SEEN: Gordon Ramsay & More Celebs in the 401

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Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Leah Michaels, GoLocalProv Contributor

Chef Gordon Ramsay made a reappearance at DownCity Food and Cocktails yesterday to film a follow up to the “Kitchen Nightmares” episode that featured the Providence restaurant. The surly British chef arrived for lunch service in the late morning, escaped to Boston about 1:30 to film another follow up in the North End, and returned to DownCity later in the evening. The restaurant’s owners and staff were visibly relieved that this visit wasn’t as contentious as last December’s, when Ramsay admonished owners Rico Conforti and Abigail Cabral for their lack of management and kitchen quality control. Ramsay posed for pictures with happy diners and joked with the waitstaff. “It’s been an awesome day,” said co-owner Conforti, “he is very happy with us, and we have no regrets at all!” 

Front man of the Dropkick Murphy’s Ken Casey shipped up to Vancouver for a day just in time to witness the Boston Bruins trounce the Vancouver Canucks in game 7 and win the Stanley Cup. And as if that wasn’t

enough, the co-owner of The Whiskey Republic on South Water St. in Providence actually got to hold the huge cup on the ice after the game. Casey is a big Boston sports fan, and his band’s hits Tessie and Shippin’ Up to Boston can be heard playing at almost any Red Sox home game. I wonder if he got to party with Tim Thomas and the rest of the team, maybe even partaking in some of that $100,000 champagne… 

You may have seen him around his hometown of Westerly on July 4th, but it’s even more likely that you’ve seen him on TV, selling his P90X home-fitness program. Tony Horton, the actor-turned-celebrity trainer, has

become somewhat of an infomercial star after getting interested in personal fitness while attending the University of Rhode Island. His first celebrity trainee was musician Tom Petty, and after him followed rock star Billy Idol, singer Annie Lennox, and actor Rob Lowe. In addition, he has written a book, helps the military with training, and will be at URI in September to speak. But no matter what sort of famous people he’s making drop and give him twenty, Horton always comes back to Watch Hill to celebrate the 4th. Tony Horton, King of QVC, I like the sound of that… 

If you tuned in to NPR this past Sunday, you heard Rhode Island native Nick Benson talking about his latest big project. What he is working on now is the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on Washington, DC’s Tidal Basin. Benson, a third-generation stone carver, has previously carved the National World War II Memorial, his grandfather did the inscriptions for the Iwo Jima memorial near Washington, and his father did both the FDR memorial and the Kennedy Center. His Newport shop, The John Stevens Shop, has been in his family for almost 100 years. Benson is using his distinctive lettering style to make sure that King’s powerful words will live on and be appreciated for generations to come… 

Rhode Island School of Design graduate Ryan Trecartin is making a real impression on the art world. His first major NY museum show is going on now until September 3 at the Museum of Modern Art PS1, which is the MOMA’s museum devoted solely to contemporary art. His video exhibition “Any Ever” got a great review from the New York Times, which called the video instillation “game changing.” Trecartin learned all about artistic video editing while at RISD, and his senior thesis project actually became his first publicly acclaimed piece. Clearly his four years in Providence served him well, and maybe some of his works will find their way back to the RISD museum some day…

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Photo: Gordon Ramsay/Allan Warren;

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