Manuel and Maria Pedroso have owned Friend’s Market at 126 Brook St. in Providence for 50 years.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

Like so many corners of Providence, the Wickenden Street neighborhood is full of locally owned businesses that make it special. These include many small eateries with lovely secret patios for dining and owners doing the cooking in their own tiny kitchens. But this street also has many restaurants offering a favorite feature for many a diner. They are BYOB with guests bringing in their favorite wine or beer to accompany their meal.

There are new spots just starting out mixed in with such long-established institutions as the Coffee Exchange (at No. 307) and Pizza Pie-er (at No. 374). Chairs and tables are just as likely to be mismatched as all the same at stops along this street. You’ll find more than a few women running their own businesses as well as families sharing the joys and burdens of ownership.

Most of all you’ll find a mixed group of consumers, including students from nearby Brown University, Johnson & Wales and RISD; businessmen and women out for a quick lunch; East-Siders walking to dinner; tourists visiting Providence; and hipsters of all ages looking for a local taste of Providence. On the day of my visit, two chefs, Beau Vestal of New Rivers and Ed Reposa of the Red Fez were sitting outside the Coffee Exchange absorbing the ambiance.

The neighborhood also has an eclectic blend of other businesses which no doubt draws the diverse crowd as well. They range from Adler’s Hardware to art supply stores, antique and flower shops, hairdressers, a used record emporium, a tropical fish shop and real estate businesses. Beyond the confines of the street stand other notables like Campus Fine Wines at 127 Brook St., Rue de L’Espoir at 99 Hope St. and Friend’s Market at 126 Brook St.

Friend’s is a spot that was ahead of its time with its mix of American and ethnic foods. Manuel and Maria Pedroso have owned the small business for 50 years and back in the day it drew shoppers from New Bedford, Fall River and beyond. They came in for the Portuguese specialties which are now available in large grocery stores. But the store still has a style all its own with lovely pottery, an abundance of religious items, fabrics and convenience items.

Mr. Pedroso’s best memories are meeting all the college students over the years who come to Providence to study. He said they come from all around the world and he always enjoyed asking them what they came here to study.

By the way, the Pedrosos not only work together daily. They have been married since 1949.

There’s a new family business at Angkor Restaurant at 333 Wickenden with owners Chutema and Phany Am working with her mother, the chef Bopha Kem. All are from Cambodia and I met them first when they opened Asian Delite in Cranston. They found that site too large and a few months ago opted for the 40-seat restaurant in Providence with both a street level and upstairs dining room. Bopha’s medicine soup is just one of her specialties worth trying. Her aunt was a personal chef at the Cambodian Royal Palace back before the civil war in that country. She treasured her cookbook and makes traditional dishes for lunch and dinner.

Wickenden is more than old and new though. The diverse tastes make for a fun neighborhood.

Fellini Pizzeria at 166 Wickenden St. sells pizza by the pie or the slice. But that’s not all owner Kristy Knoedler offers. Her varieties range from Spinachoke (with fresh spinach, artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers) to a barbecue chicken pie. She worked at the pizzeria before buying it seven years ago. It’s a grueling life with the eatery open seven days a week for lunch and dinner and late night. The menu also includes sandwiches (a Louisiana muffuletta among them).

She loves the alternative feel of the neighborhood with its college students, antique dealers, artists, tattooed kids and business people.

“It’s a nice mix,” she said.

Amy’s Place at No. 214 serves breakfast and lunch and has a secret. It’s a garden patio with seven tables. It’s lovely and hidden away from the grill where Amy Marookian is making blueberry pancakes and French toast while her sister Ariana and her grandma, Jessie, both Marookians, work with her. Inside, the décor is mismatched chairs and tables which give it a fun feel. Marookian has run the breakfast/lunch spot for 9 years and operates seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

She worked at another neighborhood café, loved it, and so she opened her own.

Patcharaporn Pratheechuang — but you can call her Pat — owns O-Cha at No. 221, which is a Thai restaurant which also serves sushi. She is in her fourth year of ownership, having worked as a waitress for the former owner before buying the restaurant herself.

“He gave me the opportunity to run this business and why not,” she said.

She came to Providence from Thailand in 1999 to attend Johnson & Wales University where she earned an MBA degree. She serves lunch and dinner seven days a week. While she is not the cook, she has learned a few things in the kitchen. Having two cuisines, the sushi bar and the Thai menu with many noodle and vegetarian dishes, also enhances her business.

Among the specialties are Pad Thai, the signature noodle dish, Thai iced tea (a strong tea sweetened with milk and spices) and a variety of sushi including maki (rolls of raw fish, cooked shrimp or vegetable and sushi rice wrapped in seaweed in bite-size pieces) and nigiri style with sliced raw fish including popular tuna and salmon, pressed over a pad of rice.

At No. 230, Ashwani and Neeta Kumar have been running their Taste of India since 1990. (It was formally the Taj Mahal for six years under other owners.) They came to the U.S. in 1986.

They serve their northern Indian food, including many vegetarian specialties, seven days a week including a lunch buffet for the past 10 years. It costs $7.95 Monday to Thursday and $8.95 Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It runs from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays, noon to 3 p.m. on weekends.

The aromas from the lunch buffet fill the small restaurant with very pleasant scents of curry, tandoori chicken and cabbage masala. There is a main dining room in front and a small narrow one with hand painted walls in the back. This is also a BYOB restaurant.

The Brickway, at No. 234, is another popular breakfast/lunch destination on Wickenden. It’s been owned for four years by Om Devkota, a native of Nepal. College students are among his customers, with breakfast/lunch served 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 8-4 on the weekends.

He offers many burgers and wraps and has specials every weekend and, always, a bottomless cup of coffee.

Z Bar at No. 244 has a secret garden and is one of the few spots on the street with a full liquor license and a skylight bringing light to the bar. Manager Elizabeth Grey recalled a tenant above the restaurant who had pet iguanas which would occasionally find their way to the skylights and frighten the bartender on duty.

Tenants and iguanas aside, lunch and dinner are served daily and there is a Champagne brunch offered on Sunday. That secret patio garden has 15 tables all adorned elegantly with white tablecloths.

Across the street at No. 239, Café Zog also has a secret garden, this one framed in bamboo that grows and grows, creating a privacy wall. Owner Julio Fonseca has owned the spot for more than a decade and starts early, at 7 a.m., and closes late, at midnight, daily. Live music is performed outside in the courtyard occasionally, and indoors during inclement weather. There are a couple of private booths but mostly tables in the dining space.

The menu includes breakfast with dishes like omelets from 7:30 a.m. to 11. Sandwiches, salads and fresh fruit smoothies are on the lunch and dinner menu as are lots of desserts.

The clientele is a mix of professional people and students from the neighborhood, Fonseca said. Gourmet coffee is always popular and staying open late night gives him an advantage in a neighborhood where most spots close earlier.

Sakura Restaurant at No. 231 has some hidden spaces but they are all indoors. Upon entering this Japanese restaurant, there are tables and a sushi bar and a dining room that has a fireplace that is used in the colder months.

But there is a tatami room where diners sit on mats at low tables, Japanese-style. Chef Akira (who prefers to only use his first name) has been cooking for 18 years. Sushi and lunch specials are offered with a spicy sushi sandwich as a house specialty. Udon noodles are also on the menu.

Akira calls it a family restaurant and it too is BYOB.

Tokyo Restaurant at No. 388 also has an extensive sushi menu as well as lunch and dinner menus.

New to the street at No. 312 is the Blue Elephant, owned by Joshua Selle. This space most resembles a home with two dining rooms. (It’s in the space that was formerly Café Romanza.) On the walls are pieces of jewelry designed by Selle’s artist wife Sara Weintraub. His son Parker, now 2, contributed to naming the restaurant back when he was just eight months old and had a blue elephant rattle that inspired his father. Now customers bring in for Selle all manner of blue elephants, including one in a Red Sox jersey.

He serves breakfast/brunch all day from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. But you can have breakfast for dinner if you like. There is a fireplaced dining room and the Blue Elephant is BYOB, even for breakfast when diners might look for a Mimosa. He also does after-hour tea parties.

When he opened last year he had paper and tablecloths but now there are collages on each tabletop in keeping with the eclectic theme of the place and indeed of Wickenden Street itself.

Next week: We’ll venture just beyond Wickenden to Ives Street where a new neighborhood of food-devoted business is just now being born.