If you haven’t noticed the masses of parents all over campus, you should know that today marks the beginning of Brown’s Annual Family Weekend. Whether your parents are flying across the country or just driving to College Hill, they’re very eager to see you. And, unlike when a friend visits on Spring Weekend, you need to actually plan what you’re going to do with your visitors for every second of these two days.

If your parents are driving here, don’t underestimate the speed at which they will arrive, like I did my freshman year. You don’t want to wake up to a “we’ll be outside your dorm in five minutes” text Saturday morning, unless of course one of your planned activities is having your family watch you swiffer your floor.

Instead of repeating my mistake, impress your family by having activities planned for the weekend. Check out some ways to maximize family time and keep your parents and siblings entertained during their visit to Brunonia after the jump.

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The Dorrance

Family Weekend is great for a lot of reasons—we get to have chauffeurs while we run errands, play tour guide, rant to someone new about the eyesore that is the SciLi (and, oh yeah, hug our darlingest parents). But perhaps what’s most exciting is the fact that we get a whole weekend of subsidized non-Ratty meals and adventures off the Hill. That can also be scary: When you’re eating Ratty brunch and spicy withs, it can be hard to know where to begin when it’s time to play host. (Shameless self-promotion: The Family Weekend issue of Post-, our sister publication under BDH, has a full spread of restaurant coverage.) Here, though, we’ll focus on some of the fancy-schmancy restaurants that this reviewer likes to frequent for dinner with her own magnanimous parents. Treat yo’self… Or, let your parents treat you. We love ya, Mom and Dad!

The Dorrance: Full disclosure: I’m sad that my parents aren’t coming to Family Weekend, not because I miss them (pish-posh) but because I wish I could drag them here. Bon Appétit is also a fan: It named The Dorrance one of the 50 best new restaurants in America. Chef Ben Sukle previously worked under Chef Jennings at La Laiterie and then did a casual stage at the #1 restaurant in the world. Now he’s set up shop in the first floor of the downtown Union Trust Building, whose 20-foot (rough estimate… it might be 50) floor-to-ceiling windows, ornate ceiling detail, and mezzanine (THEY HAVE A MEZZANINE, just like the SciLi!!!!!!) set the tone for the food. The food! It’s avant-garde and sometimes downright strange (see also, roasted tri-tip with chanterelle mushrooms and strawberries), but it works. So while the restaurant is prohibitively expensive and swanky for us denizens of the Hill, I have a hunch it’d be perfect for an outing with our doting parents.

New Rivers: This self-proclaimed American bistro takes its ingredients seriously: farmers regularly drop by the kitchen with their wares, and Chef Beau Vestal moonlights as a forager to scout out mushrooms. As a result, the food is constantly changing—like, from week to week, perhaps even day to day—to reflect whatever winds up in the kitchen. Still, there’s a reliable sensibility in the menu that means the food can be counted on to strike a balance between comforting/un-frilly and inspired/novel/very-very-special. Lately the menu is featuring a lot of marvelously autumnal hen of the woods mushrooms, so much squash (pumpkin! acorn! delicata! butternut!), and the last of summer’s tomatoes and corn. Go when you’re hungry; you’ll want to order everything. And they also serve lunch!

More restaurants after the jump… [Read more →]

Family Weekend is just around the corner, and you know what that means: trips to the Brown Bookstore on your parents’ dime! But this Family Weekend, the Bookstore has more than just the fresh Brown apparel and accessories that you love—they also have the coolest threads for your family members.

That’s right: your parents can return to your hometown donning Brown apparel so that they can ever-so-subtly remind your friends and neighbors that you go here. Not only this, but they can do so while wearing the finest of brand names, including Ralph Lauren, Patagonia, Brooks Brothers, Under Armour, Gear, and Champion. The finest of threads with the name of the finest university plastered across the front? Seems like a win-win: Your family members will be bursting at the seams with Brown pride, and they’ll look extremely stylish in the process.

Be sure to plan a trip to the Bookstore while your parents are in town. Let your family show you off, and let them do so in style. Your parents will be thrilled with the selection.

It’s pretty safe to say that visits from your parents are (usually) nothing short of awesome. They’re a welcome break from school-related tedium, you can enjoy the company of loved ones, and, if you’re like me, you also receive an enormous delivery of snacks. And yet there’s one consequence of parental visits I invariably dread: the morning before.

There will undoubtedly be at least a few times in your college career when you wake up at noon on a Saturday, completely hungover and utterly panicking because your parents are scheduled to arrive in half an hour and your room is still littered with beer cans, empty handles, and God-knows-what from the previous evening. You’re even worse, your head pounding and your once-white garments soiled with the stains of debauchery. There’s no hope… or is there?

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It happens. After a period of comfort, you just stop trying.  Maybe you whip out the sweatpants more than you should, or your “places” – the restaurants, the relaxation spots, and the shops –feel a bit dried up.  That doesn’t mean you should throw the baby out with the bathwater – all you need to make Parents Weekend fresh again is a little spice.

Every year it becomes the same routine.  You scream halfheartedly chant “Ra Ra Bruno,” shepherding your parents around in all of their Brown-swag glory.  You get some good meals (I am definitely not suggesting you give this up), and you desperately clean your room in attempt to rid it of the greasy smell of last week’s Spicy With, the accompanying ketchup-smeared takeout box and the shirt whose fibers reek of various smokes.  Never fear, for we have suggestions to send you back to freshman fall, without the awkwardness, vomit, or mornings-after.  [Read more →]

Family Weekend is upon us. You should have noticed by now that campus is crawling with middle-aged moms and dads who are here to see you and get a sense of your life at Brown. In order for your parents to do so effectively, they will be infiltrating our social and academic spheres of choice to try to live and understand the Brown Experience. Be advised that parents are everywhere, and that it can be quite entertaining to observe these creatures in their unfamiliar habitat. 

The Top Three Places for Parent Sightings:

1) The Ratty: Upon entry, parents are greeted by the wonderful, angelic BDS hostess with the mostest, Gail. They are hooked on Gail’s unmistakable charm and are reeled in by the long chain of “I”s in the “Hiiiiiiiiiiii” they receive at the door. They proceed to walk around aimlessly as they try to understand the hustle and bustle; the Cajun Chicken Pasta and the epic combination of cereal, ice cream and peanut butter that constitute the Ratty Experience. For maximum entertainment, be sure to observe the confusion and fascination that comes over parents as they observe our fellow students with four plates of food and three glasses of different drinks all balanced on the Ratty’s ugly, yet intriguing trays. It was LMFAO who said “everyday I’m Rattying”, right?  [Read more →]

Fun fact: Brown has the largest number of a cappella groups per capita of any university (thanks, handy dandy tour guide packet).  Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that a cappella is huge here, filling our campus’s many arches with sweet music, impressive beat boxing, and sometimes drunken pirates.

There are a few times each year when the majority of a cappella groups on campus take advantage of the opportunity to perform for as many people as possible – during orientation, freshmen flock like flies; prior to auditions, anyone who can sing (and even some who can’t) are curious.  But Family Weekend is when they break out the big guns, and it can be a little overwhelming deciding which groups you want to see.  To help you out, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to a cappella at Brown – here’s what you can expect from each of the many groups.

Friday, October 14^th

Harmo and the Ursa Minors’ Parents Weekend Concert!: 8:00-9:30pm, Salomon 001

Ursa Minors: One of several all-female a cappella groups.  The Ursas generally achieve a uniform look by wearing all black, and they perform lots of popular, contemporary music.  They also hold the honor of being the only Brown a cappella group whose name is also an astronomy pun.

Harmonic Motion: Made up of both Brown and RISD students.  They’re definitely the most artsy of the groups, from their haircuts to their outfits to their song selections – which are unique but still wildly entertaining.

Shades of Brown Fall Concert: 8:00pm, Hunter 100

Shades of Brown: In true Brown spirit, Shades of Brown is a multicultural a cappella group with a varied repertoire and equally diverse members.  The group sings songs “in the African American tradition,” [via] and incorporates lots of different styles of music.  Three cheers for diversity!  [Read more →]

Family Weekend’s coming, so for those whose parents love ‘em enough to visit (really, mom? I know you can afford the plane ticket) they can look forward to all the fun, family-y things to come: Passive aggressive parents, extorting food from your loved ones, and lying on the spot about how we spend our weekends (or weekdays, for that matter).

But before you are all unhappy-in-our-own-ways, it’s time for you guys to finally do some housekeeping (beyond flipping the blankets over or throwing a pillow on top – that doesn’t count as changing your bedding). So calm down; hide yo’ cans, hide yo’ weed. Here’s your Family Weekend 2011 Cheat Sheet for what you have to do.

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Family Weekend banter, translated:

“Mm, your father and I are trying to find hotels for May … any suggestions?”
You are graduating in May! Did you forget this? We did not.

“So, have you started thinking about, you know, next year…?”
OHMYGOD. Our darling little child is graduating with zero marketable skills! What has s/he been doing all this time?

“You know, honey, I think your mother has finally gotten over the whole empty nest thing.”
Please, oh please, oh please do not move back home. We have turned your bedroom into a love nest.  [Read more →]

We all know and love the best weekend of the year: Family Weekend.  Upperclassmen look fondly back on the time when their parents would visit for a couple of days to replenish snacks, buy new clothes for the upcoming bitter months and look for excuses to pawn useless dorm necessities off on us.

Often, parents will try and utilize this opportunity to relive their college years while simultaneously bonding with their now-adult children.  Read: they want to eat in the dining hall.  And to that, we must be strong! Be principled! Stand up for yourself and for all that tastes good in the world! Demand food off-campus before it’s too late and you start to notice leftovers being served in the Ratty three days in a row.  Providence was named the third best city for foodies in America [via], and now is the time to take advantage ofeducate your parents on some of the wonderful food offered here.  Let them drive you wherever your their heart desires and bask in the glory of the foodie-heaven that is Providence.  Even if fancy food isn’t your style, at least use this weekend as an opportunity to get off Thayer Street.  I know we thought that Paragon would never get old, but alas…

Pricey-but-worth-it Dinner

• Al Forno Restaurant, www.alforno.com, 577 South Main Street, Providence, (401) 273-9760

Made famous by their amazing appetizer pizza, this classy (and relatively pricey) Italian restaurant is first-rate.  Just a hop, skip and jump away from Whisky Republic, this restaurant truly offers some of the best Italian food that can be found on this side of the Atlantic. Open Tuesday through Sunday, Al Forno does NOT take reservations, is fairly small and fills up FAST: plan accordingly.  [Read more →]