Irregardless Biscuit
It’s fairly certain that many folks who discover the new restaurant in Providence will question its name: Irregardless.
“When people say to us, ‘It’s not really a word,’” co-owner James Dean explains with a grin, “We say, ‘Our restaurant didn’t start as a real restaurant, either.’”
Indeed, it was conceived by Dean and co-owner Joe Hafner, former head chef at Gracie’s. When Hafner was there, over 14 years ago, he met Dean, a senior academic technologist at RISD (design expert) and fellow foodie. The two struck up a friendship because of their mutual interests.
After leaving Gracie’s, Hafner bounced around the country—Nantucket to Santa Barbara to Jackson Hole, wending his way back to Rhode Island just before Covid hit—and began to seriously plan a restaurant project with Dean. Hafner and Dean met up with baker Erin Richer (with culinary training from Davies Career and Technical High School) just as they launched their initial biscuit pop-ups. Dean’s network includes The Slow Rhode and Broadway Bistro; Hafner’s circle reaches out to other Providence restaurateurs. Gaining a fan base, they finally secured the West End spot where Kitchen used to be.
With Dean’s eye for enlivening spaces, they uncovered two large windows long hidden by bricks, and filled one with glass blocks and restored the original glass panes in the other. They’ve also secured parking across the street, where they have six spots marked off for Irregardless.
Their vision of a fast-in, fast-out restaurant, focusing on biscuits made from Dean’s grandmother’s recipe, has been a quick success. “Simple recipe to learn; long time to master,” stresses Hafner, giving due praise to Richer.
High-rising biscuits call for a fine-textured flour, which Dean picks up on quarterly road trips to his hometown in North Carolina. Add in buttermilk to any biscuit recipe and the taste also rises.
Biscuits may be ordered with homemade strawberry butter or pimiento cheese; hot honey and butter; or fried chicken and hot honey. Various coffee beverages are offered, along with cold drinks such as chicory cold brew, homemade hibiscus tea or lemonade.
In addition, Hafner puts his long-practiced chef skills to work, assembling three kinds of homemade sausage (pork; Baffoni chicken with fennel and maple syrup; Baffoni chicken with sun-dried tomato) for the breakfast sandwiches. Dean adds slow-cured country ham from A.B. Vannoy’s in North Carolina. Irregardless uses local suppliers for eggs and produce. And ... because of many requests, the very bacon that legendary chef Howard Crofts served at Kitchen will eventually be worked into the menu.
Future plans include evening eats and being open five days a week, irregardless.
Johnette Rodriguez is a food, travel and arts writer published in Yankee, Saveur, the Boston Globe, SO Rhode Island and the Westerly Sun.
Irregardless
94 Carpenter St., Providence
Check social @IrregardlessBiscuit for hours and updates.
