What a difference a decade makes. When asked if he has relaxed a bit in the 10 years since opening his first restaurant—the fine-dining-style birch—Providence chef Benjamin Sukle laughs and says, “Oh, absolutely.”
Diners can experience that shift by stepping into his new raw bar, Gift Horse. The restaurant features the creative flavor profiles and steadfast dedication to local sourcing Sukle has become known for over the years, but it has more of a fun, spirited feel than his past projects.
Decadent offerings like shellfish towers; caviar and doughboys; and magnums of sparkling wine lean into a celebratory vibe. The restaurant’s playful name also helps set the tone.
“We thought we could kind of be cheeky with it,” Sukle says. “We’re doing our version of a raw bar, so with the name itself, we’re kind of saying, ‘Just trust us.’”
And while birch, which closed during the pandemic, was dedicated to Sukle’s ambitious, singular vision for what he has previously described as a new style of fine dining, Gift Horse is more collaborative, with general manager and business partner Bethany Caliaro, bar manager Rachel Stone and chef de cuisine Sky Kim all lending their own points of view.
The food menu is divided into three sections: raw bar, chilled plates and hot plates. In addition to shellfish towers, the raw bar features an all-Rhode-Island oyster selection.
“I really enjoy the relationships I’ve developed with oyster farmers here,” Sukle says. “And there are all these growing regions that I take note of—upper and lower Bay, ponds, rivers—that all have oysters. In coming up with a menu, it just became very easy to fill it with Rhode Island.”
Sukle’s way of “doing things very deliberately” carries through to the main menu. That approach includes serving underutilized local seafood species—as he does at his other restaurant, the wine bar Oberlin—and using all parts of the fish. For example, trimmings that might otherwise be thrown away are set aside and incorporated into a smoked fish dip served with puffed nori (seaweed) chips.
Also noteworthy: the restaurant’s South Korean influences, courtesy of chef Sky Kim. Several dishes, including the crispy whole fluke ssam, served with banchun and spicy peanut ssamjang and seafood pancake with housemade gochujang, are influenced by her heritage’s cooking and were developed by her and Sukle.
“We’re still learning how to dance with each other with the menu development, which is fun,” he says.
As general manager and partner, Caliaro oversees the restaurant’s service and wine program. Like Sukle, she majored in culinary arts and food service management at Johnson & Wales University, but she has always been more drawn to the service aspect of the industry, she says. Prior to opening Gift Horse, she spent several years managing Oberlin.
“I had this moment during the pandemic where I thought for a minute that I could leave Providence,” she says. “But as I continued thinking about it, I realized that I love the community we have here and wanted to stay. Seeing how everyone has supported Oberlin in staying open after the closure of birch, and through the pandemic, I got excited about not only coming back, but taking things to the next level. The more Ben and I talked, the more confident I felt that projects like this are meeting a need in Providence that people are really excited about.”
Caliaro’s wine list focuses on bottles from small-scale producers that pair well with seafood. “Finding wines that are going to pair well with oysters, which have such a unique flavor profile and texture, as well as bolder ingredients like gochujang or pickled garlic, is a fun challenge for me,” she says.
Bar manager Rachel Stone developed a cocktail menu full of innovative takes on classics, low-ABV options and balanced alcohol-free drinks. The bar staff is also making its own shrubs and bitters and using seasonal produce in drinks. For example, this past summer Stone used local corn husks to make a bourbon-based milk punch.
“We work really closely with the kitchen,” Stone says. “In fact, I feel like a line cook some days.”
Another drink highlight is Gift Horse’s Capisce beer, an Italian-style Pilsner made exclusively for the restaurant by Warwick-based Proclamation Ale Company. It’s on draft, alongside Massachusetts-made Farthest Star sake and a house spritz with Prosecco and Contratto Bitter Liqueur.
The restaurant’s U-shaped marble bar serves as the centerpiece of the dining room, created by Providence firm HB Design & Build. Above the bar hangs a colorful stained-glass piece that incorporates the restaurant’s cheeky horse logo.
When Sukle opened birch and later Oberlin, he inherited spaces that had previously been home to other restaurants. With Gift Horse, the team had the opportunity to build out the space, located on Westminster Street, from scratch.
“Instead of retrofitting an old restaurant, I can finally tell a whole story and we can have the space do some of that work for us, where it’s expressive, it’s creative and it’s warm,” Sukle says.
They worked to achieve that aesthetic through eclectic design elements, including wood paneling, local artwork, vintage tchotchkes and geometric wallpaper in the bathrooms.
Oberlin is now in the process of moving from its longtime location on Union Street to a new space next door to Gift Horse. When “Oberlin 2.0” opens (hopefully by late September), it will expand its offerings to include lunch and brunch service. But Sukle has no plans to stray too far away from some of the wine bar’s signatures: housemade pastas, raw fish dressed simply in olive oil and lemon, and whole grilled fish.
So, he’ll soon be running two seafood-focused concepts right next door to each other. Could that be overdoing it? No way, says Sukle. “That’s what a restaurant in Rhode Island should be like,” he adds.
Jenna Pelletier is a Rhode Island–based features journalist who has worked on staff as a writer and editor at Boston magazine, The Providence Journal and Rhode Island Monthly. Her food writing has also been published in Food & Wine and The Boston Globe.
Gift Horse
272 Westminster St., Providence
401.383.3813; GiftHorsePVD.com
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