Federal Hill, Providence.
(Brian McDonald)
Twenty years ago, the concrete archway that now greets visitors at
the west end of Atwells Avenue was built to represent the bridging of the Federal
Hill neighborhood to downtown Providence.
At the time, the proud Italian enclave needed all the help it could get. Historically a neighborhood pulsing with commerce and ethnic identity, Federal Hill and its marquee main avenue had lost its luster.
“For a long period of time, you could come to Federal Hill and find it a rather boring place to visit,” said Joe Fuoco, editor of the Federal Hill Gazette and author of the book Federal Hill in the Twentieth Century.
“There was no action on the hill,” Fuoco said. “It was old, staid, forgotten. It was a thing of the past.”
But it turns out the symbolic meaning behind the arch was prophetic: As the much-touted renaissance of Providence has unfolded over the past decade, so too has there been a rebirth on Atwells Avenue.
“The amount of tourism the hill’s attracted over the last seven or eight years is absolutely incredible,” Fuoco said. “Business here is better than it’s been in 60 or 70 years.”
Once bustling with street-side “pushcart” vendors peddling everything from fresh cod to Italian figs, today’s commerce flows in the form of red sauce and Chianti.
Lombard Gasbarro, owner of the 103-year-old Gasbarro liquors at 361 Atwells and president of the Federal Hill Commerce Association, sums up the success of today’s Atwells Avenue rather bluntly: “We’ve become a food Mecca,” Gasbarro said.
Nearly 40 restaurants crowd Atwells Ave., along with a handful of gourmet food shops selling hard-to-find Italian meats, cheeses and pastas.
But the avenue’s merchants say it’s not the concentration of eateries in Federal Hill but their reputation for quality – often reported by national media as rivaling well-known “Little Italy” neighborhoods such as Boston’s North End – that draws regular patrons from several states away.
“Federal Hill has become a real tourist attraction,” said Joe DeGiulio, owner of Joe’s Acorn Market at 299 Atwells. The shop makes its own sausage and is known for its sharp provolone cheese.
“People come here from all over New England – from all over the country – for the food,” said DeGiulio, who took over the 80-year-old market from his father Giuseppe.
Gasbarro says he has a regular patron from Montreal who makes his way down to Providence several times a year to pick up his favorite imported wines, cheeses and meats on Federal Hill.
Many Atwells merchants say they have loyal customers from the Boston area who bypass the North End in favor of Federal Hill because they appreciate the authenticity of Atwells’ culinary offerings and the relative ease of getting into the area.
“If you live 10 minutes outside of Boston, it’s easier to drive down here to pick up your gourmet foods,” said Wayne Wheatley, owner of Providence Cheese at 178 Atwells. The tiny shop supplies fresh mozzarella, spinach pasta and other gourmet foods to local restaurants and has been written up in national publications such as the New York Times and Boston Globe for its hot cherry peppers, hand-stuffed with sharp provolone cheese and prosciutto.
“We have a lot of regular customers from Massachusetts and Connecticut,” said Wheatley, the shop’s owner for 11 years and grandson of Frank Basso, who bought the store in 1965.
But Federal Hill’s allure attracts much more than die-hard connoisseurs of Italian cuisine. A freshly scrubbed look and the emergence of trendy new restaurants – the Eclectic Grill and Mediterraneo among them – have made Atwells Avenue a beacon for tourists and young professionals from the city.
There’s the sleek new Venda Ravioli store at 265 Atwells, where wide-eyed customers gaze through vast glass cases of imported Italian meats and fresh-made pastas. Outside, shaded patrons dine on the brick courtyard of the European-style DePasquale Square, centered by a stone fountain adorned with a bronze-cast “La Pigna,” or pine cone, the Italian symbol for hospitality and sharing.
Many Atwells merchants credit the revival of Providence and Rhode Island’s booming tourism industry to the neighborhood’s popularity surge. Tourist magnets that have blossomed in recent years, including the downtown theaters, Water Fire and the Providence Place Mall, are a manageable – if steep – jaunt up the hill.
Not surprisingly, many on Federal Hill tout the efforts of Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., a regular at many of the area’s restaurants and a staunch supporter of the neighborhood.
“I think all the credit goes to the mayor and his foresight to see that this area could become the Mecca of the city,” said Alan Costantino, son of Venda Ravioli’s owner, also Alan Costantino.
The proliferation of restaurants along Atwells has led a few longtime residents to wonder whether the strip has become one dimensional, with a greater focus on courting outsiders than serving the needs of the neighborhood’s residents.
Historically, part of what has made Federal Hill the tight-knit community it is was that its residents needed to venture no farther than the confines of the hill for all their needs. “My father used to say, ‘On Federal Hill, you’ve got everything you want from the womb to the tomb,'” said DeGiulio.
The community association took note of the change a few years ago. In recent years, there’s been an effort to foster a better mix of retail along Atwells, “so we’re not going to become restaurant row,” Gasbarro said.
The strategy appears to be working: A billiards-supply store, computer retailer, cigar shop and a new clothing store all have popped up on Atwells in recent years. Even what some might call the antithesis of the avenue’s culinary identity has opened: a diet store.
But, to be sure, the restaurants keep coming.
“Everybody and their brother wants to open a restaurant or café up here,” said Wheatley of Providence Cheese.
Relatively recent entrants to the Atwells restaurant scene – a Caribbean restaurant, a Mexican eatery and an Indian restaurant – reflect the area’s changing ethnic makeup. Federal Hill’s Italian population, which hovered around 50,000 in the 1950s, now might be less than 5,000, Fuoco estimates.
“At one time, it would have been, if not unthinkable, then very improbable to have these different ethnic restaurants on the hill,” said Fuoco. “But this is part of the new immigration. It’s no longer an Italian enclave.”
DeGuilio agrees.
“A lot of the Italians have moved out to the suburbs, and in that vacuum we’ve had new cultures come in here,” Deguilio said. “You can’t call it a big Italian neighborhood like it used to be.”
Immigrants from Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Brazil, Russia, the Caribbean and other countries now combine to create Federal Hill’s new cultural fabric.
The signs of ethnic diversity are stark. The Federal Hill Gazette, founded six years ago with a distinct Italian slant, has broadened its coverage. “We’ve gotten away from the Italian focus,” Fuoco said. “We had to, because the demographics dictated that.”
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, which historically had been almost exclusively Italian, now has a weekly Mass in Spanish.
While some longtime Federal Hill residents lament a loss of Italian identity, Fuoco says the gregarious nature of most neighborhood residents lends itself to a feeling of community.
“There’s a tremendous amount of warmth on the hill,” he said. “Everybody becomes a part of this Federal Hill family so to speak.”
Fuoco says he even sees some of the old Italians occasionally dining at the non-Italian restaurants. “I think it dispels the myth that Italians are only interested in Italian cuisine,” he said.
After all, it’s all about the food.
