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3 Rhode Island chefs nominated for James Beard award. Here's what they are cooking

https://www.providencejournal.com/story/entertainment/dining/2023/01/25/pizza-marvin-little-sister-sly-fox-den-too-nominated-for-james-beard/69840704007/

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Worked with Andreozzi while he was running Sarto into the ground and I cannot describe with words how pretentious he was. Perhaps he's been humbled over the last 6 years but I'll never find out.

Must have nominated herself because there’s no way

Didn’t he open the restaurant Sarto? How did he run it into the ground if it’s still there and he’s not? Pizza Marvin is great. Seems hard to imagine a pretentious chef open a pizza parlor lol

Little sister is really good....

Wish my man from big king and north would come back though!

idk, for as much shit as i've read about her or her places, the closest i've seen to a complaint about the actual food was a small child making a weird face at an unusual smell.

Yeah say what you will, but the food is good at Little Sister and the bagels are the best bagels in town at Rebelle.

Loved Sarto when we went (a few years ago) and absolutely love Pizza Marvin. Any elaboration on the statement about Sarto?

Shouldn't the post title say something more like "Local Chefs from Little Sister & Pizza Marvin named 2023 James Beard Award Semifinalists"?

Why are people so obsessed with the owner of Rebelle on this sub?

Because the nomination was for specifically her and not anyone else? And I guess that is who most people have a problem with.

Isn’t this person a giant piece of shit ? Or am I thinking of another local business owner

My son told me the food there tastes like poopoo.

I've heard from a few folks I know who work in the service industry that she's not a very pleasant person to be employed by. But I don't know the lady so I can't say first hand.

This is one of those "Separate the art from the artist" things. He is an incredibly talented chef by all measures.

north was the best all around restaurant in the city. Best overall was Birch but due to the price it was more of a special occasion place. Both closed during the pandemic and I’m still very very sad.

Birch was one of my top meal experiences. It's amazing what this little city manages to offer!

Ok , yea I’m pretty sure there’s a few threads on this sub describing the nature of this woman , and it is not good. Idc how good the food is. If you treat staff and customers like shit , get fucked

I know I’m just saying it’s a little obsessive how much people are bothered by her. Like this post could have just said Pizza Marvin’s chef was nominated and snubbed her. But OP made it a point to mention her cus this sub is obsessed with hating her lol. It’s just so silly.

If you've never had a bagel before, or enjoy rock-adjacent foods, then sure.

They’ve always been nice and soft when I’ve had them. They do get hard fast though like if you dont eat them within 2-3 days.

I assume they're referencing the fact that OP also mentioned someone from Pizza Marvin was nominated.

She has her quirks and can go off the rails but this sub goes so fucking hard on her sometimes it's honestly cringey. The last "incident" was her posting a meme about a review, something most places already do, but hey, fuck her, right?

And I'm saying this as someone who has been blocked by her and I don't even like her fucking food 🙄

Then I guess she serves 2-3 old bagels, which actually sounds pretty on-brand for her

This isn't a complaint, really, but the food isn't good enough for me to risk being in proximity to the owner. Is that the hallmark of a James Beard Award winner?

I mean, probably, these things are the Golden Globes of the food world.

It kind of just feels like a circlejerk of the same 5 people that are just too obsessed with not liking her.

Like if I didn't like someone and found them annoying the way this sub finds her...I wouldn't be posting about her every single time she does literally anything.

This post alone just shows that people are bitter that she's successful. If anything just dont post about her in the hopes that people forget about her. People on this sub are giving her the attention they don't want her to have which is so contradictory to me lol.

Either way, I hate that I cant go on my city's sub without seeing some negative gossipy stuff about a local restaurant owner.

Where are the threads complaining about owners of other businesses that have done WAYYYY worse shit?

I already feel like I'm giving too much energy to this haha.

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Three Rhode Island chefs nominated. I guess she's the only one mentioned since this is the PVD sub, but I think the other two are worth mentioning.

I've gotten Pizza Marvin twice and I thought it was pretty good but not exceptional. Fellini's is much better imo. Also, I read that it's supposed to be New Haven inspired pizza, but having had a decent amount of New Haven pizza, it's not really close to that style. Much thicker crust.

There have been many threads on how shitty she is to customers and her own workers.

Marvin doesn't have anything on pizza J

Pizza J is far from the top handful in town

Jeffs in EP is the best New Haven type in the state IMO

You're doing the lord's work. I'll need to check it out.

Rebelle and Little Sister have the same owner

Might just be thinking of something you read online one time

Anyone who knows from bagels knows you freeze them if you're not going to eat them within hours, not days.

If you love the bagels from that place, great. Nobody should yuck your yum. Best in town, though...

Make sure you've tried others. The only thing better than a bagel you really enjoy is a bagel you enjoy even more.

Yeah any time I’ve gotten more than one bagel to take home from there, I’ve frozen them! Great tip.

I mean out of the bagel place on broadway and providence bagel, I’d definitely say Rebelle is my fave bagel.

I know, I’m just saying that this sub is so fixated on her that it’s weird how much attention they give her.

Excellent!

Because of the strong rep and the location, I've retried Rebelle three times. That probably would have been my limit on its own, but that woman cemented things.

Bagel Gourmet is worth a try, if you're so inclined. A blind taste test is always fun.

Had a chance to get my hands on a dozen from Absolute Bagles in NY. Ate 4 in the car on the way home, lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUVs7CD4yDA

Of course any bagel from NY is gonna be next level!

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Sly Fox Den Too is the true contender, Marvin and Mirena don’t deserve to be considered.

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Apparently. Also what is this goofy ass reward sponsored by some bank lol? Incredible stuff.

That lady is rude af!!!!

Agree with Sly Fox Den Too. The food there is incredible and Chef Sherry is very sweet.

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Delivered mail to this lady a few times. just being a chipper mailman and all that. without too much detail, she made me feel lower than dirt. decided to never eat there ever after that.

Do you mean the award? James Beard Awards are probably the most prestigious American culinary achievement a chef can get. It actually functions as a charitable organization advocating for food-related issues so they always have corporate sponsors.

I actually had no idea. Restaurants aren't my scene but it's always good to learn.

To me it’s not that weird since I have had an odd, off-putting interaction with her at the bagel shop

Please do go into detail!

Yes please do , I’m curious to see how someone pisses off a mailman doing their job

You can’t buy this type of recognition, are you familiar with the JBF at all? So salty!

Another chef has to nominate Mirena, right? Wild that anyone would stand for her.

It’s really sad that folks here feel the need to knock people down to make themselves feel better. Is this sub all industry burnouts? All 3 restaurants are going to be jammed from now on with all this incredible publicity.

And for the Rebelle owner in particular, you’re just doing her publicity for free. If she’s a terrible person or an angel, that’s subjective and varies by person and situation. That’s the case with everyone. Thanks to you all the whole city knows Rebelle has reopened!

The rebelle owner aside the fact that ches is now an overpriced strip mall breakfast joint is a sad sad thing

Whatever this is, I want one.

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/little-sister-providence?select=xLKUclgXUEEUJEd9yCnLHw

The bagel place is on an 'auxiliary route' . these routes are usually smaller than a normal usps route and are sometimes given to newbies in their 'first 90'. I was doing my thing, first month or so with usps, and I had some express mail for her that required a signature. so I had to go into the shop and ask where she was. the staff pointed her out, and she looked pretty busy. (morning rush and all that) so I waited patiently until she was done.

when I approached here, she did not believe I was a carrier. (we don't get the gear til after our first 90) i had my keys, scanner, hat, other stuff that might tip someone off that I was legit. but she really pressed me on it. i stayed polite and told her that all I needed was a signature. she said I was disturbing her while she was trying to run her business and some other stuff I can't remember now. what I do remember is feeling awful walking out of there.

she did accept the mail, and after seeing me a few more times, stopped pressing me. but always this vibe that I was inconveniencing her and her business. talking down to me like a child, stuff like that. my whole demeanor changed when I had to go into that place. I went from chipper to sullen when I got to that address. anyways, now I eat at Providence bagel :))

I think she talks to everyone like a child. I’m sorry you experienced that. She really is a menace.

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Andreozzi actually got fired from Sarto. Believe there were allegations of various flavors of typical toxic white male in power stuff. Have to imagine it was pretty bad if they cut ties with him after promoting his relationship there so hard. There was a court case filed about it . I think he opened Marvin because he couldn't get work anywhere else. Too bad, so many other great, non-toxic chefs in this city.

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>Also what is this goofy ass reward sponsored by some bank lol?

If you hope to learn more in the future, you might want to reconsider your approach to topics you don't know anything about.

Love the pizza and decor but every time I go in there there are groups of children running around, screaming, and bumping into people/tables. Parents are hanging together and drinking and just let them run wild. Not really the restaurant's fault but it has soured the experience.

Her husband?

There's definitely some intersectional circlejerking going on, but I've personally witnessed her lean into berating one of her employees, fully in front of all the customers on a busy day at Rebelle. I haven't been back since.

She appears to have legitimate emotional regulation issues, which she compensates for by framing herself as a perpetual underdog pitted against "the haters."

Given the apparent regularity of distasteful real life, social media, and review-responding incidents, the resulting widespread dislike for her isn't all that surprising to me. Reddit loves outrage and righteous indignation.

I don't know if they recently changed their recipe or something, but I went recently after having not gone for a while and I thought it was much better than I remembered.

Sherry at Sly Fox Den is the real chef here. She blows most of these folks out of the water. The food is so flavorful and complex. We would eat there every night of our lives if we could afford it.

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No he still thinks he’s better than everyone. Amazing chef, shitty personality. Clown.

People can pretentiously do anything, especially when they’re padded on all sides by the other men in the industry bolstering them up. That food is good, but I readily believe the toxic man bullshit.

Sounds horrible. I'm sure a lot of people go in there asking to speak with the owner without identifying themselves or their motive and that can be irritating while somebody is trying to work. I'm so happy you've been able to recover from it though! Or is it still bothering you? :-(

Such sensitive emotions! I wonder who has thinner skin, the evil bagel queen or the mail-person without uniform?

Actually just some info for you and other folks who can't be bothered to google how the JBF nominations are cooked up: a whole panel of chefs (including former JBF nominees and winners), food writers & critics and other important figures in the food & hospitality scene get to nominate and cast votes. So yes, other chefs must have thrown her name in the ring. Is it a wildcard choice? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, a JBF nomination is worth gold to anyone who earns one. And what are you doing with your career, other than being super salty on the internet?

Dying to try it now!! Signal boost though, kudos to her, well-deserved and Native American cuisine should definitely be highlighted

Looks like a salted chocolate cookie, YUM

Oh i agree but this is reddit so it might be the place to just say things off the cuff sometimes. Not so much in a real life or serious setting.

“I believe” , “have to imagine” , “I think”. At least there’s evidence and peoples’ accounts of interactions with Rebelle owner. The people who work at Marvin seem like they’re having a good time, but what do I know.

Don’t worry about me baby, I’m fine. I just … part of me kind of feels bad for her because no one should walk through life with so much anger but man she punches down and she’s so ugly about it. Girl needs to work on her life issues.

I feel like it’s all about perspective. Like if she was a personal friend, maybe we’d tell her “hey that wasn’t cool” or disagree with her, but we wouldn’t drag her and obsess over how HORRIBLE she is.

Also not to pull THAT card, but as a latino myself, while her reactions are big, it’s not anything that’s really shocking to me. Not tryina excuse any of the behavior, it’s just interesting to see people get so fixated on her when a ton of other business owners are doing actual fucked up shit.

I mean I just saw a story on ig today complaining about how she was born into wealth and handed everything when like, if you do two seconds of research you’d see she grew up pretty modestly in Puerto Rico and got into MIT, say what you will about her, but she’s definitely worked hard.

Not trying to be a fanboy or anything, but it’s just frustrating seeing how much energy is put into one of the few latina small business owners in Providence and I regularly see people saying to “separate the artist from the art” about a ton of asshole white male business owners.

Again, people can feel however they want about her. It’s just frustrating as a fellow Caribbean latino seeing how much others are cut slack after repeatedly being like truly awful. I’m not gonna air out anyone’s dirty laundry, but if you look into a bunch of Providence’s most loved small businesses, way more fucked up shit is happening than an owner who “has emotional regulation issues”.

I always end up typing waaaay more than I mean to in these threads lol. I just really love Little Sister as a Cuban-American living in Rhode Island. It may not be Cuban food, but it’s as close as you can get here and she has personally always treated me with extreme kindness and gratitude.

Why are you talking about yourself in third person?

I have a feeling your commenting to that very same angry person lmao

Interesting we can do this for a white man and not a puerto rican woman…like come on. How is no one self-aware about this.

Probably the bagel queen given she is pretending to be someone else in this thread and has personally commented on every negative comment..

Is a court case not hard enough evidence? People working at Little Sister seem to be having a great time too, but what do I know?

That’s literally not how it works haha

Or are YOU the bagel queen?!

Huh?

You should take your own advice. Stop being angry over someone else’s success or judging if it’s deserved or not. Go make your own success!

I said something similar above and got downvoted to hell. It’s crazy how obsessed this sub is with her. Sometimes I wonder if one of the mods or just an extremely frequent user on here has some personal beef against her.

The passion that I see in these posts about her often feel too passionate to just be “local gossip”.

I mean how many other small business owners in pvd have had ACTUAL scandals? Like I know of two that’re backed by the same mlm, I know another who beat up their spouse, I know another who berates their employees and calls them actual awful shit (not just asks them to do their job correctly in a less than nice tone). The list can go on and on. But for some reason this sub is fixated on the “overly emotional” latina.

Wow the armchair psychiatric diagnosis of someone you’ve barely brushed shoulders with is bananas. The haters are real, judging by this thread and your comment. I guess in that sense she is the underdog.

If I had a dollar for every time people also accused ME of being Milena…lol. Just cus people aren’t foaming at the mouth over her, doesn’t mean they’re her haha.

Unlikely, I don’t think highly of myself enough for “queen”, I’m bagel duchess at best.

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Sounds like your defense is it’s okay to be toxic if you’re good at your job. Baby, no. You’re missing the point.

i honestly wouldnt even know. i heard that kid didnt like the smell, but i dont go the east side because there be dragons there

Ooh bagel duchess sounds pretty dope, guys we found her!!

Please don’t call me baby. I think you’re missing the point. You’re all over this thread shitting on the nominees and we STILL don’t know where you cook so we can go try your food 😂

FIERY LATINA

I’m Milena no wait YOURE milena no wait he’s Milena this game is fun

I would love to see this comment spin off into its own thread please elaborate

It's not diagnosis, just casual observation of repeated and consistent patterns of behavior.

Compulsively replying to quite literally every single fractionally negative comment is part of what I mean when by emotional regulation issues. It would suggest an inability to self-soothe.

Yeah the double standard is real and BS. Like I said, intersectional circlejerk. I have no trouble believing there wouldn't be nearly as much enthusiastic anger about her if she were a white man (and her behavior in that case would likely be viewed as typical). I definitely feel like the less I know about local business owners, the better, else I'll be out of places to eat at. I'm sure having an acerbic social media presence is small potatoes compared to what's out there.

I totally understand separating the artist from the art, and I'm glad you're able to and that you haven't had any negative interactions. I've heard nothing but good things about the food at Little Sister. If it were just the online drama and rumors I'd probably go, but I can't in good conscience support her businesses after seeing it firsthand. Mistreating staff is a deal breaker for me. More's the pity.

The drama over her online behavior was amusing before it started to become apparent that it's a compulsion for her. Just look at her replies to reviews on Google. As such, I think the intentionally inflammatory framing of posts like this one is in poor taste. I don't get any enjoyment out of folks who aren't in a position to help themselves being goaded into acting out. But at the same time it's complicated since she's a pseudo public figure who readily feeds into it? I don't know. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Anyway, thanks for the perspective. Enjoy the food for me!

Having a pizza box with your face on it doesn’t seem too humbled lolz

I’m cheering for Sly Fox Den Too, I used to eat at The Flume and I’m thrilled for Sherry. The nom is well deserved.

It’s definitely her lol

Haha I will! And yes exactly. Not our circus not our monkeys. Like sure maybe sometimes she's "looking" for it, but as we've already said, people on here fixate on everything she does. Like she could just post a funny shitty review that any other business would also post and suddenly it's an obsessive post about how awful she is.

People have bad days and good days. I also don't take kindly to speaking unkindly to employees and I have been to both establishments enough that I have witnessed her getting a little agitated with an employee. But I've never heard her say anything despicable. Is her tone not the nicest? Sure. Those conversations shouldn't take place in front of customers because it makes everyone involved uncomfortable.

But I've definitely noticed her kindly ask her employees to step to the back now whenever she wants to give feedback and speak more timidly and try to be conscious of her attitude. I always sat right at the first seat at the bar at Little Sister.

I've become pretty chummy with all the employees there now and they all seem to like her a lot more than past employees have. So maybe she's being more conscientious of how she's coming off and what her intention actually is?

Either way I'm not here to psychoanalyze a restaurant owner. It's just frustrating that people on this sub can't see their clear bias in how they react to her. It's not that she does nothing wrong, it's that the way they treat her and react to her is incongruent with how they would act if the same exact actions were taken by a white dude.

It's like the whole Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp situation. The way people behaved towards Amber Heard while maybe "deserved" was still completely different to how they behaved towards similar accusations about Johnny or other men throughout the years. It's like it goes overboard but you can't get through to people and show them their bias cus they can argue that whatever is being done by the woman (or minority) is still BAD. So they "deserve" it.

Same concept as to how latinos and especially black people get heftier prison sentences. Sure they committed the crime, but the treatment against them is still way worse than it would be if it were a white man.

I mean imagine Trump behaving exactly like Milena. He'd look like the most well behaved orthodox Amish timid boy you've ever seen compared to his usual antics.

Lol sorry my adderall juuuuust kicked in.

Scroll to my original comment, I say quite clearly I won't give him my business anymore

I wasn't replying to that comment. I was replying to this one. If you have the same energy to say "separate the art from the artist" about him, then you can say it about the hated bagel lady.

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Idk just cruising thru google I can see she literally replies to ALL the reviews. Not just the bad ones, but the good ones as well. I have to say I don’t know of any other local business where the owner takes the time to respond to every single review, even to say thank you. That’s unusual but ultimately good in my eyes.

I still don’t think you’re in a position to be “diagnosing” people you don’t know. Says as much about you as you think it says about her. Just don’t go there, don’t give her your money and don’t give it your attention! Go live your life

Great! It is well deserved. It is well deserved for all of them. Their success doesn’t take away from anything you can do. Bitterness is not a cute look on anyone 😉

It's not diagnosis, just casual observation of repeated and consistent patterns of behavior.

>Says as much about you as you think it says about her.

It doesn't, but I can understand why you might feel the need to tell yourself it does. Vulnerability is a difficult feeling to sit with.

You’re really good at moving goalposts, that’s not a quality skill lol.

No bitterness here - I think good food should be judged separately from narcissist owners. But I won’t support toxic people or their businesses. Just an FYI for you - these traits rarely get better over time, they just get worse as the stakes get higher. The owner should be seeking professional help to avoid the eventual fall.

But see, all over this sub and even in this thread, people are pretty willing to separate the art from the artist for a guy but not for a woman. You say you do and then you put a “but” right after go negate everything you just said. The food must be good if it’s getting this recognition. She has two teams working at two places so there’s that too, people work with/for her and if she was the worst, she wouldn’t be able to put together a team. I’ve heard bad things about many many other chefs this sub loves. So in my view there is clearly a double standard and as other commenters have pointed out, it comes off sexist. As a woman I am bothered.

Ultimately I don’t know how “high stakes” the world of bagels might be to drive this lady into batshit insanity. Maybe we see it happen and everyone can have a laugh. But the title of this thread and the interest it has generated makes me think she’s winning the game on the haters.

Lmao it definitely has to be her, esp reading all that users post history. This is exactly what influencers do on their Reddit snark pages too - it’s always so obvious 🙈

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She knows we know it’s her and she keeps coming back! She’s a strange one, choosing to triple down on being an asshole. Maybe it’s her kink 🤷🏻‍♀️

He took time out of his work day to help me and my fiancé plan our trip to Sonoma/Napa. He’s always been extremely pleasant and polite whenever I’ve gone there. He’s so passionate about the wine which I think is an underrated part of Marvin. They’re selling that wine at very good prices and don’t impose the same mark ups other restaurants would.

I wonder if she thought she was about to be served and wanted to avoid it