NICK'S ON BROADWAY,

The dining scene in Providence is at the point where a tiny breakfast and lunch space like Nick's on Broadway comes along and you don't get greasy spoon, you get gourmet. The former exec chef of Agora -- the expense account restaurant in the Westin -- took over Nick's in March after Nick Sammartino retired from the wee-hours institution across from the Columbus Theatre. Derek Wagner, a 25-year-old culinary whiz kid, is a protégé of Castle Hill's Casey Riley, who is himself an heir of regional-food fetishist Frank McClelland at L'Espalier in Boston. If you assume that the French toast here will contain thick slices of a good bread and real maple syrup, your presumptuousness will be rewarded. But I came for lunch. The experience was pleasant enough that I came again the next afternoon. I was accompanied by a total of three fussy, professional foodies -- two restaurant reviewers and one restaurateur. The smiles displayed by my other two friends gave me another reason to be glad that the taste bud was invented.

Full review.