LOCALMAGAZINE
New England
Interviews
Lily is Rayne
Directors: Abby Jones
Shout out for taking a leap of faith, first and foremost. How are you feeling? What’s going through your mind? Take us through it, Rayne
Oh, we taking it back to that time? We going back. So, like moving over was a scary thing. I been here all my life. Born in Rhode Island, this is all I know but yeah, it was scary, I ain’t gonna lie. You used to being comfortable with where you at. Everything 5-10 min down the street. It was really scary but with the type of personality I have, I’m an Aries, I go get it, I got the horns on my head. Boom, I hit it. You feel me? 2020 Happened, the COVID shit and I was like why would I go to LA if there ain’t nothing happening. It was a weird time for all of us because we didn’t know what the fuck was going on with our next move but what I took out of it was like Damn, LA has enough going on here so I locked it in Atlanta. That was the biggest and baddest decision I ever made. I just worked for the whole 2020, we had all that time to just work and get it done. I just locked in the whole 2020-2021, even in 2022. It was a big leap of faith but I am glad it happened because leaving, yeah it’s cool, but it ain’t nothing like home. I ain’t gonna lie.
- I’m glad you said that. What does coming back home feel like, dropping your album in an hour. Whats it like to come home and see all these beautiful people and a lot of these people I have big respect for…
If I had arms long enough to give all of y’all a hug, I really would. It feels so good to be back home. I went to school with some of y’all, I grew up with some of y’all. Some people don't even know me but the fact that it’s Rhode Island, it’s Massachusetts, it’s New Hampshire, it’s New England, wherever the fuck you from. We here and it’s all love and it feels really good.
-Better Days is probably my favorite record. What’s your favorite record?
I’m being a lot. I just recently made that, like off of the fly in the crib type shit so that has to be my favorite record because everyone should feel like they 1-of-1. Everybody should feel like they one of one. You feel me? Ain’t no body like me, ain’t no body like you, ain’t no body like none of y’all. Just holding down you for real, 1-of-1
- So on this record called Questions, she played this for me two years ago and I looked right dead in your eyes and said “this is your best song, you’ve officially piqued” Obviously I lied, there’s so many better records now but that records phenomenal. It’s been like two or three years in the making, how are you feeling right now at this very moment now that it’s dropping.
It’s therapy, the release, I feel ahhh! I am ready! That’s how I am feeling,. Ready for the world to hear. It’s a special moment here. Ya’ll got to hear it first. I feel blessed to share this with people I grew up around, who I was raised around. All that. Friends, Family.
I just wanted to do so much shit, I wanted to be a producer. I knew I was wavy. Dress different, I may not have had all the swag in the world at the time but I had my own style to me always so everyone who went to school with me know that I been talking about this since I was ten, nine, even eight years old. That’s what I wanted even as a kid. Facts.
- Whatever this girl does, she’s gonna be the greatest. I’ve been a Day 1 Fan, I know you got people on your line now tryna get a track and shit. Who’s somebody you’re looking forward to working with now that shits getting back to normal? Who you tryna get attracted by soon?
Kaytranada. Drake. I met them in LA. I looked back and I needed to go tell him something. He needs to know who I am! So I tell him I am a big fan, you know, I got straight to the point. “What would it take to work with you?” And he was like “Yo, Just send me a DM and we can get popping like that” I did and he responded back, I gotta be up there in LA again to be in the mix but it’s the kinda shit that happen. He is one of my favorite producers.
Pianta Vegan
Head Chef: Michelle Politano
Age: 32, From Boston, Residing in Providence, RI
Genre: Vegan Restaurant Opened April 28th 2022
When it comes to our brand, we always try to create two things Approachability and Inclusivity
Approachability means you feel comfortable coming here, you don’t feel like the menu is so different from what you are used to that you don’t know what to order. It might be someones first time trying plant based or gluten free or anything. We want everyone to feel comfortable and in a safe space. The staff is trained to be well informed on the menu items if you have any questions on ingredients. It’s approachable.
Inclusivity is kind of the same but on the allergen level, its not just feeling good about being here but also knowing that you can do so safely. It’s really hard to find nut free places, especially vegan ones because so many cheeses are made from nuts; like cashews or macadamia so we have a ton of gluten free options as well, almost everything is sesame free. So, we are also dairy-free and kosher so its very friendly here. A lot of times, restaurant staff are a little skeptical on if their items are fully free from allergens and its hard to feel safe from knowing if you’ll get sick. I made the decision to go full nut-free this summer and the response I got from moms was amazing. One message says “I’ve been making my kids meals my whole life because it’s been so scary to take them out somewhere to eat that they can feel safe. It is so great to finally find a place we can take the kids.” People who dine here without allergies are really understanding of us making that change for them.
We are a small female owned and operated restaurant so we always want to expand and do a cafe space and coffees and pastries, we are sitting on such a prize with our pastry chef. She nails texture so well which is really difficult to do when baking without eggs so it is a huge accomplishment. Anyone interested in helping us along the way, we are always open to discussion. We have big plans for what we could look like in the future and the footprint of the brand.
We just won best overall Kosher RI which is amazing because its not a vegan competition. It is just an award so to win it as a Vegan brand, feels like not just a win for me personally but for the community because they tried lots of food, a lot of it made with animal products and we were still chosen which is a really incredibly thing. We also headlined a non vegan event as the main headliner for October Fest at the Trinity Beer Garden. Those two things felt like wild successes for the Vegan community here in Providence.
Who inspires your work?
My family for sure when it comes to heart but when it comes to the culinary perspective, there’s two people in particular that I’ve met in my travels that are just very special to me. One man, his name is Frankie, he is probably in about his 80’s. He runs a restaurant in Trastevere, a little area in Rome, Italy. He grew up really poor in Naples and knew his whole life he was destined to make pizza and he just unapologetically pursued his dream, and now he has this incredibly well-awarded really cute pizza shop with just the finest quality stuff in that region of Italy and i had the pleasure of doing a private cooking class with him and we connected in an incredible way. He didn't speak a lick of English so there was a translator that helped us along at first but at a certain point I feel like we just really got each other. He is amazing and showed me so much about how much love you can really have for the food you make.
The second is this jolly Israeli man who lives in Costa Rica, Eyel. He runs this bed and breakfast called Gingerbread it’s near the Arenal volcano in costa rica. He is just so passionate about food, he just loves it so much and everything that he puts out is just so incredible. He welcomed us like family and everything he gave us was just phenomenal. If I could be a chef like this, you know where the intention is in every bite. That’s what we try to do here. No sauce goes unnoticed. Everything just has that little extra sparkle to make it really good. Frankie and Eyel have been super important in my journey. I have friends that still travel there and I got a DM from the translator that Frankie even knows that I have started my own full restaurant here.
I have an amazing team with me here. I’ve been very encouraged by my team that have been here for the ride with me. Alyssa and Danielle have been with us since the beginning, they were part time line cooks in our hole in the wall take-out place. Alyssa always had the skills of being a mixologist from her previous job and Danielle had front of house management experience but they were just happy being a part of making good vegan take out at the time and when the stars aligned and we knew it was time to open a brick and mortar location, it was easy to transition them and I convinced her to leave her full time Job in administration to come be with us full time. Our front of house manager and same with our pastry chef, who is also named Danielle but she was also our assistant manager at the last place so all the girls who were in the kitchen with us before are now in big positions with us here now.
Our 200 sure feet take-out window had no front of house, no tables. I started in the pandemic when I knew I wanted to start this so is I sold my house and to be safe from the environment around at the time but also a safe position for a first time restauranteur and getting your feet wet before you just dive into a place like this so we are constantly learning being in this environment and managing a staff of 15, the pressure of also waiting on customers as well now was a transition for us.
