April
Business of the Month: Pizza Man of Cumberland
87 Broad St Cumberland, RI 02864
401-724-1180
If you're looking for a restaurant that uses
fresh ingredients, You're looking for Pizza Man of Cumberland in
Cumberland, RI. Since 1987, they have been offering the best of
thin and thick crust pizzas. Pizza Man's dough is made fresh
daily and given the appropriate time to rise so it has the
perfect texture and flavor. They use the top of the line pizza
sauce made from fresh tomatoes, not a frozen concentrate. No
part of their pizza is ever frozen, everything is fresh!
Pizza, Subs, Falafel, & Swarma!
Stop by for the Week Day Special:
$3 off large one topping pizza, Sunday - Thursday
Website
March
Business of the Month: America News
On March 5th, 2012, America News starts the
celebration of its 20th anniversary in New England. America News
is one of the oldest newspapers documenting the progress of
Latin-American businesses in New England since 1992. This
locally owned and operated paper is a trusted, Latino news
source offering the highest quality local, state, national, and
international news, serving the fast growing Latino and Hispanic
marketplace in Rhode Island. The paper offers a wide variety of
news stories on local politics, business, arts, culture, sports,
and more. This multimedia company offers a free monthly print
version of its newspaper, and it also runs news stories through
its interactive website:
www.americanewsne.com.
Publisher, Alfonso Acevedo, has developed a
strong, ethical, grassroots news relationship with the local and
state community. The multimedia company reports and offers
opinions on many important news stories that other media outlets
do not cover. America News provides superior customer service to
its advertisers by providing customized, well-crafted, targeted
advertisements that provide a positive return on investment. The
company is a valuable asset to the fabric of community life in
Rhode Island.
Contact Person
Alfonso D. Acevedo
President-Founder
www.americanewsne.com
America News En Español
Editorial Offices
570 Broad Street Suite 301
Providence, RI 02907
401-626-4416
February Business of the Month: Broad Street Hair Salon
"Relax, Restore, Revive." Those three words
form the basic philosophy of the Broad Street Hair Salon. For
the past fifteen years owner Maria Quadros has tried to make her
salon not just a money making venture, but an integral part of
the Broad Street community. She and her daughter Jesica have
been organizing and participation in community activities, from
cultural festivals to this year's winter food drive. And
starting this Valentine's Day, Broad Street Salon will be seeing
the Grand Opening of it's new boutique, featuring specialty
children's clothing (1st Communion, Baptism, and flower girl
dresses for weddings, baby outfits, shoes for children, babies,
and infants, socks, baby blankets, and First Communion gifts).
Phone: 401.722-7172
E-mail:
broadsthairsalon@gmail.com
Web:
www.broadsthairsalon.com
Store Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday, 9:00am -
7:00pm.
January Business of the Month: Pedro's Barber shop
April
2011: Valley Falls Flower Shop - Broad Street's Blossoming
Business
For the past 16 years, Greg Grenon has been making the community
smell a little bit nicer. As the owner of Valley Falls Flower
Shop located at 244 Broad St. in Cumberland and online at
valleyfallsflowershop.com, he has seen his business change
in the troubled economy.
“Well, the last three years have been tough with the economy,
but luckily we’ve been here for a long time and have a lot of
clients, but the everyday business is just not what it used to
be,” Grenon said.
The flower shop is open for walk-ins and deliveries seven days a
week. Aside from flowers, Valley Falls Flower Shop carries fruit
baskets, plants, plush animals and balloons.
“We have some great designers here. They do great work and we
try to stand behind everything we put out; any kinds of
arrangements we have, if there’s any problems, we stand behind
them and guarantee our work,” Grenon said.
More
March
2011: Dulce’s Spring Renewal - Broad Street entrepreneur
prepares for busy spring and summer season
On nice, sunny days, Dulce Silva lets her
colorfully clad mannequins get some fresh air in hopes of
catching the attention of passersby in search of fun, flirty
clothing for the spring and summer season.
“The clothes we have are from California,
which you don’t see here that much. Everyone that comes into our
store says, ‘Wow,’ because they don’t see that around. The style
of clothing is very different,” Marcia Cardoso said.
She’s the bookkeeper for and daughter of
Dulce Silva, the owner of the two businesses located at 165
Broad St: Dulce’s Xpo Boutique and Marcia’s Beauty Salon. After
a slow winter, Silva is poised and ready for a busy spring and
summer season as a hearty Broad Street business owner.
More
February, 2011: New Business on Broad
Street: On The Go Laundromat - Environmentally-conscious
Laundromat Opens at 306 Broad St.
Mike Pelletier wants his customers to save
energy, money and time at his convenient, new business, On The
Go Laundromat. Opened on February 4 after nearly four months of
construction and renovation, the laundromat coined itself “The
Eco-Friendly Laundromat.” More
February, 2011: Groupon’s Daily Deal Comes to Broad
Street - Online coupon service holds new possibilities for Broad
Street business.
Olly’s Pizza Parlor co-owner Mike Brown
remembers the good ‘ol days of Broad Street business. “Ten years ago, you just opened your doors
and people came in,” he said. ‘Now, you have to find more
creative ways to market yourself.” The restaurant has been doing just that.
Aside from advertising with post cards and menu mailings, Olly’s
has survived the tough economic times by increasing its online
presence. “Online advertising varies from business to
business, but really it’s just another way to get customers to
come in your door,” Brown said.
The restaurant now offers online ordering
from its appetizing website, urging visitors to “taste the
difference.” Olly’s also has a Facebook page with over 1,500
friends and was recently featured in Groupon.
More
February 2, 2011: Pawtucket Yoga Studio Breathes Fresh Air Into
Downtown
Shri-Studio hopes to breathe new life into a
historic downtown area that’s seen better days. The Sanskrit
word “Shri” loosely translates as “life-affirming energy,” which
is exactly what owner Alison Bologna hopes to bring to the
downtown Pawtucket and Broad St. communities with her
up-and-coming studio.
When Bologna opened it last May, she had to
do a lot of “pounding the pavement” to get the support she
needed for the studio’s timely opening. The renovation process
was lengthy, but the before and after pictures on the studio’s
website,
www.shri-studio.com, show just how much work went into
restoring the historic McDevitt building (which used to be a
men’s department store) into the studio it is today.
“We found a lot of the wood for the
renovation in the building’s basement,” Bologna said, reflecting
on her desire to keep the process as local as possible.
More
January 10, 2011 - Providence Business News
Completing Blackstone Valley Bikeway is overdue - Guest Column:
Robert Billington
Let’s face it; Rhode Island’s bikeways bring
lots of enjoyment to our residents. From South County to the
Blackstone Valley, these paths connect our neighborhoods,
improve our economy and draw visitors to explore our
communities.
They are safe, enjoyable and provide a
stress-free place to relax and exercise. Everyone who
experiences them wants to see not only more paths but improved
connectivity between paths. We have the opportunity to do this.
More
January 5, 2011 - Broad Street Business Gains Zoning Approval
for Sign - Dulce’s Boutique receives relief from Pawtucket city
zoning ordinance.
With the help of the Broad Street
Regeneration Initiative (BSRI) and the Micro-Enterprise Grant
Program, a new storefront sign was erected at 165 Broad St. in
Pawtucket, RI on January 6th. The much anticipated addition to
Dulce’s Boutique, which is owned and operated by Dulce Silva, is
a projecting three-by-four-foot lime-green sign. The sign was
made by Dion Signs, a local sign company in Central Falls.
The sign has been the subject of zoning
debates between Silva, BSRI coordinator Andrew Pierson and the
City of Pawtucket. Although building owners Joe Haskett and
Kristen Murphy approved the signs installation this past July,
current zoning ordinances prohibit the signs proposed height.
The top of storefront signs may not exceed 12 feet in height.
The proposed sign climbs just one foot above this limit due to
tall storefront windows and the buildings existing architecture.
Since the buildings’ 1929 construction predates the zoning code,
Pierson and Silva requested and received relief from it through
the city’s Zoning Board of Review.
The boutique is part of a growing number of
Broad Street businesses the BSRI can add to the list of
MicroEnterprise Grant recipients. The committee has already
approved grants for six businesses along the Broad Street
corridor in 2010. The MicroEnterprise funds come from a Federal
Housing and Urban Developement (HUD) grant.
December 31, 2010 - Churrascaria Marques Grills for the Health
of it
Cumberland restaurant stands out for healthy cuisine and
well-designed website.
Wondering what the future for Broad Street
holds? Ask Churrascaria Marques Grill and Restaurant owner, Joe
Marques: “I think there will be a lot of people here like in
Providence,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy, but I believe
in five years it will be much nicer.” More
December 28, 2010 - Blackstone Valley Merchants Association’s
2nd Annual Cocktail Party
On December 16, the Blackstone Valley
Merchants Association (BVMA) gathered to celebrate their 2nd
Annual Cocktail Party, celebrating the economic contributions to
the State of Rhode Island of the merchants of Blackstone Valley.
The event was well-attended with representatives from local
business, government, and non-profits. It was a lovely evening
complete with music by The Bohemian Quartet and special
entertainment from DJ Montoya and Todos Somos Latinos TV.
In addition to a social hour, the BVMA
honored many of the Women Entrepreneurs of Blackstone Valley
Merchants Association, recognizing their contributions to both
business and family here in the Blackstone Valley.
Congratulations to all award recipients!
**The BVMA was created to assist business
people to acquire a better understanding of economic principles.
Technical assistance is provided to promote business expansion,
job creation and new entrepreneurship.
December 15, 2010 - Greater City Providence - Blackstone and
East Bay Bike Paths to connect
We have some spectacular bike paths here in
Rhode Island, and two of them are about to get connected, maybe
as soon as this spring. Officials from the Broad Street
Regeneration Initiative (BSRI) and the Blackstone Valley Tourism
Council (BVTC) have announced that the City of Pawtucket, RI has
been awarded $38 thousand in Federal funds to create a temporary
on road connection linking the Blackstone Valley Bike Path and
the East Bay Bike Path. The funds come from the American
Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) through the RI Office of
Energy Resources and awarded to the City of Pawtucket.
This temporary on road linkage will provide
bicyclists recreational and intermodal access to all the cities
and towns located along both bikeways, along with guiding people
who use both bike paths opportunities to access merchants and
shops located along the Broad Street corridor of Pawtucket,
Central Falls and Cumberland, RI. Most recent projections
indicate that the temporary on road linkage connecting the
Blackstone Valley and East Bay Bike Paths should be installed by
the spring of 2011.
More
December 6, 2010 - Blackstone Valley Bike Stripe
The Blackstone Valley Bike Stripe is a
project focused on connecting bicyclists from the East Bay bike
path to the Blackstone Valley Bikeway via a temporary on-road
indicator stripe. A committee consisting of representatives made
up from the cities of Cumberland, Central Falls, Pawtucket,
Providence and East Providence has been meeting over the past
year to plan the project. More
December 1, 2010 - Garcia insurance Agency Receives Assurance
from MicroEnterprise Grant
Adalberto Garcia, owner of Garcia Insurance,
has been struggling with both the hard economic times and his
company’s computer equipment. With more than 25 years in the
insurance industry, Garcia has the know-how to be a very
successful agent, but his outdated technology is holding him
back. Fortunately, the MicroEnterprise Grant Committee will help
him fight the battle against his office’s machines More
October 30, 2010 - Three MicroEnterprise
Grants Awarded
On Friday, October 29, 2010 the Broad Street
Regeneration Initiative in partnership with the Cumberland
Planning Department awarded three MicroEnterprise Grants: one
totaling $9,500 to Garcia’s Insurance, one totaling $7,000 to EZ
Computer and one totaling $3,000 to Envi-Mex. The business
owners all proved they ran sustainable businesses, needed the
funds and were cooperative and timely with the grant committee’s
requests. More
October,
2010 - MicroEnterprise Grant
Renews Stolen Confidence - Broad
Street business owner Cristian Tabares withstands robbery with
help of MicroEnterprise Grant
Cristian Tabares is a hard
man to find. As a full-time family man and owner of the
Colombian restaurant La Casona, he works hard to keep food on
the tables of both his home and growing business. Originally
from Colombia himself, he moved with his family to the United
States in 2001. Five years later, Tabares opened La Casona at
804 Broad Street in May of 2006, developing the restaurant from
a small start-up to a favorite of both locals and visitors. The
restaurant offers a wide range of authentic Colombian food,
featuring appetizers, meat entrees, salads, desserts and snacks.
All of these are prepared with the family flavor only a mother
could add—specifically, Tabares’ mother. Her authentic Colombian
recipes make up the majority of the menu. More
