September 11, 1998
CHOPMIST CHARLIE'S
Seaworthy 'little fish place' in Jamestown

By ALEXIS MAGNER-MILLER
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer

JAMESTOWN -- I hate coffee milk and I'm careful about keeping my "r's" where they belong. Nonetheless, it seems I have become a Rhode Islander. For I, who once commuted from Cape Cod to Boston with little thought for traffic and less for time, now hesitate to accept a dinner invitation in Jamestown.

It is, after all, at the opposite end of the state from my home. But the friends we were meeting persuaded us that the trip would be worth the meal, and anyway, it was a nice night.

And a very nice restaurant. The place is called Chopmist Charlie's, a name we recognized as belonging up in our neck of the woods. There is a Chopmist Hill in Scituate, and there used to be a Chopmist Hill Inn.

It turns out that this restaurant's owner, Chuck Masso, grew up in Chopmist Hill, and that he used to work at the inn as a young boy. His father, Charlie, had a fishing boat named Chopmist Charlie, and Masso had long dreamed of having "a little, nautical Yankee-style fish place."

Now he and his wife, Trish, do. Chopmist Charlie's calls itself "The Home of Seaworthy Fare." We took this as a promise, and began our meal with an order of calamari, peel-and-eat shrimp, steamers and stuffies.

All were quite good, if straightforward in their preparation. The calamari ($6) were fried, then tossed with hot peppers, garlic and black olives. The shrimp ($6.50 for a half-pound) were steamed in beer and served in a piping hot heap. The steamers ($9.50) came with broth and drawn butter, and the stuffies were chock full of clams . . . er, quahogs.

Other appetizers include both New England and Rhode Island -- that is, clear -- chowder, swordfish nuggets (battered and fried) and Maine mussels steamed with celery and onions. Chopmist Charlie's also serves the usual assortment of munchies, the kind of stuff I love, but shouldn't (or at least shouldn't admit to): onion rings, chicken fingers, buffalo wings.

Two of us jumped ship with the entrees, choosing pasta dishes over seafood. The penne Priscilla ($13.50 with shrimp; $9.50 on its own) was scrumptious, with tricolored penne, broccoli and mushrooms in a garlic and wine sauce. This dish was notable for what it wasn't: neither overcooked nor overgarlicked.

Ditto for the shrimp scampi ($14.50), which was served on a bed of lemon-pepper linguini. The sauteed jumbo shrimp, which were tossed with roasted red pepper and spinach, were fresh and firm and the pasta was perfectly al dente.

The seafood au gratin ($16) was perhaps the richest entree we ordered and my favorite (though it wasn't my selection, I did sample more than my share). Its shrimp, scallops and lobster -- generous servings of each -- were swimming in a creamy mornay sauce, sprinkled with a buttery crumb topping.

True to its claim of "seaworthy fare," Chopmist Charlie's also has a selection of fried and broiled seafood, including scallops, shrimp, scrod and flounder (the latter two are only broiled), grilled swordfish and the catch of the day.

The restaurant also serves sandwiches and pasta dishes. Charlie's agnolotti, which the menu describes as "crescent-shaped pasta pillows filled with carmelized onions and prosciutto," sounds especially good.

Though we'd eaten so much that dessert felt like a chore, we did try a slice of Key Lime pie ($3.75) and a piece of what the menu called very chocolate cake ($4). Both were good, the latter nearly sinfully so: a slab of what tasted more like fudge than cake, with rich, creamy frosting.

True Rhode Islanders -- or at least those living in the northern half of the state -- will be pleased to hear that on Oct. 1, Chuck and Trish Masso are opening another restaurant that's a little closer to home, on Post Road in North Kingstown. It will have the same name, the same menu and the same motif, but in the new place, the nautical theme will be carried even further.

Masso is installing a 150-gallon native aquarium, tended by an aquatic specialist. The tank will be filled with young native species -- including striped bass, tautog, baby lobsters, pilot fish, flounder and sea trout -- which will be released in Rhode Island waters after a year.