Tortilla Flats
355 Hope Street
Providence, RI
401.751.6777

We’re on a mission

Tortilla Flat is a mystical place created by John Steinbeck, in which the residents are soft hearted, unquestionably loyal to one another, and in complete disregard of social conventions and expectations. Our goal has been to create a similar place that stands apart from the homogenized chains and canned atmospheres that have become all too common.

Our Tortilla Flats has been an East Side institution for over 30 years. We take pride in serving generations of patrons the finest and freshest Mexican, Cajun, and Southwestern cuisine available.

the steinbeck wall

The two pencil drawings on the side wall of our upper room – of Tortilla Flat author John Steinbeck and his friend (Cannery Row character) “Doc” Ricketts – are by Internationally renowned artist James Fitzgerald. During the 1930s, Steinbeck, Ricketts and Fitzgerald were part of a group of artists who met to share friendship and ideas at Ricketts' Pacific Biological Laboratories in Monterey, California. The photographic reproductions of the original drawings hang in Tortilla Flats courtesy of Anne and Edgar Hubert, executors of the Fitzgerald estate. The original of Steinbeck, by the way, is in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.