Rhode Island: Little State, Big Eats

Hello all my fans.

Sorry to keep you waiting on my latest and greatest post. I've been very busy traveling (by bus) and I've fallen behind. But I assure you, I ate lots of free food.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

It began on Thursday. I went over my very funny friend (and comedian) Selena Coppock's apartment to star as an extra in a video short she is producing. And by star I mean I stood with a beer in the background. But, the beer was free and the shoot was about 3 hours long so . . . you do the math because I was too busy drinking free beer!

Then Friday I met my sister and a couple family friends out to dinner at Etats-Unis on the Upper East Side. Etats-Unis is a very nice restaurant, so naturally I have never been there before! I ordered a beet salad, striped bass, and warm chocolate souffle. And white wine! The meal was amazing and what was even cooler is the family friend graciously picked up the tab so it was free!

Saturday my sister and I left via Peter Pan bus for Newport, Rhode Island to go to my aunt's surprise 50th birthday party. Yippee! Parties are always a great place for free food, and this shindig did not dissapoint! There was fresh from the sea lobster rolls, crab salads, healthy salads, beer, and cake! And of course wine! After the party, my mother, my sister and I met my best buds Megan, Meghan, and Katie--as well as a really hot captian named Brian--at Celtica, a bar sort of close to downtown. I only drank one beer which was not free since I bought it but I did get to watch Megan and Meghan sing We Didn't Start the Fire on karaoke.

Sunday was a great culmination for free food. My sister Katie, my dad and I ran for 5 miles in Roger Williams Park, and then afterwards we joined my mother and Nana for a late lunch/early dinner at Cranston, RI's finest restaurant, Twin Oaks. Correction, Twin Oaks is not a restaurant so much as it is an establishment. It was already packed at 3pm, and these are not late afternoon brunch-goers drinking their mimosas. Hells no. These are veal parm and baked stuff shrimp eating, Manhattan down-the-hatchers we're talking about.

Mom ordered a vodka tonic, Dad a Bass Ale, Nana a Dewar's on the rocks. Katie and I ordered Diet Cokes. I ordered prosciutto ravioli which came with a side salad prominently featuring iceberg lettuce. My nana's baked stuff shrimp (off the senior menu) came with a twice baked potato. She only ate like 3 bites of it, and I really hoped she'd offer it to me, but instead she wrapped it up to bring home. I was very jealous.

Papa Simons (aka my dad) picked up the check. I didn't see that one coming! Then we returned to my nana's house where we looked through old photo albums and found several awkward photos of everyone! Then my dad drove Katie and me to the Providence bus station so we could catch the Greyhound back to the city that never sleeps (with me, anyway), New York!

After such a great weekend, it was hard to come back to work. Lucky for Johnny K's Batman head!