Eats on the Road in Rhode Island

Our most recent work-road trip took us on a jaunt through The Ocean State—Rhode Island! It included several, fun little stops for antiquing and such. Most importantly, we found four new places to grab tasty bites of New England fare.

What did we find? Oh, a tasty diner breakfast, lots of hot wieners, ice cream, macarons, and coffee cabinets!

Here's where our "Rhode trip" took us in the state of Rhode Island.

We left home and headed to Exeter, Rhode Island to check out an eatery I'd been hearing about. I can't remember where exactly I saw it—a social media post or possibly a comment on one, but the charming name caught my attention: the Middle Of Nowhere Diner. I do love me a good, old-fashioned diner.

Our non-interstate route from central Massachusetts to Exeter was a winding and sometimes wooded one, a drive that fed my anticipation for just how far out in the "middle of nowhere" this diner might be.

As it turns out, that name has more to do with the town's location away from the more populous cities of the little state than the restaurant's remoteness. For this spot isn't buried in the woods; it's on the quite busy Route 3, near a fence company, a pond supply store, and a Dunkin'.

The first thing we noticed when we pulled in was that Middle Of Nowhere was hoppin', with a full lot and several people waiting outside for tables to free up. But we got lucky with two open seats at the counter.

It was from this vantage point that I watched a server make two orders of chocolate milk. She squeezed a large plastic bottle into tall drinking glasses; so much chocolate syrup splorted into each one that they looked at least half full before the cold milk went in.

When stirred, swirls and streaks of chocolate still coated the insides of the glasses. And I felt a pang of nostalgia—I used to add way too much chocolate to my chocolate milk as a kid, too!

In addition to counter seats, there are tables and one cute corner booth that I heard the servers refer to as "Elvis"—because there's a huge picture of Elvis on the wall above it!

The staff looked up every time the door opened, smiling and calling out whenever regulars came through. The overall impression of Middle Of Nowhere Diner is one of friendliness and of everyone enjoying themselves.

To go with the bottomless coffee, we had some tasty eats.: I had the Non-traditional Western Sandwich with eggs, cheddar, onions, and ham. It was made with the softest English muffin ever! (The woman sitting next to me and I couldn't stop talking about those muffins.)

My husband had a big plate of scrambled eggs, seasoned home fries, and toast. We were so stuffed!

We will happily trek to this middle-of-somewhere again for another round of Middle Of Nowhere Diner food. Hopefully the next time, the ice cream shop next door will be open—it's cutely named the Next To Nowhere Creamery.

Our next stop was Bristol, Rhode Island, home of Roger Williams University where our daughter went to college. We took a quick stroll around the campus for a trip down memory lane and grabbed a decal at the bookstore for our car. (We failed to remove our last Roger Williams decal before trading in the old car. Whoops!)

We were in downtown Bristol a day late for the town's biggest claim to fame: the country's oldest 4th of July parade. (The line down the center of the parade route, Hope Street, is even painted red, white, and blue.) Oh well—at least we were able to see the festive, patriotic trimmings on the businesses and old, historic houses along the route.

I was hoping to find our lunch in town, but we were still feeling the weight of our huge diner breakfasts. We'll catch you next time, Bristol!

The Perfect Sweet Shoppe

We headed north to the town of Warren, which also has a pleasant little downtown of shops, pizzerias, and cafes. My husband spied a sign for an ice cream shop tucked around a corner, so we decided to follow it.

The shop is aptly named The Perfect Sweet Shoppe. Inside we found a case of beautifully tinted, perfectly shaped macarons, plus cakes, dipped cookies, and more.

There are also two cases of hard ice cream flavors to try to choose from. Several of these flavors are nods to Rhode Island's obsession with sweet coffee syrup: like Coffee Heath, Coffee Oreo, and Coffee Milk.

My husband went with a cone-full of Rollin' In The Dough—peanut butter ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough chunks and a salted caramel swirl!

And to answer your question, yes: it's dang delicious.

I headed back around the corner for a different ice cream treat served up by the famous Delekta's Pharmacy.

Although the pharmacy side of Delekta's is no more, you can head into the historic shop to take in the old decor of dark mahogany walls and trim, tin ceilings, and the long, marble counter above a cracked tile floor. Old apothecary bottles are visible on the shelves around the space as a nod to Delekta's legacy.

At the counter, you can still order ice cream, drinks, and candy—and that's where I ordered my ice cream treat: a coffee cabinet. No, not a piece of furniture. A cabinet is a Rhode Island milkshake.

Delekta's makes its coffee cabinet using its own coffee syrup recipe. It's a simple milkshake (I mean cabinet) with no need for frivolous toppings of whipped cream, cherries, or (as seen in the recent trend of over-the-top milkshakes) cotton candy, donuts, or cake slices.

It's just a good, cold, frosty milkshake with lots of sweet coffee flavor.

Fully sugared up on milkshakes and ice cream, we meandered our way north. We stopped at antique stores and shops along the way, and a few hours later found ourselves in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a town just a stone's throw from the Massachusetts border.

While leaving a shop on Main Street I spied a little storefront down the street with a red and white striped awning. The sign above the door read New York Lunch, Inc. Hot Wieners. And that reminded me that we had not yet tried Rhode Island's famous take on a hot dog, called a New York System.

Shortly after this "Rhode trip", we took another drive and found ourselves in Providence at the iconic restaurant Olneyville N.Y. System! Here's what we found at these two New York System joints.

The first thing to know is that these are not hot dogs—they're wieners. And when you walk into New York Lunch and peer over the counter at the cooktop behind it, you'll see dozens and dozens of sizzling wieners, just waiting to be eaten.

The space inside New York lunch is small and cozy: follow the narrow space that runs behind the counter seats and you'll find a small dining room. There are booths, tables, a vivid black and red checkered floor, and a gleaming tin ceiling.

And every square inch of the walls is covered in signs, posters, and framed photos. Three Stooges, hot rods, Beatles, Coca-Cola memorabilia, a framed newspaper with news of the Kennedy assassination, old TV shows, cigarette ads—a jumbled blend of nostalgia and kitsch that you could spend hours looking at!

Our unusually conservative order—two all-the-way wieners to share—really seemed to surprise the staff. "Just two??" exclaimed the woman who took our order with a wink and smirk. When another server brought them to our table, each wiener precariously teetered on a little paper plate. "They're so much harder to carry when there's just one!" she said.

That's when we realized that regulars order these wieners in many multiples to down in one sitting. No wonder the cooktop was loaded, even on this slow afternoon!

This tradition goes back a long way—people ordered so many it was common for purveyors to hold a line of New York System wieners in buns down the length of their arm as they topped them.

Well, we learned our lesson: those wieners were very tasty and we could have easily eaten another one or two apiece. They bear some similarity to the Vermont favorite Michigan dog or red hot, except the meat sauce is very mild. The dusting of celery salt over the chopped onions was a surprisingly distinct and savory addition.

(By the way, I'm sticking with this spelling: wiener. It's a little confusing as the word is spelled as both "weiner" and "wiener" on New York Lunch signs. Even in other online articles about New York Systems the spelling varies!)

Now this hot wiener place, I'd definitely heard of. Not only has Olneyville N.Y. System been open since the 1940s, they've had high-profile coverage from celebrity chefs like Guy Fieri and The Phantom Gourmet, and have even won a James Beard Award.

The restaurant on Plainfield Street has a longer counter with stools that runs down the left-hand side of the space, and booth tables filling the rest. The vibe inside is very old-school, with high-energy and a playful, friendly spirit emanating from everyone working behind the counter.

And even though they've gained some fame thanks to visits from chefs like Alton Brown and athletes like the New England Patriots' Rob Gronkowski, there were plenty of down-to-earth Providence locals and families with kids having lunch at Olneyville the day we visited.

There are red and white lettered signs running down the wall behind the counter advertising all the offerings... a lettuce and tomato sandwich for $1.20, a grilled cheese deluxe with fries for $7.99. You know I love a place that has good and cheap eats!

But we were here for the wieners. And I'm happy to say that we finally got to see firsthand the phenomenon of hot wieners being prepped and filled while lined down the arm.

I caught these photos of long time employee George expertly balancing NINE New York System wieners on his left arm while with his right he topped each one with meat sauce, diced onions, and celery salt.

How could we resist? Another Olneyville lifer, Joe, took our order and we went with the classic: "three all the way with coffee milk and a large fry." (Here's a Facebook video of Joe at Olneyville showing off his plate spinning trick!)

We learned our lesson at New York Lunch: instead of trying to make do with one wiener, we did as the locals do and accepted plates of three apiece. And boy, were they delicious. The meat sauce at Olneyville is very savory and flavorful, perfect with the chopped onions and dusting of celery salt. I mean, we just devoured them.

And we washed them down with ice-cold glasses of that other Rhode Island classic, coffee milk.

We've been back to Olneyville N.Y. System a few times since then, and they never disappoint!