was introduced in response to thwarted Republican efforts to pass a federal SAVE Act to require proof of citizenship to register to vote and came weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court hollowed out a landmark Civil Rights-era law that has increased minority representation in Congress and elsewhere, opening the door for more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to maintain control the House.
“This is not abstract. This is about power,” Shahidah Ali, chairwoman of the political arm of the Rhode Island Coalition of Black Women, said at a voting rights rally that packed the State House Library on March 31.
“This is about who gets to participate in our democracy, and who is pushed out of it.”
On Sunday, June 7, Ali reiterated that warning and her frustration that the bill appears, despite its high-powered sponsors, to be in limbo going into the expected final days of the legislative session, saying she didn’t understand why the bill wasn’t moving as quickly as she thought it would.
“I feel like when you’re in a super majority and it’s something that’s needed after … the gutting of the Federal Voting Rights Act, I would think that this would be a no-brainer, that the Democrats in this state would understand the importance and the urgency of a bill to protect voters, especially Black voters,” she said.
Why hasn’t the bill moved?
As of Sunday, Rep. Kathy Fogarty, a co-sponsor of the House version of the bill (H8334), has not given up hope the bill would still pass. But, she said, “my understanding is that they were concerned …. [and] wanted to review” some of Attorney General Peter Neronha’s comments about the bill after Secretary of State Gregg Amore asked him for his input.
Fogarty said the May 7 leadership change in the House put the newly elected Speaker Blazejewski and Kazarian, in her newly elevated role as majority leader, in front of a proverbial “fire hose,” with the finalization of the proposed new $15.2 billion state budget their first priority.
With the need to finalize the budget, which won House approval on June 5, “I think that this just kind of got pushed to the side,” Fogarty said of the voting rights bill.
The backdrop
The proposed Rhode Island Voter Rights Act was introduced to enshrine federal protections against voter suppression, vote dilution and “racially-based gerrymandering” in state law.
The legislation was introduced in response to the push by President Donald Trump and his GOP allies in Congress for passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known more familiarly as the SAVE Act.
While Rhode Island already has its own Voter ID law requiring prospective voters to show a photo identification to cast their ballot, the SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship – such as a valid U.S. passport and certified birth certificate – to register to vote.
If the U.S. Senate were able to muster the votes to pass the SAVE Act, critics say millions could be disenfranchised, including married women whose adult names do not match the names on their birth certificates.
Speaking at the March 31 Rhode Island rally, U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner said not enough attention has gone to the proposed requirement that a voter present the same level of documentation to obtain a mail ballot, “but only if they showed up to their board of canvassers in person to prove their citizenship.” This would obviously be problematic for people too ill to leave their homes, hospitalized, out of the country or even, out of state on business.
As currently drafted, the proposed Rhode Island Voting Rights Act would take effect on January 1, 2027.
What were the concerns about the bill?
The edits Neronha’s staff suggested to the Secretary of State’s Office were largely cosmetic – the deletion of an extraneous word here or there, or clarification of a potentially muddy sentences.
In a June 6 letter to John Marion, executive director of the citizens-advocacy group Common Cause Rhode Island, Neronha said: “I do not view our comments on the proposed Act as particularly extensive nor burdensome nor time-consuming to implement, in whole or in part, should there be a desire to do so.”
Neronha’s letter said that his comments on the bill shouldn’t impede its passage, or be taken “even as a suggestion” that he doesn’t support the bill. His office’s role, he said, was to make a “laudable piece of legislation better if we could.”
“We undertook that task because we were asked to, and I agreed because I believe that passage of a Voting Rights Act is important to protecting the rights of Rhode Islanders and our democracy,” Neronha said.
Advocates are not giving up
In recent weeks, Ali said she went on radio to make an appeal to Black and brown men, in particular, to support the legislation, while she and other advocates distributed 3,300 postcards to be mailed to state lawmakers.
The message: “Dear Senator (Representative), The Voting Rights Act is one of the most important statutes we have in this country as it protects everyone’s right to vote and allows our country to function as a true democracy. Until it is codified into Rhode Island state law our fundamental Civil Rights are at risk.”
“We cannot afford to lose our Civil Rights with an election coming.”
This story has been updated with new information.
Rhode Island
Providence’s ‘Superman’ building: 13 years of empty promises over a state landmark – The Boston Globe
What Providence is going through is an unusually visible example of a problem facing many cities, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic: What combination of carrots and sticks can officials use to turn unwanted office space into something that suits a changing city’s needs?
Even if the building cannot be revived to its former glory, when office workers once poured out of the stunning marbled lobby during lunchtime to create a downtown buzz, surely developers and political leaders can do better.
“This becomes a symbol of this anxiety about Providence and its economic strength,” said Marisa Angell Brown, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society. “It raises that question: Has Providence turned the corner? Are we going to turn the corner?”
For years, the plan has been to redevelop the empty office tower into about 300 apartments, 20 percent of which would be below market rents, set aside for low- and moderate-income Rhode Islanders, along with commercial space on the ground floor. Ongoing squabbles about the size and scope of tax abatements from the city and state have delayed the project repeatedly. The redevelopment now hinges on a low-interest loan of up to $236 million from the US Department of Transportation, green lit for eligibility under former president Joe Biden then held up by the Trump administration.
Adding to the recent troubles, David Sweetser, the principal of High Rock Development and owner of the building since 2008, died unexpectedly last summer. The developer tapped its legal counsel, Michael Crossen, to continue with the project. A spokesperson for High Rock, Bill Fischer, told the editorial board that the firm is focused on finalizing funding details and remains “optimistic the project will proceed.” Fischer said once financing is in place, construction will be complete within 24 to 30 months.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley is urging patience. “I think it’s fair to say that the situation is frustrating and probably that many people, myself included, are anxious to see something happen, but big historic complicated buildings sometimes require complicated solutions,” Smiley told the Globe’s editorial board.
It’s a scenario playing out in commercial spaces across the nation, with office towers selling at deep discounts as owners struggle with low occupancy rates. If Providence can find a path forward to address a housing shortage while also reviving such a high-profile building, it could become a model for cities across the nation.
Transforming office space into apartments is notoriously tricky. Office configurations come with little interior natural light and plumbing that’s largely incompatible with residential layouts. Still, studies have shown that single-room occupancy units that ring the edge of the building — with shared kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, and living rooms in the center of the building — can work.
This type of low-cost downtown housing has traditionally carried a stigma, but it could be an option for students, young professionals, new arrivals to a city, or retirees. It could also reduce homelessness. Yes, it would not be a huge money generator for a landlord hoping to charge higher rents, but public subsidies could make it work.
Most agree: Tearing down the Superman building is not a great option. In 2017, former Providence mayor turned developer Joe Paolino floated the idea of replacing it with a modern office tower for an anchor tenant, a concept that sent shudders across the city and still reverberates.
“To tear down that building in the middle of city, it would be an absolute sin,” Michael Sabitoni, the president of the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council, told a Globe columnist in 2021.
Construction on the Art Deco building began in 1927. The building featured plaster, bronze work, and the very latest in modern elevator mechanics.
In 2019, the building was listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
The plight of the building has captivated Providence for too many years now.
In 2020, seven graduate students studying adaptive reuse at the Rhode Island School of Design reimagined uses for the Superman building. Ideas included several theaters and performance spaces, senior housing, a vertical farm, laboratories, and even an amusement park.
A recent op-ed in the Globe suggests: Stop trying to solve, and pay for, the whole building renovation at once. Activate the bottom four floors with a civic space, then let the apartments above follow.
Locals commonly ask why nearby Brown University, which has a massive endowment and needs building space, including graduate student housing, can’t make something happen.
Mayor Smiley said he thinks it’s best to stick with the current developer’s vision for apartments. “There’s a lot of external factors that unfortunately, and somewhat coincidentally, have complicated the timeline. But that doesn’t mean that it’s still not the best plan for the building.”
The mayor says he’s in regular touch with the developer. But few others seem to know what’s going on as they walk past scaffolding in the heart of downtown, and tolerance after more than a decade of delays is running thin. If the the building’s owner can’t get things moving, it should move on and let somebody else take a try at building something.
“It’s a shame that it just sits there and nobody is taking care of it,” said Behrouz Sarlak, owner of Loominous Rug Gallery, which sits a few blocks away from the Superman. “A lot can be done. You just have to be creative.”
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.
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