Red Stripe's great food spiced by loud, lively scene

By KATHERINE IMBRIE
Journal Staff Writer

• See the menu.

While everyone's been talking up the long-anticipated ugly-duckling-to-swan transformation of Downcity, some pretty swanny things have been happening in what used to be thought of as stodgy old Wayland Square.

Among them is a new restaurant, Red Stripe, the creation of one of Providence's most celebrated chefs, Jaime D'Oliveira. (He also owns Mill's Tavern on North Main Street and has been involved in many other notable Rhode Island restaurants over the course of at least a couple of decades, including Angels, the Arboretum, and the Gatehouse.)

Seemingly every restaurant that D'Oliveira has ever had a hand in has instant buzz: It quickly becomes the place to be as much as a place to go for great food. Sure enough, this scenario is playing out again at Red Stripe, which -- to phrase it in Rhode Islandese -- is where the Newport Creamery used to be on Angell Street, across from Starbucks, which used to be an empty grass lot.

The former Creamery stood empty for several years -- a forlorn hole in Wayland's tight fabric -- while D'Oliveira laid plans for his latest restaurant. (He bought the place at least in part out of nostalgia: His first restaurant job was as a dishwasher at the Newport Creamery.)

The name Red Stripe -- also the name of a Jamaican beer associated in many people's minds with Jimmy Buffett-style excesses on Caribbean vacations -- may be the one mistake he's made with the place, as it is more than a little bit misleading: This Red Stripe is by no means a beer joint or Rastafarian beach shack bar. What it is is a blend of French bistro with casual international brasserie, combining Mediterranean touches with sturdy New England favorites such as fish and chips or a cod cake served over baked beans.

Left Bank ambiance

The style of the place is warm and attractive in a way that is traditionally French: The walls are painted in glossy Breton red paired with warm Provencal yellow, and the floor is geometrical black-and-white tile, creating a look reminiscent of some little place where you might have dined on the Left Bank.

The atmosphere is beyond lively: Ever since Red Stripe opened in late summer, people have been beating a path to it not just for consistently great food at refreshingly reasonable prices, but also because everyone else in the know is there, too. Within days of its quiet opening, the place established itself as the new darling of those for whom going out to eat is a way of life.

Let this be said up front: Red Stripe is LOUD. It is loud even for people who love loud, who think that a place that isn't loud is probably not worth going to. It is so loud that servers have trouble hearing orders, that when the front wall windows are opened, the din of conversation and plates and glasses clinking and chairs scraping swells far down Elmgrove Avenue and into the night.

But that only seems to have the effect of making more people want to get inside, to see what the noise is all about, to be where everyone else is going. Red Stripe is -- to put it mildly -- a scene.

Yet surprisingly, despite all the pressure of lines of waiting people and of serving hundreds of diners every night of the week since opening day, the service -- from hostess to bartenders to every single server in the place -- is impeccable, which is to say that it is fluid, coordinated, kind, unobtrusive, intelligent, often witty, and never, ever pompous.

D'Oliveira (he's the one with the long brown braid slung over his shoulder and the rock-star eyeglasses) is there almost every night: seating people, taking reservations, cooking on the line, greeting friends.

The place is lovely, with a long marble-topped bar along one side and an open view to the kitchen along the other. If you're among those who remember well the old Creamery layout, you may note an echo of it only in the line of booths that back up to the wall leading to the back door.

A row of hand-painted pictorial tiles borders the ceiling over the kitchen. Among them are stylized portraits of two celebrities: Julia Child and Jimi Hendrix -- chosen by D'Oliveira because he says they both were strong influences on his life.

Creative, international

In the course of several visits to Red Stripe, I've never had a bad meal. The menu is creative and international without being fussy, and the prices are low by today's standards. For instance, a grilled open-face hanger steak sandwich with grilled onions, gorgonzola and fries is just $9. The fries are perfectly crisp and thin in the French manner; the steak is flavorful and cooked to order. Another inexpensive dish I'm planning to try soon is the Red Stripe grilled cheese sandwich including prosciutto, roasted pear and basil ($8.50).

I have had the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Chopped Salad ($10), a family-sized wooden bowl containing a wonderfully fresh mixture of just about everything delicious you could put into a salad: chopped greenleaf lettuce, roasted red pepper strips, artichoke hearts, feta cheese, cucumbers and chick peas, all tossed in a delicate vinaigrette dressing that lightly coats each part and particle.

Moules & Frites are a highlight of the menu: The mariniere version is a faithful re-creation of the French classic of mussels served in a white wine, garlic and shallot broth, with a basket of hot fries on the side ($12.50 full portion, $7.50 half-portion).

The mussels are large and as fresh as the sea, and the broth is celestial. A full portion is enough for a meal in itself. The bread (which is from Olga's), is chewy and light, perfect for dipping. No fussy olive-oil pouring here: You get a little individual tub of soft beurre with your basket of bread.

On the fancier side, I've shared a wonderful dish (this one $36 for two people) of whole striped bass roasted in a banana leaf and served Indonesian style, with a dollop of lightly curried carrot puree tucked inside the fish and a cool mango chutney and sprinkling of watercress leaves topping a mound of large-grain couscous on the side.

Not being such a restaurant sophisticate that the sight of a whole fish doesn't daunt me, I was relieved that the banana leaf that wrapped it concealed the grosser realities of the carcass. I was even happier when the bartender (we were dining at the bar) offered to serve the fish to us. Adeptly she slid out from beneath the banana leaf perfect boneless pieces of the freshest tasting white fish flesh and laid them atop the couscous and chutney.

It was, quite simply, one of the best meals I've ever had in a restaurant, and also one of the most fun.

Good, solid wine choices

Like its food, Red Stripe's wine list is chosen not to knock your socks off with pretension, but to complement the hearty menu with a reasonably priced selection of good, solid choices, with many offered by the glass, half-bottle, and bottle. By-the-glass prices are mostly in the $5 to $8 range, and bottles are from about $20 for an Italian pinot grigio to a mid-range of Louis Latour Pouilly Fuisse ($39) to a high-end of a Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon ($99).

Desserts -- should you have room for them -- come in portions large enough that two or even three people might share one. Mostly, they are of the homey variety -- no high-flying architectural constructions or spun-sugar nets here. We liked a banana tarte tatin ($7) in which caramelized banana slices sat atop a flaky pastry crust.

For late-night diners, Red Stripe serves until 11 p.m. nightly -- unusual in early-to-bed Providence. In addition to his 5 p.m.-to-11 p.m. nightly dinners, D'Oliveira recently added weekday lunches and weekend brunches.

Can he keep up the pace?

Only time will tell, but as for now, Red Stripe parties on. The crowd thickens behind the line of bar stools, eyeballs expertly assessing who's about to pay up and leave, while at the cafe tables set along the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, the hopeful sip and wait for their names to be called in to dinner.

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Bill of fare

The bill for a dinner for two at Red Stripe might look something like this:

1 full order Moules mariniere...$12.50

1 whole fish for two...........$36

1 bottle Pouilly Fuisse.........$39

1 banana tarte tatin............$7

Tax ............................$7.56

Tip.............................$19

Total...........................$121.06

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Red Stripe, 465 Angell St., Providence. (401) 437-6950. Casual bistro. Open nightly for dinner 5-11 p.m., for lunch Monday-Friday 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (late lunch menu 3-5 p.m.), for brunch Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m.-3 p.m. (late lunch menu 3-5 p.m.). Reservations accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Highchairs available. Credit cards: MC, V, AE, DIS.

Appetizers from $5 to $10; entrees $7 to $18; desserts $7. Wines by the glass $5 to $12, by half-bottle $9 to $39, by bottle $19 to $99.

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Red Stripe