The Rue

Restaurant and Bar

Rue De L'Espoir first opened its doors in 1976, "the new kid on the block," according to Deborah Norman, in a city with only a few steak houses, Chinese restaurants, and pizza shops. Now "The Rue," as the Providence institution is fondly known by a loyal and ever-expanding clientele, has grown and matured along with Rhode Island's changing culinary scene.

Starting out as a quiche-and-crepe bistro, The Rue now specializes in fresh regional cooking, with influences borrowed from France, Italy, and Asia. The restaurant has received attention in numerous travel books and magazines, including Esquire, Bon Appétit, Food and Wine, Victoria, Weekending in New England, Fodor's New England, and even This Old House.

The Rue uses sustainable local ingredients whenever possible and for the third year in a row is a recipient of
the prestigious green certfication award given by the RI Hospitality Association and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Deborah Norman
Restaurateur

 "I fell in love with the restaurant business,  the energy of the clientele and the creativity of the kitchen," says Deborah Norman, who managed other people's restaurants before venturing out on her own. According to Deb,  she learned the business the old-fashioned way — "from the dish pit up." In fact, her front- and back-of-the-house training was so comprehensive that by the time she was finished, she could not only prepare Beef Wellington and mix a damn good  martini, but was also an ace at repairing a refrigerator and fixing a dishwasher.

"The only thing French about us is our name," says Deb, who likes to call the food at The Rue "American Bistro Cooking." She credits the restaurant's innovative menus to a kitchen triumvirate that really works. "I do a lot of reading. I'll go in to Michael, my head chef, and say, 'This looks interesting and delicious, can we try it our way?" Everything he creates is wonderful — there isn't anything he can't do.

A dedicated wait staff, some of whom who have worked at the Rue for up to 25 years, are also part of the recipe for the restaurant's success. Her unique approach to customer satisfaction might be traced back to Deb's background in community theater, which she pursued along with a degree in psychology and music from the University of Rhode Island. "I try to impress upon my staff that being in the restaurant business is like being in theater. It's a production, and they're part of the play. The physical setting is the set. The staff are supporting actors. And the food and wine are the star attractions. Every piece of the play has to fit together in order to create a consistent and high-quality production. When the wait staff talks about the food, they get excited about it. They paint visual pictures with words so that our customers cannot only imagine what the food looks like but what it tastes like as well."

"I love coming to work every day," says Deb. "It gives me an incredible opportunity to do the two things I love best: be creative and eat. I remember the first night I opened over 34 years ago. I looked into the full dining room and couldn't believe that people were sitting there, eating the food that I'd cooked. It gave me a genuine thrill that I still feel today. I'm very proud of this wonderfully, consistent product I've created. I have customers who come in two or three times a week. I like feeding the village."

Michael Koussa
Head Chef

"A little bit of everything," is the way head chef Michael Koussa describes the Rue's eclectic menus, which he has helped nurture from the early days of traditional French fare through today's creative bistro menu. His career at the Rue began 28 years ago, when he started working as a line cook. After studying culinary arts at the Rhode Island School of Design, he was soon promoted to sous-chef. Eight years after starting out, he moved into the Rue's top position. In charge of the kitchen ever since, the Pawtucket native credits his longevity in the job — a rarity in the restaurant world — to the enormous creative freedom and compatibility he finds working with owner Deborah Norman. Six days a week, the Rue's extensive menus offer him the ongoing challenge of providing the kind of culinary variety and international flavor for which the restaurant is known.