Top things to do

Particularly during summer, much of downtown Providence transforms into a carnivalesque festival thanks to the exceedingly popular WaterFire art installation created by Barnaby Evans in 1994. Marking the convergence…

Perhaps the top art school in the USA, RISD's imprint on Providence is easily felt, with students' creativity extending across the cityscape. Open to the public, the extraordinary collections of the Museum of Art in…

With a background at Noma in Copenhagen and the fabulous Dorrance at the Biltmore, chef Benjamin Sukle and his wife, Heidi, have their own place: the understated, but fabulously good, birch. Its intimate size and st…

One of the most prominent buildings on Benefit St, the Greek Revival Providence Athenaeum was designed by William Strickland and completed in 1838. This is a library of the old school, with plaster busts and oil pai…

This wonderfully original, atmospheric little bistro on the outskirts of the Federal Hill neighborhood is an oasis of fun and deliciousness on an otherwise drab trunk road. Inside, candles, ornate polished woods, fr…

This friendly French bistro welcomes diners with inspiring homemade pâtés and charcuterie, escargots à la bourguignonne, and slow-roasted duck with a golden raisin and red-wine sauce. Sourcing ingredients from local…

This place is just so awesome and unexpected that we almost want to keep it to ourselves. Let's just say that in terms of thematics and design, if you crossed the Brady Bunch with Mad Men with Breaking Bad, you'd be…

Tucked into a quiet residential neighborhood in West Providence, the Avery is easy to miss. But once inside there's a jaw-droppingly gorgeous varnished wood interior, with backlit art nouveau wood cuttings and an el…

Designed by McKim, Mead and White in 1904, the Rhode Island State House rises above the Providence skyline, easily visible from miles around. Modeled in part on St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, it has the world'…

Dominating the crest of the College Hill neighborhood on the East Side, the campus of Brown University exudes Ivy League charm. University Hall, a 1770 brick edifice used as a barracks during the Revolutionary War, …