“Sarah Helen Whitman asked Poe about an anonymous poem and whether he knew who published it and then brought out our copy for him to see,” says Juli Anna Herndon, the library’s circulation manager. “He wrote his name below it in our copy of the magazine implying he wrote it, which he had. It’s still in our special collection today.” A visit to Providence’s Little Italy is a must do for lunch or dinner. In the early 1900s, Italian immigrants settled in the Federal Hill neighborhood. You’ll know you’re there once you’ve passed under a metal arch gateway with a pinecone sculpture dangling over Atwells Avenue, home to some of the city’s best restaurants. Bakery storefronts showcase white-crusted round loaves of freshly baked Italian bread, and tables with umbrellas fill central DePasquale Square, a popular meeting and dining spot. Back in Boston, I visited the upscale Back Bay neighborhood and walk along chic Newbury Street with its high-end boutiques, galleries, and trendy restaurants. I didn’t get it when I first walked into the Central Perk Coffee Co., but after noticing things like the cozy orange sofa with the neon sign above it reading, “The one with...,” and seeing such menu items like Joey’s Meatball Sub, Phoebe’s Grandma’s Cookies, or Chandler’s Chocolate Latte, I soon realized this café was modeled after the TV series Friends .
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“What’s pretty magical is when fans of Friends walk through the door, they start to notice the little touches,” says Central Perk general manager Aaron Constable. Those touches include the Friends moniker digitally formed on my coffee’s frothy head, or show-related likenesses on mugs and T-shirts. I’m here on a Saturday and it’s packed with students nose-deep in their laptops, chatty tourists, and locals just hanging out with a cup of java or a cocktail. “We have a culture of hospitality,” continues Constable. “Especially right now in a world that’s so much take-out to go and digital, I feel like we’re kind of sliding back a little bit into analog and really enjoying it.”
MORE INFORMATION visitboston.com bostonbyfoot.org goprovidence.com plimoth.org nps.gov/adam centralperk.com
Tables and fountain at DePasquale Square in Providence’s Little Italy
BOSTON TO PROVIDENCE
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2025 | 22
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