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News Bites: Preppy Pig BBQ Brunch / Sons of Liberty Spirits New Seasonal Release / RI DEM Announces New Agriculture Grant Awards

by David Dadekian May 9, 2019

Current news releases—Eat Drink RI is not the source for these items—please follow any links for more information.

Preppy Pig BBQ, Named Rhode Island’s Best BBQ By Thrillist, Announces Brunch At Their Warren Location

Lots of restaurants offer Brunch, but no one is doing it quite like Preppy Pig BBQ in Warren. Beginning Sunday, November 6th from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., a brand new brunch experience begins. Known for its easy, low and slow lifestyle, BBQ has barely crossed into the uncharted New England waters and owner Patrick Boylan DeSocio is doing it right. With custom smokers, quality meats and sides, and a dedicated staff of barbecue enthusiasts, Preppy Pig has received local, regional and national recognition, and for good reason. The menu is classic, authentic and brings people together – just the way a good BBQ joint should.

Brunch at Preppy Pig will feature savory favorites such as Briskets & Gravy with sausage gravy over homemade buttermilk biscuits, a Pulled Pork Benedict on griddle fried cornbread with beef fat potato hash & dressed arugula, and a Monte Cristo Sandwich with house cured ham or bacon, topped with pulled pork, melted Swiss cheese, and caramelized onions on a sweet Portuguese bolo. Also, Preppy Pig is collaborating with the enormously successful PVDonuts to create the Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich. Slow smoked pork, housemade apple butter, and Vermont sharp cheddar will be sandwiched between their maple bacon glazed donut. Of course, no brunch is complete without some boozy beverages to get the day started. Preppy Pig has a full liquor license and will feature a Bloody Mary con Carne.

“We have been working incredibly hard since opening Warren in June and Jamestown in September to assemble the best possible BBQ team around, and we are finally there! I couldn’t be happier with the way things are coming together for us. I have to tip my cap to our amazing staff and the hard work they are putting in to get us to the next level!” said Patrick. “We are more than excited to put this BBQ brunch together and see where it goes. BBQ is always an adventure and we sure are enjoying the ride. Please come on over to our Warren location and saddle on up . . . you won’t be disappointed!”

Enjoy Brunch at Preppy Pig every Sunday from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m beginning on Sunday, November 6th.

Sons of Liberty Spirits Co. Releases Gala Apple – a Celebration of Fall in New England

Rhode Island Craft Distillery Recognized for World’s Best Flavored Whiskey Extends First-Ever Seasonal Line with All-New Apple Flavored Whiskey

Sons of Liberty Spirits Co. is proud to announce the newest addition to the first-ever seasonal line of whiskies with Gala Apple.

Gala Apple joins the first U.S. craft whiskey to ever take home World’s Best honors from Whisky Magazine’s annual World Whiskies Awards – Pumpkin Spice Whiskey, in Sons of Liberty’s family of seasonal whiskies.

“We launched the first-ever seasonal line of whiskies in 2012 with the idea that brewers had been crafting seasonal beers for so long, why not bring that concept to whiskey?” said Sons of Liberty Owner, Mike Reppucci. “Being a New England distillery, the seasonal flavors harvested here are awesome to work with and we love pairing those flavors with our whiskies to create a drink appropriate for the season.”

Sons of Liberty utilized more than 9,000 fresh Gala Apples from two Connecticut orchards, Blue Hills Orchard and Drazen Orchards, for its inaugural release of Gala Apple. The apples were brought to New England Cider Company where the apples were shredded into a sauce-like mash called pumice. This mash of apples was then pressed to extract as much juice as possible from the fresh fruit. The Sons of Liberty crew brought the delicious juice back to the distillery where they blended it with a barrel-aged whiskey they made specifically for this release.

The finished product begs to be enjoyed on a cool, New England fall night. The crisp, subtly sweet apple notes pair perfectly with the whiskey to create a drink that is fit for the season. With no artificial flavors added, Gala Apple lacks the sweet, saccharin taste of common flavored spirits and delivers a natural pairing of local seasonal produce and single-malt craft whiskey.

Gala Apple is now available throughout Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

DEM Continues to Promote Growth of Local Agriculture with Latest Grant Awards

Funding supports specialty crop production, sales in Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) today announced $225,524 in grant awards to five local groups working to grow the state’s agricultural sector. The grants, funded under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, support efforts to grow the marketplace and increase local production of specialty crops. USDA defines specialty crops as fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, and nursery crops, including floriculture and turf grass.

“Agriculture is an important, diverse industry poised for growth in Rhode Island,” said DEM Director Janet Coit. “We’re pleased to announce these awards that support our local growers and their businesses as well as increase consumer understanding and demand for Rhode Island’s specialty crops. The work these grant recipients are doing is vital to ensuring the continued viability of agriculture in Rhode Island, and we are proud to be a partner. Kudos to all!”

Grant recipients include:

Farm Fresh Rhode Island – $50,000

Funding supports creation of a farm-to-institution advocacy group focused on increasing use of local specialty crops in school, university, and hospital cafeterias.

Southside Community Land Trust – $25,750

Funding supports creation of a food hub that will collect specialty crops grown at urban farm sites in the Providence area and distribute to Rhode Island’s low-income communities.

Northeast Organic Farming Association of Rhode Island (NOFA/RI) – $20,800

Funding supports NOFA/RI’s efforts to train and provide technical assistance to local organic farmers. Available trainings will include advanced grower seminars and on-farm workshops where organic techniques will be reviewed. Participating farmers also have access to an advisor to support them in producing high-value organic crops.

RI Organic Farm Market – $29,730

Funding supports RI Organic’s market and “Farm Share Baskets” program. Through this program, RI Organic delivers locally sourced, organic and non-GMO specialty crops to Rhode Island residences.

University of Rhode Island – $21,851

Funding supports the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences’ efforts to increase production of African-origin vegetable crops on Rhode Island’s urban farms. Efforts also include educating urban growers and providing community workshops on these crops.

Additionally, DEM received $77,393 under USDA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program to support its buy local campaign, “Get Fresh, Buy Local.” The funds will be used to help increase consumer awareness and demand for specialty crop products.

Rhode Island is experiencing significant growth in its agricultural and local food sector. The state’s food system now supports 60,000 jobs, and Rhode Island is one of a few states where the number of farms is on the rise, now standing at more than 1,200 farms. The state also leads the nation in the percent of its farms selling directly to the public. Green industries in Rhode Island account for more than 15,000 jobs and contribute $2.5 billion to the economy.

For more information about the Specialty Crop Block Grant awards, visit USDA.gov.

For more information on DEM programs and initiatives, visit www.dem.ri.gov. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RhodeIslandDEM or on Twitter (@RhodeIslandDEM) for timely updates.

Disclosure: Preppy Pig BBQ is a client of Eat Drink RI Marketing Services

May 9, 2019 0 comment

chefs & restaurants cooking

Gracie’s Pastry Chef Melissa Denmark’s Apple Buttermilk Tart video from the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau

by David Dadekian November 21, 2012

written by David Dadekian

Just in time for Thanksgiving dessert comes this baking demonstration video from Gracie’s Pastry Chef Melissa Denmark, produced by the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau. You can watch it above and if you click through to YouTube you can find the recipe . Thank you to Gracie’s and the PWCVB. Happy Thanksgiving!

November 21, 2012 0 comment

chefs & restaurants news

Castle Hill Inn Hosts Clambakes with their New Oceanside Pit

by David Dadekian July 16, 2019

written by David Dadekian

Castle Hill Inn Executive Chef Karsten Hart watches the pit

“My goal and my hope for the clambakes here is that this is the best clambake location in New England,” Castle Hill Inn’s Executive Chef Karsten Hart told me as we stood by a long, shallow pit of expertly lined stones—a pit that was getting hotter by the minute from the wood fire in it that was slowly turning to hot embers. Some boats passed by just yards away from us and the Newport Bridge was prominent in the background. The hot August day was slowly cooling down and there were very few clouds in the sky as the sun set across the way from us. If this wasn’t the most beautiful clambake location in New England, “the best” as Chef Hart hoped, then I’d very much like to see what tops it.

Last spring I was at an event at Castle Hill Inn and ran into Hart. We stopped to talk and he was like a giddy boy with a new toy. You have to come see our new clambake pit, he said, and if I hesitated I bet he would have dragged me down the lawn to see it. But of course I was as excited to see it as Hart was to show it off, and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to photograph it in action. Last week my wife and I were invited guests of Castle Hill to watch the clambake process and eat an amazing meal under the stars on the Chalet lawn.

The clambake process is relatively straightforward: dig a hole, line it with rocks, light a fire on the rocks and wait until it burns down to embers heating the rocks, place your food in a basket in the hole, cover the hole and wait until it’s ready to eat. It’s an almost ancient cooking procedure, shown to Europeans by Native Americans, and many food anthropologists think it may have been the actual meal at the first Thanksgiving. Naturally it’s been refined over the years, but the process is basically the same.

Hart explained how the clambake pit came to be at Castle Hill, “The inspiration started from a Relais & Chateaux conference that we hosted two years ago. It was my second week at Castle Hill. I just moved from California. I wasn’t sure what to think about the clambake. We did a traditional one right on the beach for about thirty people. We buried the lobster, seaweed, similar to how we’re doing right here. I admit I was pretty suspicious. I wasn’t sure how it was going to come out. I’d never seen it before in my life.

“But I was just so amazed at how incredible the flavor was from the smoke and seaweed flavor that it gave the lobster. It kept the juices in there. I thought it was going to overcook, but it didn’t. It just sealed it. It’s almost like a pressure cooker in there and it just seals everything in. I was so impressed with it and as an outsider coming into to New England I could not understand why Castle Hill did not have a clambake pit. So for the past two years we’ve been searching for the most beautiful spot on the property that we don’t utilize and this is it right here. So we found the location, and in my opinion it’s picture-perfect. It’s a beautiful location and an incredible product.”

The lobster is an incredible product, as Hart said, because, as expected at Castle Hill, Hart brings his exacting precision and dedication to cooking to the clambakes. Banquet Chef Joe McCarthy, who was assisting with the clambake, said they kept logs indicating cooking times, fire temperature, wind direction and other external factors to see what contributed to the best cooked lobster.

Hart explained the process, “The first few times that we did this, we timed it. It was a goal of mine to have a perfectly cooked lobster. I didn’t want to overcook. I did my research and the more I researched the more I realized most people are cooking the lobsters for up to two hours, which is too long. The first few times we did this it was a little nerve wracking because I wasn’t certain if they were going to be cooked perfect. We dropped the time to an hour and they came out delicious, just to die for. They were perfectly cooked. I remember saying to the guys, ‘We just set a standard.’

“We did about four of these before we even decided to open it to the public. We have the timing down [according] to how many lobsters and the staff is just doing an excellent job with it now. We’ve mostly been selling these clambakes to corporate groups—we can do up to about eighty lobsters. It’s nice to show them what specialties and gems we have here in New England. We had three dates this year so that the public can enjoys this and will probably have four or five [dates] next year.”

Hart’s not boasting when he said “perfectly cooked.” The lobster was a standout, all of the meat was almost sweet and I hardly used any melted butter. But of course, that’s not all we were served. The evening began with passed hors d’oeuvres on the lawn. When he became Executive Chef Hart began a charcuterie program at Castle Hill and his fried rabbit rillettes with mustard is a standout. I also had some rice croquettes which were perfectly fried. There was a third passed item, a stuffie, which all managed to disappear as I was making photos. My wife had two and told me they were some of the better stuffies she’s had.

After the unveiling of the clambake, we were seated at gorgeously designed tables on the lawn and dinner began with Clam Chowder with a black pepper biscuit. It seems kind of crazy to say, but if all I had all evening was that clam chowder I would’ve been happy. Several of the other guests indicated the same. But of course, we weren’t going to refuse the main course. In addition to the perfectly cooked lobster we were each served a bowl of steamed Littlenecks with smoked seaweed-vihno verde broth, another item I would’ve been happy to make a meal of.

The potatoes and corn that were cooked in the clambake pit were served family style, as was the house made chouriço with peppers. Hart’s chouriço is very well made, with a nice little spicy kick at the end. There was a big bowl of shaved Red Cabbage Slaw with apple cider vinaigrette which was excellent and, as odd as it may be, I want to give special mention to the abundant slices of toasted baguette. There was a lot of delicious sopping up to do so the bread was more than welcome by all the diners.

If I had to improve upon one thing, I would have liked to have had a broader selection of wine at the outdoor bar. For white wine we were only offered Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay or Fumé Blanc by the glass. I would have loved something that could have better complimented the amazing food. Perhaps a crisp German or Oregon Riesling, maybe with a hint of sweetness that would have gone great with that chouriço. Or a high acid Vermentino could have worked well with the richness of the lobster and clams. Maybe offering too many wines by the glass at a temporary outdoor bar is a slight logistics problem, but my feeling as I tasted the wine was that such a well-made meal deserved a more complimentary pairing.

Dessert was a house made Apple Crisp along with a Watermelon Aqua Fresca. Both were a great, light way to close the dinner. By the end of the meal, night had completely fallen and we lingered with friends we had made at the table until we were almost the last ones there. The Chalet area was well lit, but you could still make out the stars and the Newport Bridge was lit up in the distance. It was one of those perfect Rhode Island nights, made all the more special by the feeling that Hart had met his goal of best clambake location. Please take a look at the picture-perfect-process in the photos below.

The next and final clambake for 2012 is being held on Thursday, September 20th at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $95 per person plus tax and gratuity. For more information or to make reservations, please call 401-849-3800 or visit www.castlehillinn.com.

Corn, potatoes and house made chouriço with some seaweed in the steaming crate by the pit

Banquet Chef Joe McCarthy and Executive Chef Karsten Hart by the clambake pit

Close-up on corn, potatoes and house made chouriço with some seaweed in the steaming crate

Lobsters with seaweed in the steaming crate

Chef Hart happily poses by the clambake pit

Hart rakes the wood coals as McCarthy observes

McCarthy and Hart place the steaming crates on the coals

Hart gives a thumbs up as they place the last cage

Burlap soaked in water is placed over the crates first

Then water-soaked canvas tarps cover the burlap

Making sure everything is well covered to keep in the heat

McCarthy hoses down the tarps to keep the steam going

The tables are set on the Chalet lawn at Castle Hill Inn

Guests sample hors d'oeuvres on the lawn while watching the clambake pit — Guests sample hors d’oeuvres on the lawn while watching the clambake pit

The Castle Hill Inn Chalet tent and dinner seating on lawn

The bell that is rung to announce the unveiling at the clambake pit

McCarthy and Hart unwrap the crates as dinner guests watch

McCarthy wheels everyone's dinner back to the tent for plating — McCarthy wheels everyone’s dinner back to the tent for plating

Castle Hill Inn's Clam Chowder with black pepper biscuit — Castle Hill Inn’s Clam Chowder with black pepper biscuit

Lobster alongside steamed Littlenecks with smoked seaweed-vihno verde broth

July 16, 2019 0 comment