A recent episode of Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network had us wondering if there were a place where we could get a good bowl of noodles in the area. After a quick search on Yelp it seemed as if Noodles102 on Ives St was the place to go. I'm no expert on noodles. In fact, I made only one or two half-assed attempts at using the chopsticks before digging in with a fork. I am, however, an expert on delicious lunches and that's exactly what we found here. My only regret was that we didn't realize that the place was BYOB. The next time we go, and there will certainly be a next time, we plan on taking advantage of that.
While we were still on the east side we hit a couple of stores to get the makings for a night at home. Our first stop was Bottles, in the Eastside Marketplace plaza on Pitman St. The five second rule is upped to the fifteen second rule in a place that clean. It certainly isn't your typical dirty neighborhood liquor store. The shelves are stocked with quality products, organized in a way that actually makes sense. If you're looking for an IPA, all the IPAs are in one cooler. All the Belgians are on one shelf. The Sam Summer isn't packed with the rest of the Sam Adams beer. No, the Sam Summer is packed along side other varieties of summer beers. It makes it very easy to find what you're looking for and avoid what you don't want. They also have the most comprehensive section of local Rhode Island beers that I've found. They have Grey Sail, Narragansett, Bucket, Fool Proof, and Revival making Ravenous is the only RI brewery they don't stock. I even went home with a growler of Bucket Pail Ale. As far as I know, Bottles is the only liquor store in the state to carry that. The girlfriend bought a couple nice bottles of wine, one of which would be opened later on with dinner.
Our next, and final, stop on our east side tour was Farmstead. Still full from our lunch we didn't sit down to eat, but we did peruse their selection of fine cheeses. I had heard of this place before and was expecting it to be bigger, but what space they do have is crammed with things that I want to buy and try. We wound up with a soft goat cheese, a smoked gouda, and some local sopressata from Daniele Inc of Burrillville fame. I didn't think that cheese, wine, and sopressata would count as dinner, but I thought wrong. It turned out to be a delicious dinner served at a place with impeccable service, al fresco dining, and a relaxing atmosphere; our place.
It was a successful trip filled with delicious food. It was my first time hitting all three of those places, but it won't be the last.
