Greater City Providence

Retail Update: Snookers & More…

Snookers: I’m not sure how “old news” this is, but Snookers sports bar is listed to be “coming soon” at about 44 Ashburton Street on the other side of the 95 overpass from Kelly’s Car Wash. It’ll be right next to the, um, antique store and near the, um, Subway, and the, um, Marriott hotel and the, um, Mathematics Society, making for one interesting group of neighbors coexisting there.

Smith Hill Laundromat: Many people have fantasized (well, at least a few people have) about how cool a business could go into the former auto repair space that defines the corner of the retail square at the intersection of Smith St. and Chalkstone Ave. across from NY System Hotdogs. Well, in the category of “better than nothing,” a laundromat is replacing the closed mattress store. To its credit, it’s always good when neighborhoods get new service businesses and they’re nicely redoing the facade with floor to ceiling windows that I’m sure will be well lit, giving a much better sense of life to that normally sleepy corner.

Butterfield: Having finished their move from downtown, Butterfield has opened in Wayland Square.

East Side Creamery: This ice cream shop has opened in the closed Knight Art Gallery space in the newly vibrant Ives Street retail area on the East Side and was packed when my wife and I were recently there. Of note, this is the second art gallery to close on the East Side this year (the Ruggieri space also closed in Wayland Square).

Beadworks: They are, interestingly enough, moving from Thayer Street (previously announced) to 16 Bassett Street in the Jewelry District.

Bret Ancowitz

14 comments

  • I’m sort of wondering why east side creamery moved into a storefront less than a block from another ice cream place.

  • I’m with Frymaster. Why the omission of the most visible neighbor? After all, they’ll probably benefit most from Snookers. 🙂

  • Well, Victoria’s is kind of a “jack-of-all-trades” pizza place rather than a dedicated sweet shop, and I think they added their ice cream from Warwick Ice Cream late last season. Certainly, they couldn’t have been too happy to see East Side Creamery open up… BTW, ESC’s cotton candy flavor is great.

  • So, if anybody doesn’t know what we’re talking about, it’s the adult video shop on Charles St.

    According to A Pattern Language, you want to cluster your sex trade and nightlife AOT isolate them. Isolated nightspots breed crime where clusters keep enough lights on and enough eyes open into the wee hours to prevent bad things from happening. Shared day/night use is okay, but ice cream shops and sex shops – maybe not so much.

    That area is actually ideal for a red light/nightclub area. It’s isolated from residential properties, it’s clearly defined and backed up to infrastructure, and it’s right next to a 24-hour post office.

    I know some people would rather the sex trade disappear entirely, but it ain’t gonna happen. I’d love to see the European/Dutch approach of a tightly-regulated, intelligently-districted, out-in-the-open sex trade. It may freak out the moralists, but it’s proven to yield the fewest social problems.

  • The problem with the dutch model is that the prostitutes can turn you down! Nothing sucks like getting rejected by a ho…um, I mean, so I’ve been told.

  • Aren’t there a bunch of adult video stores/strip clubs at that end of Charles? None of them cater to me, so I am legitimately not sure.

  • Aaron, the tax database isn’t working for me right now (shock) but the building they’re rehabing is literally the one in the google streetview above that’s attached, tumor-like, to the building in the link pasted (which is the antique store).

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