Providence Picnic Guide
Beach picnic (Photo by Abigail Clarkin for InDowncity)
The weather has taken a turn and summer is here (with some vengeance in the form of humidity, one might say)! We’ve been busy taking our work week lunches outside, and more extravagantly, packing up picnics for picturesque seaside destinations on the weekends. (Because we’re extra like that.) Whether you’re looking to watch the sunset at Prospect Terrace or heading to the beach, we’re here to share how we put together a delicious experience in five stops at small businesses in Downtown Providence, RI. Read on to find out where we grabbed our Providence picnic essentials.
1. PICNIC BLANKETS AND ACCESSORIES
Our search for a dreamy and comfy but also solid and durable picnic blanket led us to Queen of Hearts and Modern Love. These two sister shops share connected neighboring storefronts that offer a variety of summer clothing (think all the sweet lil sundresses), bags, kitchenware, bottle openers, and more. For the occasion, we picked up a gorgeous Moroccan Market Basket and a colorful hand-woven Mexican blanket. The stores stock the blankets in a variety of colors, patterns, and sizes so browse the options in person! (Selecting a blanket may have been the most time consuming part of our shopping trip, tbh.)
2. SUMMER READS
Picnic all packed up and ready to go (Photo by Abigail Clarkin for InDowncity)
We are big readers over here at InDowncity so of course we couldn’t head out on a picnic without something to read! Symposium Books is just a few doors down from Queen of Hearts and Modern Love so we ducked in quickly to browse the shelves. For those who—like us—are very into local lore and historical photographs, we recommend checking out the local collections section. We walked out with a copy of Newport by Rob Lewis. For those looking to go the fiction route, Happy Place by Emily Henry is a funny rom-com perfect for summer. (We love a beach read that has us wondering if it’s the heat of the sun or the spice level that has us sweating… Iykyk.)
3. FOOD AND DRINKS
There is likely no argument when we say that the most important part of any picnic is the delicious, easily transported food and drinks. We grabbed a bottle of Muri, a non-alcoholic sparkling rosé, from Eno Fine Wines for our outing. Choose from a stunning variety of wines, beers, non-alcoholic beverages, and more. (And if you’re not sure what you’d like to drink, Eno’s staff has all the recommendations).
Since there’s nothing sadder than a cup full of sand once the wind gets going, we stopped in at Homestyle to purchase a couple of Goverre Wine Glasses to shield our rosé. These glasses come with lids and a grippy exterior. If you don’t mind toting around some wood for your picnic, Homestyle also has a solid variety of boards that we were very tempted by.
For food, Rory’s Market and Kitchen was our one stop: in a matter of minutes, we were headed out the door after buying naturally flavored sodas, fresh strawberries, chocolate covered pretzels, and flavorful pre-made sandwiches. (We’ve deduced that Rory’s curried chicken sammies are a picnic MUST!) We are so happy that summer is here and Providence picnic season is in full swing. We hope to see you out and about enjoying the sunshine and supporting small businesses downtown!
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