Winner, winner, bridge dinner Downtown group aims to bring urban dining event to Woonsocket
WOONSOCKET— Smack dab in the middle of Main Street, the Court Street Bridge is generally something you need to cross to get very far in this river-split city. But the Downtown Woonsocket Collaborative has another idea.
Hang for a while – at least for dinner.
“Dinner on the Bridge,” aka “Twilight on the Blackstone,” is the latest brainchild of the DWC, a nonprofit organization of downtown boosters. And it’s moving forward faster than the current of the rain-swollen Blackstone River now that the idea has gotten the blessing of the City Council.
“There are people who drive over that bridge every single day who probably don’t appreciate the beauty of it,” says Councilwoman Melissa Murray, the promotions coordinator for the DWC. “But if you walk over that bridge, you see the river underneath it, and you’re going to be looking at some great architecture.”
On a unanimous vote, the council approved the DWC’s request for permission to stage the dinner on Aug. 26, with a rain date of Aug. 27. While organizers have a basic idea of the atmosphere they’re
shooting for – fine food, music, decorative lighting – the council’s approval means they can begin fine-tuning the details in earnest. Of course, the bridge would be closed to through traffic for the event.
Proceeds from the dinner will benefit the DWC, an allvolunteer group that operates without a budget to develop ideas to promote the traditional downtown shopping area.
“We wanted to come up with something original and something that would showcase the best asset that Woonsocket has, which is the river,” said DWC Chairman Garrett Mancieri, a former councilman. “We’re going to work with local organizations and local restaurants to try to promote their organizations and their companies. Hopefully it will be a win-win for everybody.”
While the concept might be new here, bridges in cities and towns across the United States have increasingly been doing double-duty as dinner venues – often for fundraisers of one sort or another.
Nearby Shelburne, Mass., has been hosting dinner on the Iron Bridge for some time. Shirley, Mass., does dinner on an old-fashioned covered bridge every summer.
Rochester, N.Y., has dinner on the Pont de Renne Bridge across the Genesee River and Rockport, Me., eats on the Goose River Bridge.
Typically, such events feature gourmet-quality food, classical music performed by symphony orchestras, poetry readings – even fireworks.
“I think it’s great what they’re doing,” says City Planner Rui Almeida.
A bridge might not be “a normal place” to enjoy a fine meal and some high culture, but Almeida says that’s the whole point. People pass over the bridge so often they’re probably numb to the details that make it such a picturesque spot. If the DWC’s goal is to bring downtown to life again it’s critical to get people to see it in a new way.
Temporarily transforming the concrete truss bridge into an elegant dining venue is way to change the context of the place, which in turn can permanently change the way people view the area.
With parts that date back to its original construction by the city in the late 1800s, the Court Street Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and affords a striking view of the river and some of the area's oldest mill buildings, including the granite-block Bernon Mill complex.
“It’s a tested formula to change the perceptions of people,” said Almeida. “If you change the way you view something, the probably is very high you’re going to notice things you did not see before.”
The DWC is the same organization that sponsors the Main Street Holiday Stroll – the event for which it is chiefly known. But Mancieri, a real estate broker who served on the council for three years until last November, says the organization is trying to develop new programs to promote the area. In what is planned as an annual tradition, the DWC promoted local restaurants last winter by converting them into polling places to cast ballots for the first-ever prince of Mardi Gras, piggybacking on a larger festival sponsored by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
Murray says she first got the idea for Twilight on the Blackstone during the 2016 Main Street Now conference in Milwaukee, Wis. An offshoot of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the annual conferences are an opportunity for business owners, elected officials and urban planners from all over the country to see how other communities are reinventing historic downtowns and main streets that may have seen better days.
She and Mancieri have attended Main Street Now conferences for each of the last three years. Ironically, Murray was the only member of the council who was not on hand Monday when her peers voted on the DWC’s request for permission to use the Court Street Bridge because she is attending the 2017 Main Street Now conference in Pittsburgh this week. Mancieri and Almeida are also there.
They are the only representatives from any community in Rhode Island, according to Murray.
“There are classes on everything from economic development to engaging citizens,” said Murray. “It’s not a political thing. It’s about planning modern main streets. It’s small business owners, commercial property owners and some elected officials, but mostly just Main Street enthusiasts from all over the country who are working with some of the same challenges we face.”
Murray is pleased the council looked so kindly upon the DWC request for permission to use the bridge, but she would not have been able to vote on the issue under the reigning conflict of interest rules if she were at the meeting.
Council President Daniel Gendron says the council found the idea of using the bridge as a dinner venue intriguing and exciting.
Tickets aren’t on sale yet, but Gendron says, count him in.
“That’s an awesome event and I’m really anxious for that to be put in place,” said the council president. “It looks like an amazing concept and it’s certainly one I would enjoy going to.”