At an East Providence market, Mark Patinkin finds hard work and an open lane buoying hopes

When I asked Bill Foeri, a former quahogger who now runs a seafood market in East Providence, how he’s doing with the bridge problem, he gave me a one-syllable answer.

“How do you spell that?” I asked.

“You know,” said Bill, “Arrgh. Like a pirate.”

But not in a good way.

When I last talked to him two months ago, business was down 50% at his shop, Digger’s Catch, on North Broadway near the Henderson Bridge. Fear of traffic and all.

He reports it’s no better now.

I heard the same from a few other East Providence folks, like Steve Costa, who runs Rosa’s Tavern on Waterman Avenue and has branched into catering to pay the bills. But some, like Harut Matkasyan, owner of Riviera Restaurant, tell me traffic is better – except for rush hour – with an extra lane that opened earlier this month on Interstate 195.

So this story is a call to give another try to struggling East Providence businesses.

But my focus is going to be Bill Foeri, because every so often you run into a Rhode Island original, and he fits it.

“There’s no capital,” he said of his struggle to keep Digger’s Catch going. “I had to borrow money off my girl the other week to get salmon. That’s embarrassing.”

I asked if it would be all right to quote that.

“Yeah, I don’t care.”

“What’s she do?”

“My girl’s a waitress at a diner.”

Her name is Katie, and they’ve been together 17 years. They met at a card-playing night at the old Mulhearn’s Pub, which is now Skeff's, down the road from Digger’s Catch. It was High-Low-Jack and Texas Hold ‘Em

“I beat her sometimes,” said Bill, “she beat me sometimes.”

The two now live in a three-family on Federal Hill.

“She’s a smart girl,” said Bill. “She’s got her master’s from Brown University and writes poetry. We have a lot of laughs.”

Bill grew up in East Providence, his dad working at the Brayton Point Power Station in Massachusetts.

After high school, Bill worked for years as a shellfish guy, motoring out of Barrington to the Warren River.

“But all over the Bay, too,” he said. “Prudence Island, Patience Island.”

He loved being on the water by himself, no boss yelling at him.

“You work the edges,” Bill explained, “the bank.” That’s where the shellfish are, because the tides rush in with plankton, which is what they feed on.

“It’s peaceful,” Bill said. “But hard work, that bullraking. Your body breaks down after a while. Though maybe I shouldn’t say that, because I just had one come in selling, he’s 78 years old and still bullraking.”

Bill opened Digger’s Catch 13 years ago, and the last four have been challenging.

Business in East Providence: They reached for a dream. The Washington Bridge closure has them barely hanging on.

“First COVID,” he said, “then all the product was stuck in the ocean out there with the supply chain, which caused wicked-high inflation, so we had to adjust without gouging the people.”

And now the bridge.

“I did this to make a retirement,” Bill told me of opening Digger’s Catch, “but I’m working harder now than when I was bullraking. Half a day selling and half a day running around like a chicken with my head cut off with the wholesale.”

Wholesale?

“Hustling to my restaurants.”

He sells to about a dozen, as well as outfits like Ipswich Shellfish and John Mantia & Sons, a seafood distributor on Boston’s Fish Pier.

His big items are littlenecks, lobsters, salmon and shrimp.

“I’m working on more opportunities with scallops and codfish,” said Bill. “I’m hustling. That’s the name of the game. There’s enough out there for everybody, but you have to go get it.”

The bridge has left him down about $5,000 a month, a tough hit that comes out of his pocket, because he first has to pay his staff and diggers. He’s hoping things will pick up with the extra lane on the bridge, as well as summer coming. That’s his best season.

“The clam-boils and lobsters,” said Bill. “Things like that. It’s a summer food.”

I told him he sounds like a hardworking guy.

“I can’t sit still,” said Bill. “I can’t sit home and lay in bed. I can never do that.”

I asked what I should tell readers.

“Come on down,” Bill said, “we got steamers for $5.99 a pound this week. Fish and Chips on Fridays. We got fried clams, clam cakes, shrimp, scallops. Look at me on Google. Everything’s good.”

He said he’s grateful to his most loyal customers, who come twice a week.

“God bless ‘em,” said Bill. “They keep me going.”

When I last talked to him in February, the only government help offered due to the bridge was a Small Business Administration loan, which didn’t interest him, being more debt. But Rhode Island Commerce came by the other day explaining that grants are now available for East Providence businesspeople, and Bill can use that help.

“All my capital’s gone,” he said.

That’s why he’s working harder now than when he was bullraking.

The fate of the quahog: The quahog holds a dear place in RI’s culture. Could its days be numbered?

I asked what he does in his spare time.

“Me and my girl take a ride sometimes,” Bill said. That would be in his Toyota Tacoma pickup with 140,000 miles. They like driving around northern Rhode Island.

“Harrisville, Foster and whatnot,” he said. “I'm thinking that would be a nice place to retire. That’s the goal. Maybe a little farm.”

But that seems a long way off, now that the bridge has left him hustling.

Just as it has left others doing the same throughout East Providence.

Their message is that rush hour’s still bad, but otherwise, it’s better.

So consider taking a drive to help out the businesses there.

And while you’re at it, buy some seafood from Digger’s Catch at 537 N. Broadway.

There’s a hardworking guy there name Bill Foeri who would sure appreciate it.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Hope emerges as Washington Bridge closure loosens grip on East Providence