|
|
|
|||||||
|
Newport The Place This wine bar and grill keeps Everyone raves about the entrées, which range from pan-seared lobster with plum wine and ginger to grilled beef tenderloin on black bean chili sauce with a corn tamale and cajun onion rings. Sake-glazed wild salmon with pineapple salsa, roasted leg and grilled breast of duck with a sweet and spicy chipotle-cherry sauce, and pecan-crusted rack of lamb with a balsamic glaze also entice. But we never got beyond the appetizers, which were so tantalizing that we shared and made a meal of five. The Asian lobster and shrimp potstickers, terrific scallops with cranberries and ginger, the gratin of wild mushrooms, and the crab raviolis with goat cheese and ginger were warm-ups for a salad of smoked pheasant with poached pears and hazelnuts that was out of this world. Each was gorgeously presented on black octagonal plates. Strawberry margarita sorbet with fresh fruit and a warm apple crêpe with apple fries and apple sorbet were worthy endings to a fantastic meal. All this is stylishly served at white-clothed tables
on two levels of a long, narrow dining room with brass rails, oil lamps
and sconces. A vaudeville curtain from a To accompany, two dozen wines are offered by the glass and 150 by the bottle. "Flights" offer a tasting of four wines for $13.50. From the adjacent Ale House come not flights but “schooners” featuring 36 microbrews. Four seven-ounce pilsener glasses for $6 arrive in an elaborate homemade wooden schooner. A recent lunch here produced a stellar cheddar and bacon soup, mussels dijonnaise and a pasta special blending a portobello mushroom with olives and asparagus. There were interesting sandwiches and salads but, alas, no appetizers at all, let alone any with the appeal of those available at dinner next door. Yesterday’s is deservedly popular, but we’ll stick with The Place. (401) 847-0116. www.yesterdaysandtheplace.com. Entrées, $23.95 to $29.95. Dinner nightly,
The Black Pearl Our favorite all-around restaurant in Newport – and that of many others, judging from the crowds day and night – is the informal tavern, the fancy Commodore's Room and the deck with umbrella-topped tables that comprise the Black Pearl. Up to 1,500 meals a day are served in summer, the more remarkable considering it has what the manager calls “the world's smallest kitchen.” Waitresses vie with patrons for space in the narrow hall that runs the length of the building; white-hatted chefs and busboys run across the wharf, even in winter, to fetch fresh produce and fish – sometimes champagne – from the refrigerators in an outbuilding. It's all quite colorful, congenial in spirit and creative in cuisine. And – unusual for a resort area – the chef and all the key managers are starting their third decade with the establishment. You can sit outside under the Cinzano umbrellas on Bannister’s Wharf and watch the world go by while you enjoy some of the best clam chowder ever, thick and dill-laced. You also can enjoy a pearlburger, served with mint salad in pita bread and good fries, plus a variety of other sandwiches, salads and desserts. Inside, the tavern is cozy, dark and noisy, usually with a line of people waiting for seats, and the fare is basically the same as outside, with a few heartier entrées available at lunch or dinner. Desserts are delectable, especially the Black Pearl cheesecake followed, perhaps, by cappuccino laced with kahlua and courvoisier. Candlelight dinners in the dressy Commodore Room are lovely, the lights of the waterfront twinkling through small paned windows. The beamed sloped ceilings, dark walls and tables set with white linen topped with vases of freesia make an attractive dining room. Chef J. Daniel Knerr uses light sauces and stresses vegetables and side dishes in his contemporary fare. Expect entrées like sautéed soft-shell crabs, gray sole meunière, salmon fillet with mustard-dill hollandaise, roast duckling with green peppercorn sauce, rack of lamb and dry-aged T-bone steaks obtained from a New York butcher. (401) 846-5264. Entrées, $17.50 to $35; tavern,
$15.50 to $28. Dinner in Commodore Room, 6 to 11; jackets required.
Tavern and outdoor cafe open daily from 11. Closed early January to
mid-February.
After training in France and sixteen years as executive chef at the famed Le Château in New York’s Westchester County, Albert J. Bouchard III struck out on his own. He, his wife Sarah and their three youngsters moved to Newport because of its water and yachting (they live in the summer on their yacht once owned by Humphrey Bogart). They sought a small establishment where he could exercise “total artistic control,” which turned out to be the former tearoom in a 1785 Georgian-style house. The two-section, 43-seat dining room is a beauty in celadon and cream. Assorted chairs with upholstered celadon or mauve seats are at well-spaced tables dressed in cream-colored, floor-length cloths and topped with Wedgwood china, expensive stemware and tall oil lamps bearing small shades. Four shelves of demitasse cups and saucers, part of his father’s collection, separate the front section from the back, and a small bar in the front room looks to be straight out of Provence. A landscaped brick patio in back is pleasant for drinks and hors d’oeuvre in summer. The food is classic French with contemporary nuances in the style of Albert’s former domain. It has received rave reviews and, combined with the elegant sense of comfort and flawless service, contributes to a memorable dining experience. Entrées at a recent visit ranged from roasted cod with creamy mustard sauce to filet mignon au poivre. Dover sole with sorrel sauce, Atlantic salmon with a spicy Thai crust and lemongrass sauce, crispy veal sweetbreads with a tarragon sauce, and coffee-crusted magret duck breast finished with a brandy-balsamic sauce testify to the small kitchen’s scope. Typical starters are salmon tartare, lobster and asparagus in puff pastry, smoked scallops with horseradish cream sauce, escargots in phyllo with tomato-tarragon sauce, and roquefort and eggplant cheesecake with tomato butter sauce. Warm pear salad with roasted walnuts, blue cheese and greens was a mid-winter refresher. Albert, with two talented assistants in the kitchen, prepares the crusty sourdough rolls as well as the desserts, which range from a mocha phyllo napoleon to chocolate crêpes and grand marnier soufflés. Some of the wines, which date back to the 1960s, come from his personal cellar. In 2005, the Bouchards reopened the second and third floors in what had been the Hammett House Inn as a B&B with five rooms and a suite. Doubles rent for $99 to $205, and a two-bedroom suite from $450 to $600. (401) 846-0123. www.restaurantbouchard.com. Entrées, $24 to $38. Dinner nightly except Tuesday, 6 to 9:30 or 10. Sunday brunch, 11 to 2.
Exciting bistro cuisine at refreshing prices draws those in the know to this waterside spot beside the harbor, a century-old structure that once served as a garage for an oil company. Here, in an airy, garage-like space that’s one-third cooking area, 30 diners can be seated at tables dressed in white and ten more cozy up to an L-shaped eating bar facing the open kitchen to watch chef-owner James Mitchell at work. A long sun porch alongside nearly doubles the capacity, and more can be accommodated seasonally on a super outside patio where there’s a wood grill. The menu is printed nightly, and at our latest visit offered a dozen entrées from almond-crusted mahi mahi with mango-lime sauce to grilled filet mignon with stilton cheese and port wine sauce. An amusé of pâté on toasted breads preceded a couple of excellent salads, one with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, roasted beets and a parmesan crisp, and a mesclun salad with maytag blue cheese, apples and cajun pecans. The night’s terrine of duck, rabbit, quail and foie gras with hazelnuts and port wine glaze proved fabulous. So was a superior leg of venison with sundried cherry sauce, served with thyme-mashed potatoes, although a couple of elements in the signature mixed grill of petite filet, lamb chop, chicken and andouille sausage proved surprisingly tough. A tasting of several of the rich desserts – grand marnier crème brûlée, peach bread pudding with whiskey-caramel sauce and cappuccino-praline mousse with espresso sauce – compensated. Many of the well-chosen wines, most refreshingly priced in the twenties and thirties, are available by the glass. A captain’s select list adds more expensive choices. In season on the waterfront deck, the outdoor grill furnishes the bulk of the dishes on a simpler, all-day menu that ranges from burgers and a fish sandwich to fried chicken, pork ribs, teriyaki steak and twin lobsters. (401) 847-3610. Entrées, $22 to $32. Dinner,
Wednesday-Sunday from 6. Sunday brunch, noon to 3, October-May. Outside
deck open for lunch and dinner daily
This imposing burgundy structure is the oldest operating tavern in the country, built as a residence in 1673 and serving as a tavern since 1687. Inside is a warren of small rooms with wide-board floors, exposed beams, small-paned windows and big fireplaces on two floors. Now a fancy restaurant, its elegant Colonial atmosphere symbolizes Newport for some. We find its historic charms particularly appealing in the off-season, when the fireplaces are lit. They made a pleasant backdrop for a lunch that included an interesting yogurt-cucumber-walnut soup, baked marinated montrachet cheese, halibut in a brandy-grapefruit sauce and a somewhat bland chicken salad resting in half an avocado. At night, the tuxedoed staff offers a fancy menu and prices to match. Expect main courses like bouillabaisse, poached fillet of lemon sole with a sherried shrimp sauce, orange-cognac glazed duck breast, individual beef wellington or châteaubriand for two. Starters could be ragoût of wild mushrooms in puff pastry, baked oysters topped with spicy ratatouille or confit of duck and chèvre raviolis. For most, this is special-occasion dining, topped off by such masterful desserts as a three-cherry tart on a chocolate crust in a pool of vanilla cream sauce or triple silk torte on a bed of raspberry melba. (401) 846-3600. www.whitehorsetavern.com. Entrées,
$30 to $42. Lunch, Wednesday-Saturday 11:30 to 2:30. Dinner nightly,
5:30 to 9:30 or 10, jackets required. Sunday brunch, 11 to 2.
The dining experience at this refurbished Oceanside inn has been elevated by New Mexico-born chef Casey Riley, who transferred here after opening Agora at the Westin Hotel in Providence and serving as sous-chef at Boston’s famed L’Espalier. The inn closed in the winter of 2003 for renovations that produced a new kitchen and stage for modern American cuisine accented by global flavors. A recent autumn dinner menu opened with a robust, two-flavor soup of spinach-yukon potato and celery root-white truffle with candied yams and spiced pecans. Another complex starter was foie gras of duck with quince, grand marnier and cheddar upside-down cake. Main courses ranged from skillet-roasted yellowfin tuna and more foie gras to grilled Texas antelope with a venison cassoulet. The chef’s Carolina brook trout was stuffed with lobster and served with a crawfish étouffée. The beef filet was crusted with roquefort, glazed with chanterelles and garnished with butter-poached crabmeat. The pastry chef’s desserts are equally extravagant. Typical are caramel-apple tarte tatin with crème fraîche ice cream and a trio of soufflés: toasted filbert, frozen caramel and fallen chocolate with Tahitian crème anglaise. Meals are served in the oval Sunset Room, a large windowed porch jutting out toward the bay, just across from the romantic mahogany bar and lounge. Redecorated with a billowing cream-colored taffeta canopy on the ceiling, this is also the setting for Castle Hill’s long-popular Sunday brunch – that is, when it’s not taken to the accompaniment of live jazz on the inn’s lawn sloping toward the sea. (401) 849-3800 or (888) 466-1355. Entrées, $24
to $42. Lunch, Monday-Saturday
The glamour of the newly restored Chanler at Cliff Walk boutique hotel is evident in the mahogany-paneled, fireplaced lounge, the chic Spiced Pear restaurant and the idyllic side garden terrace overlooking the Atlantic. Spencer Wolff, who spent fifteen years as an architect before attending and instructing students at Le Cordon Bleu’s outpost in Chicago and cooking in leading Chicago restaurants, succeeded the founding chef here in 2005. He presides over a custom-designed show kitchen that’s partly visible on the left as you enter the dining area from the lounge. The serene, 85-seat dining room at the far end yields ocean views from floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides. Adjacent is a covered and heated outdoor terrace that seats another 125 people in season. The bill of fare is exotic and complex, as in our
appetizers of peekytoe crab on green papaya puree and diver scallops
with ossetra caviar and champagne. Entrées range from day boat cod in a
potato jacket with saffron brandade and black olive sauce to stuffed
saddle of rabbit, coriander-crusted cervena venison and chateaubriand of
A bistro menu, with entrées priced at $20, is
offered daily from (401) 847-2244. www.spicedpear.com. Entrées, $26
to $48. Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday
One of John Bach-Sorenson alighted from John, his partner-become-wife Tracy Tarigo and an artist friend are responsible for the splashy effects and artworks. The artistry continues in the kitchen, where this 1986 World Culinary Olympics winner generally holds forth seven nights a week after arising at 5 a.m. to start baking in his Boulangerie Obelix at 382 Spring St. Asked how he could maintain the pace, he enthused: “This is my hobby, my life.” His ever-changing, continental-Asian menu ranges
widely from potato-wrapped grouper and a classic sole meunière to pork
chops with melted brie and peaches, veal scaloppini and steak au poivre
with spinach anglaise and french fries. You might find roasted baby
snapper Cantonese style with mandarin soy sauce, crispy salmon with
mushroom-asparagus-orzo risotto, kalamata olive-encrusted swordfish with
cabernet sauce and free-range chicken Appetizers could be escargots bourguignonne, crab cakes rémoulade, a firecracker shrimp spring roll, steak tartare and a crab and shrimp salad with fresh coconut. Frozen tiramisu parfait, raspberry crème brûlée and profiteroles are favorite desserts. The place is named for one of John’s favorite French comic-strip characters, known for fighting the bureaucracy, which he had to do to win a wine and beer license. (401) 841-8833. Entrées, $19 to $32. Dinner nightly, from 5.
The Mooring has about the best waterfront location downtown, thanks to its former incarnation as the New York Yacht Club station. The inside is all blue and nautical, with a fireplace ablaze in the off-season. The original upstairs deck has been enclosed to increase the interior dining space by 50 percent. Happily, there’s still plenty of outside dining on the downstairs brick patio, brightened by colorful geraniums and hailed by its owners for the best al fresco dining east of the Mississippi. The lines for meals can get long (a very spicy bloody mary served in a pilsner glass may help). Or you could stop in during off-hours for a gin and tonic, a bowl of prize-winning clam chowder, or coffee and a piece of orange ambrosia pie. Our party of four had to wait only ten minutes for a table for lunch on the breezy patio as we eyed the "glacial" salads and hefty sandwiches passing by. We sampled the warm salmon salad, the seafood quiche with coleslaw, steamed mussels with garlic bread and a terrific scallop chowder we deemed even better than the Mooring’s award-winning clam chowder. A recent winter lunch produced aforementioned clam chowder, better than ever, as well as an open-faced, knife-and-fork concoction that lived up to its billing as the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich. We also enjoyed the day’s blue-plate special ($12.95): a cup of chowder, succulent grilled salmon with tomato-basil sauce, french fries and coleslaw. Dinner choices are as elevated as grilled yellowfin tuna topped with shrimp and vegetable salsa, baked stuffed lobster, seafood scampi, garlicky loin lamb chops and black angus sirloin. They’re also as basic as crab-crusted cod, crab and artichoke casserole, meatloaf and a steak sandwich, all priced in the low teens. The Mooring’s more casual annex, the seasonal Smokehouse Café, is known for its smoked foods, chowders and barbecued ribs and wings that, the manager said, are out of this world. (401) 846-2260. www.mooringrestaurant.com. Entrées,
$12.95 to $27.95. Lunch and dinner daily, noon to 9 or 10.
Almost as fast as seafood can be unloaded from the docks out back, retired sea captain Andy Ackerman and his staff cook up a storm in an open kitchen near the door of this casual Italian seafood restaurant billed as Newport’s singular "only fish" restaurant. Plain and exotic seafood, simply prepared but presented with style, comes in many guises. The blackboard menu on the wall lists the offerings, from mussels marinara to shrimp fra diavolo. There are wood-grilled shrimp, tuna and bluefish with chipotle vinaigrette, but no non-seafood items beyond a couple of pasta dishes with vegetables. A raw bar offers fresh goodies near the entry, and there's a good wine list. A second-floor addition called Upscales, a smaller and quieter room where reservations are taken, is open from May-September with a more sophisticated menu. . (401) 846-3474. Entrées, $10.95 to $21.95. Dinner, Monday-Saturday 5 to 9 or 10, Sunday 4 to 9. No credit cards.
Material excerpted from Best Restaurants of New England, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth, copyright 2002, and from Getaways for Gourmets in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth, copyright 2006. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
page |
Full destination index | |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
