PHANTOM SIGNALS: OUR NIGHT AT THE GRADUATE PROVIDENCE HOTEL

THE GRADUATE BY HILTON HOTEL in Downtown Providence, Rhode Island, was very quirky. It was originally known as the Biltmore and in fact still had the large sign intact on the roof. The hotel had been refitted on the theme of graduation/college, while many of the historical elements of the hotel had been retained giving it an old world elegance. 

Quirky indeed: our room keys were themed as student ID cards. We had Seth MacFarlane and Emma Watson. 

Our room turned out to be a suite made up of multiple rooms:

• Large bedroom with 2 king beds and a “possessed” TV
• Lounge area with table, sofa, chair, closet and another TV
• Kitchen area with a sink and many cupboards plus refrigerator
• Bathroom

Our overnight stay cost as follows (booked via Booking.com):

1 junior suite inc. 

😢 Tax at 13%

😢 City Tax at 2%

😳 Resort Fee = $10.70 resort fee 

💰 Total = $278.76

The hotel was very clean but we did have a feeling that our suite was damp, as even though the air-conditioning unit was on high (the way we like it) things still felt a bit damp to the touch. To be fair, humidity had been high in New England of recent. 

We also had a weird experience with the TV; we were watching a show for a few minutes and all of a sudden the TV turned itself off, then it turned itself back on, then it went off, then back on! It did this for hours! We tried everything to rectify it to no avail, so thought we had better report it to the front desk when on our way out for our evening meal,  just in case we got the blame for the TV being broken. We were assured that an engineer would look at it.

When we got back to our room for the night, the TV was still flashing on and off, on and off, on and off - no engineer had been. We had no choice but to lift it off of the wall and pull out the power supply at the back, as the flashing screen would’ve kept us awake all night. Once again we reported it the next day upon our checkout to make sure we did not get the blame for the broken TV.

We would recommend a stay at the Graduate Hotel. It is clearly an historic building and we do wonder if a ghost was at play with our television!

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📌 GRADUATE BY HILTON PROVIDENCE HOTEL

11 Dorrance St., Providence, RI 02903

🌐 www.hilton.com/en/hotels/pvdgpgu-graduate-providence

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MURPHY’S PUB: WHERE AUTHENTIC IRISH CHARM MEETS PROVIDENCE

We’ve been in one or two (okay, many more) Irish bars in the U.S. over the years, and it is rare you see any Irish people working in them, so we were pleasantly surprised when we took seats at the bar in MURPHY’S PUB in Downtown Providence and were served by a friendly bartender called Patrick, who was of course Irish!

Black and Tan and Shocktop in Murphy’s Pub.

Patrick gave us good service all night (Thurs Aug 1 2024): always making sure our next drinks were on the way before we’d finished the previous ones, talking to us and cracking jokes, and cleaning up our plates swiftly.  We didn’t get to ask him if it was his pub, but either way he was an asset to the place, which was established in a different building by a Joseph Murphy in 1929.  This was definitely authentically Irish!

Murphy’s Pub, Providence, RI.

Murphy’s bar was atmospheric, traditionally decorated but with a good mix of TVs where we could watch Team USA in the Olympics.  Better still, the pub a large and varied range of drinks to choose from – and as we discovered, they didn’t hold back on the liquor when we sipped the vanilla vodka we ordered.

Pickles - and lots of them!

 

Patrick dished out some complimentary bar snacks for us, too – thickly sliced pickles.  We tried a few but knew we wanted something a bit more substantial to eat, as the smells wafting from the nearby kitchen made us hungry.

Poutine with an Irish twist!

 

Despite the drinks, we still had our sensible heads on and ordered the Irish Poutine to share - yes, to share!  Described as fries, which were really ‘chunky chips’, white banger gravy, mozz cheese, Irish bacon and scallions, it was a good sized portion, with enough toppings for the amount of fries.  True comfort food!

We ate the lot!

 

Our check was as follows:

🍺 Black & Tan x 3 = $24.00

🍺 Shocktop x 2 = $17.00

🥃 Stoli vanilla vodka (tall) = $10.50

🍟 Irish Poutine = $13.00

😢 Tax = $5.16

💰 Total = $69.66

Murphy’s Pub, Providence, RI. 

We left an appropriate gratuity to reflect the very good service we received at the bar from Patrick and the team in the kitchen.  

A Black & Tan in Murphy’s Pub.

 

As we walked back to our hotel nearby, we could smell the food on our clothes and it only made us want to try the Irish poutine all over again!

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📌 MURPHY'S BAR

100 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02903

🌐 murphysprovidence.com

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JOHNNY ROCKETS: BURGERS WITH A SIDE OF INDIGESTION

JOHNNY ROCKETS was founded in LA in 1986 and is 1950s diner themed, with red leather stools and chrome surfaces with mock jock boxes and neon lights. 

Johnny Rockets in the Providence Place Mall, Rhode Island.

We were out in the sun in Downtown Providence on our way to the State House and when the temperature hit 107° F we started to feel woozy, realising it was time to grab some food. We ventured into the depressing and gargantuan Providence Place Mall. It took us a while to navigate the five or more floors before we found the limited food court and a Johnny Rockets. 

Order your own food at Johnny Rockets on digital tablets.

On the cash-free self-service tablets, we begrudgingly ordered:

🍔 The Original Hamburger x 2 = $18.98

🍟Fries = $4.99

🥔 Tots = $4.99

💦 Bottled water = $2.50

😢 Taxes & Fees* = $3.17

💰 Total = $34.63

🤔 We saw on a separate receipt that we had been charged a *service fee of $0.65. We have no idea what this was for. 

Collect your own food at Johnny Rockets.

👎 We also left no gratuity as there was no customer service at all: you order your own food and it is placed in a bag at the end of the counter, which you have to fetch yourself. 

Fresh beef patties at Johnny Rockets.

👍 We sat around the edge of the outlet and watched our food being prepared. The beef patties were fresh, not frozen, and were grilled in front of us. 

Johnny Rockets' Original Hamburger.

The burgers were tasty and we enjoyed the Johnny Rockets sauce. 

The portion of tots was a good size, while the fries were not as plentiful. This was not a bad thing, as the fries tasted of oil. Indeed, the food rifted on us later and we had buy some acid controller pills from a CVS Pharmacy for $6.00.

Acid controller pills for dessert!

All in all, this was a disappointing and pricey lunch highlighting the importance of planning ahead when exploring a new place!

Johnny Rockets in the Providence Place Mall, Rhode Island.

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📌 JOHNNY ROCKETS (PROVIDENCE PLACE MALL)

59 Providence Pl., Providence, RI 02903

🌐 www.johnnyrockets.com

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