Journal photo / Sandor Bodo
STRIKING INTERIOR design includes an illuminated pebble bar.

Good fish, big fun

By MERIDITH FORD
Journal Restaurant Critic

• See the menu.

PROVIDENCE -- Big Fish -- a place where things are real, yet surreal -- is a restaurant for the new millennium.

The spot that was formerly Cactus Grille has been transformed into a restaurant with an atmosphere that is a little Disney and a little Dali. Modern, fun, friendly, it is poised to reveal the inner fish in all of us.

Its Willy Wonka-like appeal lies in a hard-to-put-your-finger-on spot somewhere between money and imagination -- it's grown-up, but impish; stylish, yet pure; happy, but sophisticated.

And while the decor screams over-the-top, the menu is as down to earth as a seafood restaurant's menu should be: a raw bar with oysters, clams, shrimp; local Cape bluefish and swordfish, fried fish and chips, lobsters and pasta dishes such as shrimp fra diavolo and lobster ravioli.

Yet there's also a selection of sushi, a pizza menu and specialties that include miso-cured codfish and bourbon-glazed salmon. There is a scratch-and-sniff dessert menu. And a cocktail list that includes glow cubes and goldfish bowls.

Count Big Fish among the successes -- along with XO Cafe and Ten Prime Steak & Sushi -- owned by Richard and Cheryl Bready and John and Suzanne Elkhay.

The wacky, creative hand of John Elkhay can be seen in every inch of the place.

In the restaurant's front entrance, water streams from a dropped, door-sized plate of glass and falls into a floor drain covered in pebbles. Alluring bright red sheet metal gives the front double doors the look of a dramatic curtain. The effect is like being inside one of those serenity water fountains bought from The Discovery Channel.

There is an open fish-cutting room, and a mauvish light fixture in one of the two main dining rooms that looks like a giant jellyfish, tentacles and all. Equally huge Aboriginal-inspired fish art adorns both dining areas, with lighting that changes colors periodically, making the fish look orange, then purple, then pink.

The bathrooms are outfitted with rippling sea and water sounds, as well as a flat-screen television that allows for viewings of fish swimming through the coral reefs. The kitchen is open and well outfitted, sporting an industrial look without any extracurricular frou-frou.

Something different

The food is also prepared without much frou-frou. The chef de cuisine is Wayne Gibson, who has an impressive Rhode Island culinary pedigree, most notably extensive stays at Castle Hill Inn & Resort and the Rhode Island Country Club. He worked for Elkhay when both were at In Prov.

The two have designed selections in an unfrivolous way -- nothing here needs to be dissected before eating, nor are there reproductions of the Eiffel Tower on any plates.

Pizzas -- from a formidable list that includes rock shrimp with andouille and spinach as well as clams with garlic, parsley and red or white sauce -- come on a raised wrought-iron trivet. Quatro fromaggio was a blend of bubbling provolone, mozzarella, Parmesan and asiago on a semi-thin crust that was crunchy and chewy in all the right spots. The cheeses blend together nicely to create a mix of tangy and mellow.

Even more fun is something called the "big party." It's a selection of raw-bar items that can serve four or six with goodies from the sea -- fresher-than-fresh littleneck clams; fat, juicy and beautifully translucent Bluepoint oysters; tender cocktail shrimp the size of a fist and pretty California maki rolls with wasabi and pickled ginger.

Everything rests on a big bowl of ice served on another of the wrought-iron tiers, which, in addition to looking nice, makes it easier to share.

Catfish is one of my favorite fresh-water fish, and I love hot sauce. So when I saw the two combined to create a nautical take on Buffalo wings -- well, it was too tempting not to try.

Strips of fried catfish hold their own dipped in a hot, Tabasco-inspired sauce reminiscent of a Portuguese piri-piri. Their heat is calmed with a house-made dressing that is a cross between ranch and blue cheese, and lots of celery sticks.

There is a grilled fish special every night, and flounder, fresh from the Gulf, was a good, ahem, catch. Flounder is characteristically white and flaky; here it is all that with a succulently mild, nutty flavor. A "side kick" of crabmeat hash -- chunks of feathery crabmeat with potatoes and onions -- could only have been better if it had been warmer.

Big bowls of pasta offer a Rhode Island tradition of serving seafood with pasta -- scampi or shrimp fra diavolo. Or seafood Bolognese -- a creamy, buttery concoction of shrimp, chunks of sweet lobster, clams and plump scallops over ribbon-like fettuccine.

Scratch-and-sniff

By now our waiter, young and adorable, had become accustomed to us getting up between courses to check on the Red Sox game. He wasn't hampered. On the contrary, he accommodated by staggering our servings.

The dessert menu is intriguing and, as I mentioned before, scratch-and-sniff. It loses a little in translation, though. After scratching everything from a s'mores brownie to "ooey gooey" chocolate cake, things started to all smell the same.

But I already knew what I wanted -- Twinkie Tiramisu.

I confess that before Big Fish I had never eaten a Twinkie (Ho-Hos and Little Debbies, certainly, but never a Twinkie). There is a cataclysmic rush you get with the combination of Kahlua-and-espresso soaked vanilla-flavored (is there another flavor?) Twinkies layered with a silky mousse of white chocolate, dark chocolate and mascarpone -- proof positive that the universe will actually go out with a bang, not a wimper.

It was so creamy and good that it overshadowed the limitations of a grilled banana split: the banana wasn't grilled; the ice cream tasted old. I'm sticking with my Twinkies.

Let's sum up. Big Fish has Twinkies, Buffalo catfish and a raw bar that rocks. Works for me.

Big Fish, 370 Richmond St., Providence, 751-3474. Casually upscale. Reservations accepted for parties of six or more. Call-aheads accepted. Smoking at bar only. Wheelchair accessible. Open Mon-Fri for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to to 4 p.m. Dinner Sun-Thu from 5 to 10 p.m., late-night menu until 11; dinner Fri-Sat from 5 to 11 p.m., late-night menu until midnight. V, MC, AM, DIS. Highchair, booster seats. Free valet daily.

Raw bar items are $5.95 to $13.95 for a half-dozen; samplers are $25 or $35 for four or six. Appetizers and salads are $6.50 to $12.95 (for a shrimp Cobb salad). Pizzas are $11.49 to $13.95. Grilled fish and other specialties are $16.95 to $23.95. Steamed or broiled lobsters are $21.95 per pound. Pasta dishes and fried seafood items such as baby Ipswich clams are $14.95 to $24.95. Desserts are $5.75 to $6.95.

The wine list is well selected, with bottles from $18 to $65. Funky cocktails such as pineapple mojitos are $6 to $8.50.