Fall in Providence, RI

SHOP THE POST:

Shein Sweater c/o (under $20!)/ James Pearse Shirt, Old / 7 For All Mankind Jeans / Target Booties / Tory Burch Purse / Macy's Earrings / Bauble Bar Necklace / Karen Walker Sunglasses 

Last Thursday Mike and I headed down to Providence, RI to celebrate his birthday. One of our favorite this to do is day trips to explore new-to-us places and neither of us had been to Providence since we were little. We love to go without an agenda and find yummy food, hidden corners, and cool scenery. Providence did not disappoint. 

SHOPPING:

Thursday afternoon was sunny and warm, making it the perfect time to walk around Westminster St. There were super cute, unique stores for everything from stationary, home goods, and clothes. A lot of the stores had fun, quirky items that I could have spent hours looking at. Plus there were lots of really good spots for an afternoon snack while walking around!

Just a few blocks away from our hotel was the Providence Place Mall which was just a perfect way to spend an hour or two on a cool, windy fall morning. We ended up waking up super early on Friday morning and decided to walk around the mall for about 30 minutes before it opened since it was so windy out. Luckily we were right near Nordstrom as the gate went up and the mall opened, convenient or planned? We may never know. 

EAT:

We ate everything. We were in Providence for less than 24 hours but somehow managed to hit up quite the number of eateries. 

Thursday we started with cocktails and bar snacks at Eddy, the marinated olives were amazing! The staff was also awesome and recommended a bunch of restaurants within walking distance that they themselves frequent. After striking out at a few of the recommendations, we ended up eating at Red Fin for tapas. We were actually still pretty full from the bar snacks we ordered so we only split 3 small plates, the meatballs were by far our favorite, I wish we just ordered 3 of those!

Friday morning we woke up early and wandered around the corner from our hotel to Ellie's Bakery. We had seen it the night before and decided it was too cute not to check out and we are so glad we did. The coffee was fantastic and the all the baked goods were mouth watering plus they cure their own bacon and well, it was just amazing. Had we stayed there another night, I think we would have been back for breakfast round two. They even sold some of the prettiest flower arrangements from a local florist, I wanted to take one home with me so bad! 

After exploring more (aka walking all over) we decided we needed a mid morning snack and headed over to The Malted Barley for a beer and pretzel. They hand bake their own pretzels fresh to order and as a hot pretzel connoisseur, there were very, very good. Perfectly crunchy not the outside, warm and soft on the side, with the perfect (and extensive) list of dipping sauces to accompany them! 

Lastly we went to G Pub for lunch on a recommendation from the bartender at The Malted Barley. He described it as upscale pub food and that is exactly what it is was. Think typical pub food; burgers, melts, hot dogs, etc. but elevated with unexpected flavors like caramelized onion, truffle aioli, and short ribs. If you're looking for a hearty delicious meal, do not miss this! 

TO-DO:

If you enjoy just walking around, this city is perfect for it. Mike and I could have walked the city all day looking at all the buildings. It's a super old city with some of the coolest architecture I have seen. Similar to Boston or New York but much smaller scale so you can get closer to the buildings and really look at the construction. There is also a river walk you can do that goes along the river and the campus of Brown University. A few times a year they even light this river on fire at night, which would be really cool to see! 

Since we were there for a such a short period of time, we didn't get to explore too much, but it is a small city with lots of history so we hope to go back again and be able to do more! 

STAY:

We stayed at the Biltmore, which was the perfect location for what we wanted to do. We could walk everywhere we ate or shopped at in under 10 minutes so it was easy to go out and explore. We didn't get to the other neighborhoods of Providence but for our short stay, exploring the area around the hotel was perfect. The hotel is also in a super old building so it was really neat to see all the old aspects of it they kept!