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Dave’s Coffee Providence Slayer espresso machine

Exclusive to Rhode Island: Dave’s Coffee has the Only Slayer Machine in the State

Rhode Islanders can now enjoy exclusive coffee profiles with the Slayer (www.slayerespresso.com) espresso machine at Dave’s Coffee Providence, located at 341 South Main Street. The Slayer uses ultra high-end technology to enrich the coffee experience with instruments that enable baristas to have full control of each espresso shot. This is accomplished when the barista applies varying temperature and pressure during the brew process.

“This is the only Slayer in a 50 mile radius. We’re introducing a new realm of coffee enjoyment and flavor expression,” said Dave Lanning, CEO of Dave’s Coffee. “Customers will notice the aroma, taste and flavor profile of every espresso shot.”

According to Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods America on the Travel Channel, “The Slayer works on the principle that having complete control over temperature, pressure and flow rate of water will completely change the taste of any coffee bean. The variety of flavors the slayer can create is almost infinite.”

Each Slayer is built to order by hand in Seattle, Washington. The machine is able to transform the cycle of how coffee is made with intricate details that include:

Two user controls, one for steam and one for brewing
Components made with stainless steel, brass rivets and Peruvian walnut handles
100% control over brew temperature, water pressure and shot regulation
No computer interface, completely analog machine.

Dave’s Coffee Providence is now open for business, with the hours of 7am to 7pm each day. This marks the first expansion for Dave’s Coffee from South County into the capital city. For more information visit www.davescoffee.com.

Fox Point Pickling Company

Finally, Rhode Island will have its very own pickle!

It’s a fact: Rhode Islanders love Rhode Island. We also love everything from Rhode Island, especially food: Del’s Lemonade, Autocrat Coffee Syrup, and Narragansett Beer share space with the newer and smaller brands like Dave’s Coffee Syrup and Grey Sail Brewing. But one thing our beloved tiny state has been missing for a long time is pickles, and Fox Point Pickling Company is ready to fill that niche.

And it seems Rhode Islanders far and wide agree! Fox Point Pickling Company recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the final stages of production, and has reached 73% of its goal, over $7000, in just 3 days!

There are still so many pickle lovers that call Rhode Island home that haven’t yet heard about Fox Point Pickling Company, and their slogan “Small State. Big Flavor. It was be a really big “dill” if you could help by sharing the news about this brand new start-up, a welcome addition to the Rhode Island food scene, and the current Kickstarter campaign. Here is the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1692998041/fox-point-pickling-company-small-batch-pickles-fro

Fit2Cook4Kids Pressure Cooker contestants and judges

Fit2Cook4Kids Cooking Competition at Whole Foods Market Garden City Center

On Thursday, July 10th at the Whole Foods Garden City Center Farmers’ Market we hosted a special event here in Cranston. Four aspiring chefs from Fit2Cook4Kids, a summer camp for kids, joined us for Pressure Cooker, a Chopped style competition. There were 2 teams of 2 who went head to head, they had 40 minutes to create & plate 3 of the same dish to send to the judging table.

They were given a mystery basket of ingredients in which they had to incorporate somehow into their dish. They also had access to the Whole Foods Market limited pantry in which we provided a few additional items to help them create their dishes. We tried to choose all health starts here ingredients to keep with the Fit2Cook4Kids theme!

Within the mystery basket they had:

Salmon
Almond Butter
Fresh green beans from the Farmers’ Market
Fresh Raspberries from the Farmers’ Market
A pattypan squash from the Farmers’ Market
365 quick cooking couscous

And wow did these kids cook. They poured so much heart and soul into this completion and everyone went home a winner that day! Each contestant on the winning team went home with a $50 Gift card to the store and a cute cutting board, and the runners up each went home with a $25 Gift Card and cutting board.

A special thank you to the Fit2Cook4Kids contestants, the entire Fit2Cook4Kids staff, Annette our Healthy Eating Specialist, and our lovely panel of Whole Foods Market judges, Holly (Local Forager & Delivery) Annette (HES) & Mr. Steve Almonte (ASTL). We have another two teams coming to compete on July 31st and on August 7th we will have the Finale where both of the winning teams will go head to head in our champions match.

The new Spring Cocktails at Tini, from left to right: (verb) my Green Bikini in (place), A Classy (noun), (noun) on the Horizon, (verb) the White Dog, Make Her (verb) This Time

After this winter, it seems as if everyone is working hard to bring about spring. When I asked bartender Alicia Canning about working on the five new drinks for Tini‘s Spring Cocktail Line she gave kind of a sly smile. I’ll just say bringing about spring at Tini can be intoxicating and leave it at that. It can also be delicious, as proven by Chef Darius Salko’s two new dishes. When I received Salko’s message mentioning a fried chicken skin sandwich you could almost see the swooshing, curly speed lines behind me as I rushed to Tini.

Orange Dream Salad (larger version at end of piece)

First, the food. In addition to the fried chicken skin sandwich, which is more properly called The Crackling Club, there is the Orange Dream Salad. I’ll confess, when Salko told me what was in it—orange and grapefruit segments, dates, Bulgarian sheep’s milk Feta cheese, red seedless grapes, torn mint, cinnamon and pomegranate seeds—I wasn’t sure how that combination would work. But I’ve learned to have faith in Salko’s method of putting together good, fresh ingredients in clean, simple ways that create hugely flavorful dishes. Salko told me, “We serve it with two tortillas and you kind of just have a ball,” and he was so right. I highly recommend ordering the Orange Dream Salad, especially if you’re going to also have The Crackling Club, which as you might imagine, is so good (and only a little bit “bad”).

The Crackling Club (larger version at end of piece)

While you might think a fried chicken skin sandwich sounds hedonistic, again, in the Tini style of fresh and simple, it’s really a somewhat light sandwich. I say somewhat because it is a club sandwich, so there’s also house cured & smoked bacon, Allen Farms red mustard greens, sweet cabbage, pickled shallots, bread-and-butter pickles and house made mayonnaise, along with the two chicken cracklings. It’s all piled beautifully on their house made brioche. The chicken skin is perfectly crisped and slightly puffed so the effect is really a somewhat light spring-like club sandwich and not something heavy.

Now, the cocktails. Canning prepared five beautiful drinks for me to play with making photos of, and then of course I got to try them all. The Spring Cocktail Line is called “Ad Lib” and the names of the drinks require the person ordering to fill in some key words, in the style of a favorite childhood written word game. Sure the missing spots in the cocktail names could all be filled-in with words loaded in innuendo, but then who didn’t do that with Mad Libs anyway (0r skipped the innuendo altogether and just went straight to the gutter)? The cocktails are:

White Whisky, Muddled Cucumber = [verb] the White Dog
Cachaça, St. Germain, Basil = [verb] my Green Bikini in [place]
Belvedere, Framboise, Lemon, Champagne = A Classy [noun]
Genever, Maraschino, Violette, Mint = [noun] on the Horizon
Maker’s Mark, TINI Grenadine, Thyme = Make Her [verb] This Time

I really enjoyed the “[verb] the White Dog.” It uses Death’s Door White Whisky which is fermented in stainless steel and finished in uncharred oak barrels so it never gets the caramel color or smoky flavors of a traditional whisky. Personally, I wouldn’t call it a whisky, or maybe label it with an asterisk, because it’s a delicious drink and people who aren’t fans of whisky might pass it by. The “Make Her [verb] This Time” was also a favorite. The thyme and a little touch of salt in it really brings out some subtle flavors. All the drinks were perfectly balanced and should be big hits.

In addition to the new drinks and dishes, Tini is now serving late on Wednesdays with live music. Salko posted, “It’s the Tini Show starting at 10 p.m.! 3 excellent musicians, amazing cocktails, $15 wine bottles, late night grub until 11 p.m. You can’t go wrong! Tini Weenies and Fries will be served for the Music Lovers!”