Tallulah’s Taqueria

Chef Jake Rojas of Tallulah’s Taqueria

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

Joe Simone’s Sunnyside to Reopen as Simone’s

We have some exciting news from former Sunnyside restaurateur, Joe Simone! His new restaurant, Simone’s, will open its doors in late February/early March at 275 Child Street in Warren. Simone’s will offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner service with the same commitment to locally-grown fare that Sunnyside guests have come to know and love, highlighting Joe’s Mediterranean background and his culinary focus on pure, clean and traditional flavors.

To give loyal guests and new friends alike a taste of Simone’s, this holiday season, the restaurant will be selling Joe’s famous homemade jam in a variety of flavors, jars of Joe’s spice rub (a proprietary blend of Pimenton de la Vera, Herbes de Provence, and Cumin among others), gift certificates, and reservations for his first cooking class series in the new space. The first class is scheduled for 3/10/14; the full schedule can be found here.

The staff will keep “office hours” for purchases at the restaurant Monday through Saturday from 9am until noon through Christmas Eve. Gift certificates and cooking class reservations are also available online at www.thesunnysideri.com and the Simone’s staff will be available to make deliveries of jam and spice rub orders. For more information, please call 401-247-1200.

Tallulah’s Taqueria

Ed. note: Tallulah on Thames owners Jake and Kelly Ann have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a Tallulah’s Taqueria. In addition, Jake is staging Taco Takeovers at Providence restaurants. The next Taco Takeover is at Farmstead on Wednesday, December 18 from 9 – 12 p.m. Full details of the Kickstarter and the Taco Takeover from Farmstead follow:

TALLULAH’S TAQUERIA will be a fast casual concept serving locally sourced food in a traditional Mexican street food kinda way! We are looking at our first PROV location and need your help! Tallulah’s Tacos was founded in 2011 when Kelly Ann and Jake Rojas, owners of Tallulah on Thames found this cute little hotdog cart up for grabs in Newport RI. They quickly put it to work by sending it off to local farmers markets to serve Mexican Street food style tacos across the state. Tallulah’s Tacos needs a permanent kitchen to continue this dream of bringing traditional Mexican street food to Rhode island. We found a great location that has some wonderful equipment already and is ready to lease as a restaurant space! We need your help to get into the space, purchase some equipment, set-up the business, and open! Our goal would be to open in March 2014.

TACO TAKEOVER AT FARMSTEAD, ON 12/18, 9-12pm!

Talented local Chef, and our homeboy, Jake Rojas of Tallulah On Thames, in Newport, Rhode Island, has been winning audiences over with his latest project- Tallulah’s Tacos. His farmer’s market start-up, turned ocean-side-shanty is once again re-creating itself, this time destined to make landfall in Providence.

To assist in his Kickstarter campaign, we are letting Jake takeover our bar for a night, in hopes we can assist him in spreading the taco gospel and that we can get him settled into his new neighborhood of Fox Point. We are thrilled to have him as a neighbor here on the Eastside!

Jake’s special Taco Pop-Up will be Wednesday, 12/18. He will be packing heat with his carnitas and barbecoa, while Matt and the kitchen here at Farmstead, come up with some specials to compliment-hint, hint….fried chicken & black truffle quesadilla anyone? No reservations necessary. See you then.

Local Chef Nick Rabar to Host Interactive Web Show About Holiday Meal Preparation

Viewers at coxsportsonline.com can Ask Questions Live and Receive Advice for Cooking and Entertaining

On December 18, 2013, Cox Communications is presenting a live interactive chat with Nick Rabar, chef and co-owner at Avenue N in Rumford, and his wife, Avenue N co-owner, Tracy Rabar, focusing on holiday meal preparation and entertaining. The chat will take place at 2PM at www.coxsportsonline.com/live-chat. This is a free web event.

Participants in the chat can login via Facebook, which allows them to watch, submit text messages to Rabar or even join via video. A replay of the chat will remain online for those who were unable to join live.

Rabar is excited about his first webcast and thinks it will be very helpful. He feels
“coming up with creative new food ideas around the holidays is challenging and entertaining. While fun, it can be down right stressful. While I can’t guarantee we can take all the pressure off, our webcast will be an excellent source for new ideas, modern recipes and eating and drinking well this holiday season!”

In addition to Avenue N, Rabar is also the host of Nick Rabar: Chef 2 Go, a program airing on OSN (Cox channel 5, 1005 HD) in which Rabar explores the culinary landscape of Southern New England in search of hidden food and dining treasures. Each episode features Rabar creating his own gastronomic magic using themes, ingredients or elements from his earlier adventures.

This chat will be the fifth produced by Cox during the past three months. Earlier hosts include Adam Finkelstein of New England Recruiting Report and University of Rhode Island men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley.