"Former Providence Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr. wasted little time today getting back to one of his old favorites – the Old Canteen on Federal Hill.

He was there eating lunch today, just hours after his electronic monitoring device was removed at the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office on Cape Cod.

Cianci was with five other men, including his lawyer, Charles Mansolillo. He was not wearing his trademark toupee, and was bald, except for close-cropped hair around the sides.

At this writing, he was sitting in a window seat at the front of the restaurant, with the curtain drawn. A horde of media were gathered outside.

The former mayor was having haddock Sicilian, according to a kitchen worker at the restaurant, who told a Journal reporter that's what he always had when eating there.

Cianci’s nephew, Brad Turchetta, left the restaurant around 2:30 p.m. after eating with Cianci, who had been spending his home confinement with him at his East Greenwich home.

“Bracelet cut off, looking great, feeling better,” Turchetta said of his uncle.

Cianci may just stay at home this weekend, his nephew told the 15 or so reporters waiting outside the restaurant for a glimpse of Cianci. Turchetta said he doesn’t know if his uncle enjoys all this media attention. As for Turchetta, reporters asked if he was surprised by the crush of media around him.

“After Boston, nothing will surprise me,” he said.

Photographers and other media stand outside the Federal Hill restaurant, awaiting former Providence Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci's first appearance since being released from home confinement.

Turchetta was the one who drove Cianci from the federal prison to the halfway house in Boston when the former Providence mayor was released.

Today, Turchetta then got into his gray Lexus SUV and drove away.

Before being imprisoned on a federal corruption charge in December 2002, Cianci had been a loyal customer of Joe Marzilli’s Old Canteen. Marzilli died April 2 of this year, just a few months shy of seeing his old friend upon release from prison.

In the late 1990s, when Cianci proposed a skating rink for downtown Providence, the original plan was to locate it near the Amtrak station near the State House.

Cianci was having a veal supper one night at the Old Canteen when he was chatting with Marzilli about the proposed rink, modeled after the famous ice surface in Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan.

Marzilli urged Cianci to place the rink in Kennedy Plaza, in the heart of the city’s revived downtown. Cianci agreed and when the rink opened on Nov. 25, 1998, Marzilli was a guest of honor.

The man known by some as the Prince of Providence was back in the city by early afternoon, just a few hours after his monitoring device was removed at 10:45 a.m. at the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office on Cape Cod.

Cianci chatted with officers a little bit, and then he left, sheriff's office spokesman David Neal said. He had been driven there by his nephew, Turchetta.

Barry J. Weiner, chief U.S. probation officer for Rhode Island, said late this morning that Cianci’s sentence still technically elapses one minute after midnight tonight – regardless of when the ankle bracelet is removed.

“If he goes out tonight at 11:59 and commits a crime, he’s still definitely under the supervision of the Bureau of Prisons,” said Weiner. “The release dates are determined by statute, and it’s not likely” that Cianci will become a private citizen until just after midnight.

Cianci must still serve two years of supervised release and perform 150 hours of community service.

Nonetheless, Cianci lawyer Mansolillo, who is Cianci’s long-time confidante and lawyer, said earlier today: “It’s all over as of now. I’m very happy for him.”

The ankle bracelet was one of the last remnants of Cianci's sentence for racketeering conspiracy, which followed a lengthy trial involving some of his top aides and stemmed from the FBI probe into corruption at City Hall known as Operation Plunder Dome.

Cianci had worn the monitoring device while serving the last six weeks of his sentence on home confinement at his nephew’s home and working in marketing at The 903 Residences in Providence.

The home confinement followed a short stint at a halfway house in Boston and 4 1/2 years in federal prison at Fort Dix, N.J.

Just what Cianci will do after he's free has been a popular matter of speculation, ranging from whether he'd try to re-enter the political arena or return to talk radio.

But as of this afternoon, the burning question of whether he would appear with or without a toupee has been answered." (Journal staff writers Daniel Barbarisi and Karen Lee Ziner, projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson and Associated Press writer Eric Tucker, Providence Journal, July 27, 2007)