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City Life

Best mannequin

Maybe it's because the city is so small, or maybe it's because we're just so darned cool. But Providence actually has a famous mannequin. No, it's not the Independent Mannequin on top of the State House. That's actually the Independent Man, but thanks to our state's long and dubious political history, many have taken to calling it the Independent Mannequin. What we are referring to is the fat bald guy named Morris who graces the storefront window of the Morris Clothes Big and Tall men's shop. For many years, our favorite dummy, made especially for the store, held court in the large display window at the corner of Richmond and Friendship streets, but about six months ago, Morris Clothes moved out. Panic coursed through the streets for a number of weeks after our favorite mannequin seemingly disappeared. Not to worry -- Morris soon resettled two blocks away, where the official clothier for local big guys now shares space with Mario the Tailor. The sign on the door reads "The Suit Club at Mario's Downtown." Here is one-stop shopping no matter what your size. But, more important, our favorite mannequin has resurfaced in the front window, greeting one and all with his swarthy smile. 34 Richmond Street, Providence, 421-1290.

Best signage

The Providence Phoenix has had two offices over the years: our original site in the heart of the city on Washington Street and our current digs at 150 Chestnut Street in the Jewelry District. Across the street from our old office, a large sign on a store announces MR. LTD., and for years the concept of a "Mister Limited" helped lift the feminist spirits of many of our employees. This was easily the silliest sign in all of downtown. But in the last year, Mister Limited has had to take a back seat to the events unfolding across from our new offices on Chestnut Street. About a year ago, a building that had housed a succession of restaurants and nightclubs about 100 feet from the Phoenix offices decided to change its name to Hilfigers. While there is something perversely heroic about the owners' blithe disregard for a little something we like to call "copyright and trademark law," it wasn't too long before they realized the error of their ways and altered the sign by merely tearing out the f and the i in the middle to make it HILGERS. The sign stands as testament to Providence chutzpah. 171 Chestnut Street, Providence, 272-0177.

Best free exhibition of neo-disco dance styles

Almost a decade ago, when the local TV stations and, later, CNN, discovered a traffic cop who'd worked up a little dance routine while directing traffic in downtown Providence, Tony Lepore became a Rhode Island celebrity. Although mustachioed Lepore cleaned out his police locker and retired from the force a few years back, whenever the winter holiday season rolls around, the capital city's ever publicity-savvy mayor, Buddy Cianci, puts out a call for the retired Bojangles of the Boulevard, and Tony swings back into action. The Tony Show takes place for a few weeks every December at the corner of Dorrance and Westminster streets. Over the years, the act has become more stylized, but we can be thankful that Tony doesn't add to the anarchistic aural pastiche that is downtown by using a boom box. Instead, he sticks to his own internal rhythms. Even better, the show seems to actually impede downtown traffic patterns, and out-of-towners who wander by have wondered whether Tony was one of those guys from the Village People who's finally lost his marbles and taken to the streets.

Best low-testosterone indoor sports facility

From the street, it looks like a teensy warehouse, but inside the Rhode Island Rock Gym you'll find all the indoor climbing obstacles you might need. There are 22 ropes to climb tons of courses, ranging in level from "never climbed before" to "too difficult for all but the very best." And the joy at this gym -- aside from the fact that there are no mirrors -- is that the very best could be a 10-year-old boy or a woman in her 60s. The atmosphere is stunningly supportive, with the emphasis placed on personal goals. There is a low-height bouldering room, and expansion plans are under way. A day of climbing costs eight bucks; seven more and you can rent all the equipment you need. There are lessons for beginner, intermediate, and advanced climbers, plus women-only classes, all of which cost $45 and include three hours of instruction, free rentals, and two weeks of free membership. You can climb from 7 a.m. till midnight most days of the week -- though keep in mind when you leave, you'll need to ask your roommate to please squeeze the toothpaste onto your toothbrush for you, because you can't, you just can't. 210 Weeden Street, Pawtucket, 727-1704.

Best found art in a bathroom

You've got your requisite dried flowers or potpourri, maybe an old New Yorker or Sports Illustrated, perhaps an interesting print or two on the wall. But at Julian's, there's a unique offering next to the toilet -- a wedding album of black-and-white photos, perhaps from the '50s, that was found in the space into which the restaurant recently expanded. And, if that weren't enough to keep you occupied, there's a regimental hat, complete with black plume, sitting on a low table near the wash basin. The album has photos of the happy couple waving from the getaway car; a long shot of them standing at the altar, her train down the aisle; and all the other shots of the wedding party, family, and friends. It's a fill-in-the-captions book. Julian is a collector -- of plastic pets near the kitchen counter (snake, iguana, frog, spider, seagull, and caterpillar); of Brent Alan Bachelder's elongated portraits and painted bar stools; of tables with whales or cockatiels carved into them. Don't miss the marvelous food at Julian's, as you browse among the bric-a-brac. 318 Broadway, Providence, 861-1770.

The best place to find a new best friend

Looking for that special companion to keep your toes warm at night, someone who enjoys long walks, quiet nights at home, and the occasional scratch behind the ears? The Providence Animal Rescue League may have the perfect new friend for you. Established in 1913, PARL has long helped animals and people connect in the Providence area. Housing more than 6000 animals a year (including dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, and guinea pigs), PARL seeks to place each rescued animal in a suitable and loving home. PARL also works to educate both the old and young on the importance of proper pet care and training. In addition to their various educational and volunteer programs, PARL sponsors "Pets and People," an exhibit at the Providence Children's Museum that helps kids to learn the importance of good pet care. PARL also hosts the annual Pet Walk to raise funds for its many inhabitants. Adoption fees are small ($45/ dog or cat, $20 for other animals), so drop in and make a new friend. 34 Elbow Street, Providence, 421-1399.

Best place for the frat boys and family men to live in neighborly harmony

A few years back, the full-time residents of Barnes Street (on the East Side of Providence) got so fed up with Brown students playing roller hockey at three in the morning while their children were trying to sleep that Buddy Cianci himself had to come to ask the unruly college kids to behave. Given the number of colleges in Providence, it's easy to see why town-gown relations might sometimes be a bit strained. But in Fox Point (the area between Hope and Gano Streets), students and full-time residents share driveways, laundry machines, and parks. It's a neighborhood of stoop-sitting, low-slung cars throbbing with hip-hop, at least five different native languages being spoken -- and students still living off their parents. Fox Point would have character based on its architecture alone (think nooks and crannies and bathtubs with feet). Throw in the children squealing in the parks next to college kids reading Kant, and the smell of someone cooking gallo pinto mixing with pizza deliveries and it's hard to imagine a place feeling more like home to more people than Fox Point.

Best place to swing as the sun goes down

And by that we mean neither joining the latest retro dance craze nor engaging in any at-risk sexual libertinism. It's as if the Sabin Point Park is the park Rhode Island didn't want you to find. There's no reason you'd happen to end up at the park, no way you'd just bump into it, given that it's tucked into a nontouristy, low-traffic, working-class residential neighborhood in East Providence. But what a park it is. Standing on the Point, one is surrounded on three sides -- over 300 degrees -- by the Providence River, with a clear view of both downtown's skyline and Cranston (and if you don't think Cranston's a totally attractive city, wait until you see it from this side of the water). The sun comes down over both cities and over the big, reflective river, which is often lined with boats of all shapes and sizes. People line the docks here to fish, but the park offers much, much more: not only does Sabin feature one of the best basketball courts in the state, but there are six beautiful, adult-sized swings facing the water, the sunset, the city, etc. That means swingset hands and the best sunset this side of the Pacific. Shore Road and Bluff Street, Riverside.

Best daytime bajoogies

It's a rare thing that can raise goose bumps in a well-lit, populated room in the middle of the afternoon. How about flipping through Dance of Death, a plague journal depicting death as a skeleton that goes around visiting people at weddings and other events, claiming their lives? Okay, how about if the book is bound in actual human flesh? That's just one of the treats in store for you at Brown University's John Hay Library, which specializes in rare and interesting books. Aside from the small-books-bound-in-skin collection (which, in truth, the library is a bit reluctant to show, as some flesh-bound books date back to the 16th century), the library features a magic collection and one of the biggest comic-book collections in the country. Says Andy Moul, the point man for the Hay, "The library is really like a museum," and he points out the fact that there are often special exhibits at the library -- everything from Pop Art subway posters to Russian propaganda prints. The library is open to the public weekdays. Prospect and College Streets, Providence, 863-2146.

Best late-night downcity place to park free

This is a secret we don't so much want to share -- parking in Providence is hard enough, you understand, forget about when there is something major going on downtown. But we love you, and we've promised to tell all. So just keep this one to yourself, please. It's not clear why nobody parks on Fulton Street off Dorrance, right by the Haven Bros. diner downtown, but they don't. It's like a block and a half from the Strand, Lupo's, and the Met Café, maybe three from the Civic Center and Providence Performing Arts Center. It may be a bit dark, but it's also next to Kennedy Plaza and one of the busiest intersections in the city. Plus, it's free. We've left all sorts of pieces of automobile there -- from the intern's '82 rust-wagon to the boss's big wheel -- from 8:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m., and have come away with nary a fingerprint that didn't belong. Fulton Street, near the old Providence Watch Hospital, Providence.

Best inner-city place to watch the sunset

Prospect Terrace, that small park on top of College Hill, offers fantastic views of downtown Providence at any time during the day. Sundown, however, brings out the park's glory: it faces both west and the city, so the sun comes down fat and red over the skyscrapers of downtown Providence, Waterplace Park, the State House (which claims the second-largest unsupported dome in the world), and, best of all, the Providence Place mall construction site. It is a perfectly peaceful spot to watch rush-hour traffic piling up on 95 as the lights come on in the big buildings below. If you can deal with all the high-school kids smoking up behind the statue of Roger Williams, all the local politicos getting pictures of the city taken behind them, and all the gushy lovers kissing under the trees, it is an ideal place to spend an evening just watching the city go by. Closed after 9 p.m. Congdon Street, Providence.

Best new trash receptacles in the downtown area

One of the most revered and fabled buildings in all of downtown Providence is the Arcade, a startling example of classic Greek Revival style. Designed by Rhode Islanders Russell Warren and James Bucklin and completed in 1828, it is considered by most architectural historians to be the oldest indoor shopping center in the United States. Amazingly, back in the 1940s, the building was slated to be demolished, but a furious outcry from preservationists saved the day. It continued to attract a flurry of shopping activity through the 1950s, but by the late '70s, the retail shift to suburban malls had pretty much killed the downtown shopping scene and the Arcade was one of the more noticeable victims. Then, in the midst of a Johnson & Wales University downtown-real-estate buying spree in the 1980s, the building was acquired by the school, which spruced it up considerably. But the best improvement to the old girl took place this summer, when bathtub-sized flower pots and new trash receptacles mimicking the building's exterior Ionic columns were carted in. Hats off to the folks at J&W for this classy detail. 65 Weybosset Street, 598-1199.

Best place to hang out with off-duty police officers

The cigar-smoking craze that hit nationally a couple of years ago is alive and well in the Biggest Little State of the Union. An increasing number of smoke shops and cigar dinners have cropped up, but the most unique spot has to be Sikar, an intimate little shop on Federal Hill. The store is set up like a living room, with a walk-in, cedar-lined humidor in back. In addition to a variety of smokes, the store has a liquor license and features a number of pastries and desserts, some of the best of which have been imported from Italy. The weirdest thing about this place, however, is its popularity with law-enforcement personnel. Apparently, police officers have gotten into cigars in a big way and there always seem to be a few of Providence, Pawtucket, and East Providence's finest at Sikar. This would make it possibly the safest place in the city to relax with a cigar and drink. Of course, if you're the sort who has some reason to want to avoid the police, Sikar may not be for you. 190 Atwells Avenue, Providence, 273-7452.

The best place to get ripped

Whether you're desperately seeking that perfect six-pack or just wanting to keep alive and well as the winter months threaten to freeze the very blood cruising through your veins, Future Fitness is the place to go. And since the company has an executive center in downtown Providence and another facility in Cranston, working out can fit easily into your busy schedule. Future Fitness offers a variety of classes -- from step aerobics to body sculpting, cross-training to cardio kickboxing -- and for those women who hesitate to join a gym lest some hairy and spandex-clad Romeo stares inappropriately during their turn on the inner-thigh machine, there's even a private women's workout room at Future Fitness's downtown location. Future Fitness also offers personal training sessions and massages to soothe those tired muscles. With convenient parking, affordable memberships rates ($300 a year) and a variety of fun ways to exercise, Future Fitness works hard to combat such well-known enemies as couch ass and cottage-cheese thighs. 276 Westminster Street, Providence, 454-8845; 124 Sockanossett Crossing Road, Cranston, 464-4055.

Best place to be unemployed

In a world that often defines societal value by the title of your job, those of us in the ranks of the gainfully unemployed need to find other ways to rescue some small semblance of self-esteem. One spot in which being out of work feels like an absolutely worthy and important and altruistic profession is the Rheta Martin Chair of Applied Relaxation, in the East Side's small Mary E. Sharpe Park. Not only does the bench make sitting around sound like a science worthy of all that money you sank into an education, but it also looks directly upon the hub of the Brown University campus. Meditate peacefully while, across the green grass, all the bustling coeds prepare for the big tradeoff: you can sort of track, if you pay attention, the innocence of the freshmen to the righteous determination of the sophomores and juniors to the dawning resignation and cynicism of the consultant-bound seniors. One can't help but feel better about one's own (non)career choice. Waterman Street, between Brown and Thayer streets, Providence.

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