Bob Burke, founder and owner, Pot au Feu Restaurant/Independence Trai

LONG ROAD AHEAD: Pot au Feu restaurant co-owner Bob Burke said Rhode Island’s restaurant industry has a difficult road ahead to recover from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
LONG ROAD AHEAD: Pot au Feu restaurant co-owner Bob Burke said Rhode Island’s restaurant industry has a difficult road ahead to recover from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

PBN 2020 Leaders & Achievers Awards
Bob Burke | Founder and co-owner, Pot au Feu/Independence Trail Educational Foundation


IT IS LOGICAL for a downtown business owner to want to see plenty of healthy commercial activity bustling through his neighborhood. But that motive barely scratches the surface of the scores of initiatives that Bob Burke undertakes to spread the story of Rhode Island’s history and culture.

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Burke, with his wife, has owned and operated Providence-based French restaurant Pot au Feu since 1986. The couple has treated thousands of children and adults to tasty immersions in French food and culture. More pragmatically, Burke and his staff prepared 1,200 meals for front-line workers at Providence hospitals from April through June this year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Born on Roger Williams Avenue in Providence, Burke also is enthusiastic about Rhode Island history and the importance of telling the story of this innovative little state to all.

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“I have a passion for Rhode Island history and what a special place we’ve got here,” he said. “We have always been innovators, for good and for bad, from the separation of church and state to running the slave trade.” He founded Independence Trail Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that created a citywide digital history tour.

Burke’s career “has spanned a time when Providence reawakened to the idea that it can be a great city,” he said.

Burke strives to educate people about the state’s past and future greatness. One major leadership quality, Burke said, is to articulate a vision for times to come.

Burke said the state’s restaurant industry has “a long and very difficult road ahead” to recover from the pandemic. Burke said to recover, “it is crucially important to earn the trust of customers and to keep them safe while they are in our establishments.”

Even into late July, Pot au Feu was still offering only curbside service as work goes on in the building to install first-class systems for safe service.

“The watch word is to be cautious and to retain peoples’ trust,” Burke said.

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