Graduation week in Providence and Susie's desserts

It's no secret that Providence is a major food town -- but for those of us who seem to be obsessed with food we often forget that this city is also a major university town as well. The textile mills that once defined the greater Providence area are long gone, replaced by academic buildings and residence halls: University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, Providence College, and of course Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design and Johnson & Wales University, to name just a few. (photo: Susie's classic French shell-shaped Madeleine cakes.)

And last weekend the commencement season for all these schools began in earnest.

One of the Johnson & Wales students, a most amiable young man named Nick, finished his junior year and his job on the website redesign team -- which is where I met him. Pleasant, easy-going, hard-working and reliable, Nick was clearly well-liked by everyone and was surprised with a cake and lots of smiles wishing him well.

Of course, with all the commencements this last weekend and on into the next, also comes plenty of parties at local restaurants and so Susie has been prepping like crazy trying -- successfully I might add -- to stay ahead the game as it were.

And so on Saturday Susie had a very long day indeed. After she had been at work for nearly 10 hours I drove after 5:00 p.m. to pick her up. As I walked in the door I quickly discovered that a serious party was just about to get underway at Gracie's -- six of the staff at the restaurant are graduating this year and two of them were holding a party in the restaurant that very evening. I had the foresight to bring the camera so I snapped a few quick photos to share with you:

Danielle and her brother:

Katelynn (Mike in the background):

Danielle:


Gracie's server:

Before we left to go home I had a unique opportunity to grab a few photos of Susie's desserts being plated. Normally we don't get a chance to see these since it usually only happens late into the evening. But someone had ordered a dessert tasting early it seems so . . .

Banana pistachio cake with honey-mascarpone cream, finished off with chopped pistachios and chocolate nibs:

Chocolate chambord-sabayon (in the espresso cup) with shortbread sticks:

Lemon curd tart with lemon cream:

On Sunday Dick and Dorothy drove down from Douglas, MA, and the four of us walked over to Nick's for breakfast. The wait was long -- about half an hour -- but hey it was graduation weekend. The service was slow of course, but, as always the food was good.

The big news for us is that two more condo units sold recently; and in fact a young couple already closed and started moving into one of the town home units already. So now we're half full.

Or half empty. It's your call.

Anyway, the weather has been good, aside from a little rain last week.

You really should have been here.

Ciao,

Steve