With the start of Providence Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr.'s federal racketeering trial just a few weeks away, the national headlines emanating from the capital city may soon take on a less flattering tone. For now, though, Providence continues to bask in the media limelight thanks to a big wet kiss to Federal Hill and Cianci in the April issue of the food magazine Saveur.

The cover story by Newport-based contributor Rich Lang pays homage to the "Italian-American gusto [that] suffuses one neighborhood in Providence, but touches all of Rhode Island," with nods to such bastions as Joe Marzilli's Old Canteen, shops like Tony's Colonial Food Store and Fed-Rick's House of Veal, and restaurateur Walter Potenza, who appears to be the mustachioed fellow bearing down on a formidable plate of shrimp fra diavolo in the cropped cover photo.

The 15-page spread includes scads of other mouth-watering pictures and recipes for braciole with marinara, almond pine nut cookies, and lamb stew baked with potato gnocchi, among other dishes. There's also some vintage Rhode Island color, such as Lang's recollection that his father's favorite late '70s headline from the Providence Journal was, "Man found in trunk riddled with bullet holes. Police suspect murder." But although Lang sat for a meal with Camille Parolisi and her great nephew, Gary Mantoosh, the respective namesake and former proprietor of Camille's Roman Garden, the story neglects to mention that the Federal Hill institution was due to reopen under new management (which it since has) after Mantoosh sold the restaurant last fall.

The somewhat sentimental story in Saveur, a foodie favorite, also offers luminescent treatment to Cianci. A sidebar with the obligatory photo of the Mayor's Own Marinara Sauce notes that he has faced "various allegations" and is due to soon go on trial, but it concludes, "Anyone who has witnessed the transformation of Providence can't deny one truth: it couldn't have happened without Buddy." Judging by Cianci's high approval rating, which has actually increased since his indictment last year, the public seems to agree. But whether the mayor will be able to spin gold out of the Providence Renaissance in federal court, of course, is another story.

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.

Issue Date: April 5 - 11, 2002