Ok, New Rivers. We arrived about ten minutes early for a 5:30 rez (Spring Onion likes to dine early, as do we) and the restaurant was already packed. The only table available was in the front room near the bar and adjacent to the door. We requested something less drafty and within about ten minutes they produced a table in the back dining room. Both rooms are intimate, roughly 8 tables in each, plus around 8 or so seats at the bar, so New Rivers is substantially smaller than Al Forno. Our table was a single large slab of quartersawn oak, and had the look of an antique. I learned later the tables had been built by a staff member about six years ago. On one wall there is a large, striking painted still life of pears on a table, photorealistic and executed by an artist named Robert Dodge, apparently a local. Need to find out more about Dodge.
It turns out we arrived during restaurant week, and the $45 three-course menu included something like 8 options for appetizers, 7 for mains, and 4 for desert. Any could also be ordered a la cart, and in the end our mix corresponded to one prix fixe menu and a gaggle of a la cart dishes. We started off with a charcuterie assortment, bone marrow, the house rolls, and a shaved fennel salad. SO pronounced the bone marrow the best she can recall. Pastrami-style ham, chicken liver mousse, and a local soft, ripe cows milk cheese - Little Mermaid- were highlights among the charcuterie. Winter pickles were a nice accompaniment.
For mains we had butter-poached New Bedford scallops, steak, and house-made Durham wheat pasta with blue crab in a tomato ragu. The scallops and steak were both outstanding. The pasta was flavorful, but cooked past al dente, unforgivable in my SO’s eyes.
For desert we had donuts (asymmetric balls I would have called beignets), chocolate pot de creme with salted caramel, and orange ice cream with chocolate sauce. Spring Onion and I declared the ice cream the winner, but my SO deemed it a tad sweet for her taste. The other deserts were very good.
They don’t serve espresso, but individual French press coffee served admirably. Service was efficient and friendly, our waiter offering his candid assessments and proffering tastes of wine by the glass before committing. Blessedly the portion sizes were human scale, and we left sated but not stuffed nor with leftovers.
I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this was our first visit to New Rivers, as it has been a Providence institution for decades. Our waiter mentioned that the historic building was the original home of Al Forno, which I didn’t know. Interesting that the founders of New Rivers and Al Forno were all RISD graduates.
Won’t be our last visit.
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