So I was excited when tazza reopened in downtown Providence. I had been to lunch a couple times before the whole place was redesigned and revamped. Personally I could not be happier with the new offerings that tazza now has. tazza is located at 250 Wesminister Street in the heart of downtown Providence, RI. Now tazza staying true to its roots still has the coffee/tea counter setup next to the bar as soon as you enter. tazza is open seven days a week. During the week lunch and dinner are served along with the coffee/tea counter being open from early in the morning. On the weekends brunch is served. The bar is open late night Wednesday through Saturday.
My first time going into tazza when it was reopened was after I had had an awful dinner at a different establishment with my fiancee. We were just going to go in a have a drink or two. We sat down at the bar and were promptly greeted by an extremely friendly bartender. She showed us the drink menu and let it be known that she would answer any questions we had. Well let me just say that the specialty drink menu was large and very diverse. Now I was not sure what to order at the first as a few different choices caught my eye. I finally decided on a ‘Pineapple Basiltini’ and boy was I not disappointed. The drink was described as having tazza’s own basil infused vodka, pineapple juice, muddled basil and freshly cracked pepper. Now when this drink arrived in a stemless martini glass I did not waste anytime in diving right in for the first sip. It tasted delicious and extremely fresh. The basil vodka and pineapple were light and seamlessly blended together. The thing that hit this drink out of the park for me was the fresh cracked pepper on the top. It added this slight spiciness right at the end of each sip. This is now one of my favorite drinks that I have had anywhere. Even though I have a preference for the ‘Pineapple Basilitin’ I have either ordered or tasted a sip or two from a few other drinks on the menu and I have not been disappointed with any of them.
Now on this particular visit I also decided to order something off of the small plates menu since I was still hungry. Now tazza does change their menu and uses local and fresh ingredients. At the time their were rabbit ravioli’s on the menu and I ordered them. When the plate arrived there was four over-stuffed raviolis filled with delicious shredded rabbit meat. The raviolis were covered in a delicious creamy sauce. The raviolis themselves I could taste right away were freshly made and they were cooked perfectly al dente. The shredded rabbit meat filling melted in my mouth and put a huge grin on my face because it was so delicious.
Since I have gone I have brought different friends back for drinks but haven’t had a chance to try anything else off of the small plates menu but after reading the description for each item it always sounds so appealing. But I have gone back for brunch twice. Once with my family and once with one of my good friends. Now the time I went with my family I decided to try the Chicken and Waffles. The chicken that came out with the dish had a buttermilk coating on it and was all pieces of breast meat fried to perfection. The waffle was not only light and fluffy, but filled with bacon pieces. I mean how can you go wrong with a bacon waffle. Now the chicken and waffle was covered with a rich and decadent creamy sausage gravy. It was heavenly and I ate every last bite of this dish. Now on this trip we got an order of the house-made buttermilk beignets to try as for the table as well. The beignets were light and each of three different dipping options that came with the beignets complimented each other so well. The three choices to dip/spread over the beignets were regular butter, orange honey butter and a lemon curd. My personal favorite was the lemon curd as it provided a slightly tart taste that I like with the sweeter taste of the beignet.
Each time I go to tazza I leave satisfied and already thinking about when I can make a plan to go back again. That is the sign of a good establishment in my opinion. So make sure that you go and enjoy this place be it for a drink, a sampling of some small plates, dinner or bunch. Let me know if you have gone to tazza and what your experience was.
Make sure to check out the website for tazza, http://www.tazzacaffe.com for the exact hours hours they are open, their current menu offering and how to contact them for a reservation.
provreviewsandrecipes 