Providence Board of Licenses allow Saint to open Thursday after stabbing
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The Saint bar and restaurant on Atwells Avenue has been closed since a stabbing happened outside of their business early Tuesday morning.
“It is unfortunate because when you look at what happened – these are not things that are happening with kids, these are all adults. People in their 30s, 40s, 50s,” said Rick Simone, President of the Federal Hill Commerce Association.
Providence police told ABC 6 News that the victim involved in the stabbing sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
“Overall I find it really disappointing that we cannot have faith in each other and ourselves and that people are behaving in these ways,” Simone added.
On Wednesday, the stabbing at Saint was not the only concern at the Providence Board of Licenses meeting, there was ongoing discussion surrounding Saje Kitchen, which is also on Federal Hill.
Providence police responded to Saje Kitchen twice in one weekend last month. One of those incidents ended with a woman allegedly biting and assaulting a Providence police officer.
The board decided Saje Kitchen must be closed by 1 a.m. from now on and residents on Federal Hill are concerned about the bad publicity from these incidents.
“I will say that I am tired of hearing people say that they don’t want to go to Federal Hill because it is too violent,” said Bob Terino, a business owner on Federal Hill.
Federal Hill officials have been holding conversations with the city to get ahead of problems like they have seen recently.
“I think it is the transition of the people coming and how these people behave. I do feel that there are incident plans that we are starting to talk about of ways we can recognize some of these things before they become incidents,” Simone continued.
“The thing about Federal Hill is the sheer number of restaurants and bars over there. Any time there is a high concentration of licensees, there appears to be a higher concentration of incidents because there is more of them,” said Dylan Conley, chairman, Providence board of licenses.
