By MERIDITH FORD
Journal Restaurant Critic

JAMESTOWN -- "Concept" is one of those enigmatic terms restaurant owners throw around while waiting for a real idea to come along. For the most part, the concept of a restaurant should be that it serves excellent food really well.

There are, however, those few restaurants that can successfully carry a funky -- even gimmicky -- concept all the way from the window treatments to the wine list. Tricia's Tropi Grille, opened this past May, is one of them.

Trish and Chuck Masso have owned another restaurant, Chopmist Charlie's (also in Jamestown), for six years. When they decided to open a new one, their first thoughts were to go with a small Italian bistro.

But Italian bistros are a dime a dozen in Rhode Island, and the couple's business sense told them it was silly to compete with an already well-established Italian restaurant just across the street -- Trattoria Simpatico. So they took a trip to Key West and came back with an island theme.

I'm so glad they did.

Stepping into Tricia's is like living (and eating) inside a fun-loving Jimmy Buffett song.

Lots of care has been taken with the small house's decor. Bright walls of orange, lemon yellow and lime green are framed with white, reflecting a Key West attitude that really kicks open your senses. Large, colorful paintings are perfectly placed, and most of the furniture is of light woods such as pine and oak. The floors are wide pine planks, beautifully buffed to a smart shine. There's an ample outdoor area whose umbrella tables are accented by nearby window boxes, overflowing with flowers.

It feels as though you've escaped to a Key West vacation.

Island influence

The menu has mostly Caribbean influences -- conch fritters, Jamaican jerk chicken -- but there are stops at lots of places, including Polynesia. Grouper, blackened shrimp and coconut shrimp all make an appearance, as does a Thai mango salad and the proverbial Hawaiian pizza.

It's really island-influenced ingredients, rather than entire dishes, as well as chef Randy Savoie's funk-till-you-drop preparation, that make the food so much fun to eat.

The drinks play a part in the fun, too. Most restaurants have jumped on the bar bandwagon of trendy, colorful summertime cocktails, but at Tricia's they are the perfect extension of the whole island theme. Drinks such as mojitos and Malibu martinis (vodka, rum and pineapple juice) are made for this kind of venue.

Savoie makes French fry-like fritters called corn fries, and they are worth their weight in gold. Made with a cornmeal-like batter and deep fried, they are dusted with fine cornmeal and -- in a dish called cornados con queso -- are sent from the kitchen in a large basket with a heap of melted cheese over their speckled, crispy skins. Inside, they are like a soft corn tortilla, with a homey, musty corn taste. Why hasn't someone given these to me before? My life has been incomplete without them.

Conch fritters seemed an appropriate thing to try, considering that this mollusk -- fried or sauteed -- is often found on South Floridian, Caribbean and even Mexican and Guatemalan tables. The fritters are like a clamcake, although softer and denser than most, and flecked with bits of conch -- a sweet, somewhat chewy meat that tastes and feels something like a cross between calamari and scallops.

They're served with a mildly tangy dipping sauce -- a thinned-down sour cream-like concoction with a racy lime sharpness and a nip of honey sweetness -- that I found suitable for nearly everything I ordered.

In the black

Excluding appetizers, the menu is broken into three very relaxed categories of salads, sandwiches and entrees -- any of which could serve as a meal.

The salad selections -- such as "boar-a boar-a" (Caribbean-spiced pulled pork over sliced tomatoes, roasted corn and white beans) and sesame chicken with rice noodles and cashews in peanut dressing -- were difficult to pass up.

Thai steak salad, grilled with a peppery bite and served in thin, tender strips over fresh greens, won my vote. The kicker came from juicy, fragrant slices of mango drizzled in a plucky lime-and-garlic dressing.

I also couldn't pass on coconut shrimp -- fast becoming the next fried calamari for most-often-seen-on-menus-in-Rhode Island. Crispy fried, flecked with coconut, a little too sweet, they were balanced perfectly when I dipped them in the honey-and-lime sauce that had arrived with the corn fries. (They are served with a sweet sauce of their own, the taste of which lay somewhere between sweet-and-sour sauce and barbecue sauce).

There are clever little bits of menu nomenclature, such as the "tiki hut" (a rack of ribs), and my favorite -- the "Hawaii Five-O," a juicy grilled sirloin with sweet grilled pineapple and plump, peppery jerk-and-lime-seasoned shrimp.

Blackened meats and fish were all the rage on menus back in the late '80s, but have since landed in the same discard pile as highrise plate presentations and medleys of savory crlée.

But on a menu that encompasses everything from Creole to Caribbean, they are not only apropos; it would seem odd if they weren't there. Tricia's has lots of blackened offerings, from shrimp, to steak, to grouper. A lemony linguine is topped with large blackened shrimp and tossed with wilted spinach and mushrooms. Savoie could foul things up by blackening the shrimp too much, but instead spices them just right, so that the flavor of the shrimp and seasonings share equal space in your mouth.

Desserts reflect the tropical theme, too, although there are the obligatory chocolate concoctions such as frozen mudslide pie and chocolate chip blondie sundae.

The fruit tart, made in-house, is a vanilla cream filling topped with mango and pineapple that made me forget that the crust had gotten a little too soggy.

And the Key lime pie (also house-made) is a creamy, dreamy, tangy slice of something good to eat. The slice is the size of your hand, complete with graham cracker crust.