Broadway residents thought they had a new neighborhood restaurant – but not so fast

Paul Edward Parker, Providence Journal
·2 min read

PROVIDENCE – Sometimes disasters can bring about lucky finds, or at least finds that appear to be lucky.

Such was the case one day last week for Kyle McElroy, who lives a block off Broadway. She was driving home from the University of Rhode Island, where she's a Ph.D. student in marine affairs. Nightmare traffic from the closure of half of the Washington Bridge forced her to find a new way home, and she found herself driving down Broadway in the opposite direction from her usual route.

That's when she stumbled on it: Helen's 445, a new restaurant on the corner of Broadway and Almy Street.

"I got really excited," she told The Providence Journal. "I came home and told my partner the new place opened up. He always likes going to new places."

They started to make plans for a visit, but the hours weren't listed online.

Neither was the restaurant.

The Broadway side of "Helen's," a set for the filming of "Ella McCay."
The Broadway side of "Helen's," a set for the filming of "Ella McCay."

"I couldn't find it on Google," she said.

But that didn't dampen her enthusiasm. At a Friday Pilates class, she told a friend. "Hey, I saw a new place on Broadway!"

But, when she said the new place is named Helen's, the friend had bad news. "She said, 'It's a movie set,'" McElroy recalled. "It was a little disappointing."

What looks like a new restaurant is for 'Ella McCay filming

While folks in the neighborhood might be disappointed, many in Rhode Island are excited about the project, which will be a filming location for the James L. Brooks movie now filming in Providence, "Ella McCay," starring Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis and Woody Harrelson.

A member of the crew puts some finishing touches on the interior of "Helens," apparently a set for a bar in the filming of "Ella McCay."
A member of the crew puts some finishing touches on the interior of "Helens," apparently a set for a bar in the filming of "Ella McCay."

Producers are keeping their filming schedule confidential, but emergency no-parking signs along Broadway cover the period from Wednesday until Feb. 19. Filming for the movie started Monday in a quiet neighborhood off Blackstone Boulevard on the city's East Side. It will continue into April.

A few questions remain unanswered about the new "restaurant:"

The ground floor of this house at the corner of Almy Street and Broadway in Providence appears to be getting a makeover as a bar that will be a set in the filming of the James L. Brooks movie "Ella McCay."
The ground floor of this house at the corner of Almy Street and Broadway in Providence appears to be getting a makeover as a bar that will be a set in the filming of the James L. Brooks movie "Ella McCay."

Will locals ever be able to dine or drink at Helen's? What about those employed as movie extras?

What will become of the spot after filming wraps?

Will Harrelson, who won a 1989 Emmy Award for portraying bartender Woody Boyd in "Cheers," tend bar at Helen's?

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Helen's 445 on Broadway in Providence looks like a bar, but it's a movie set