Worldly techniques, American ingredients

By KATHERINE IMBRIE
Journal Staff Writer

• See the menu.

Just as it was when Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez left Boston for New York, it was big news in both towns last year when Gracie's chef Champe Speidel left that highly regarded Providence restaurant (then on Federal Hill, now downtown) to head his own place in Bristol in the building that had housed the popular bistro HotPoint.

Speidel opened Persimmon in May, for the first time in his career (he is 33) pursuing his own vision for a restaurant.

The place is much smaller than Gracie's, with just about 45 seats packed into a tight space with a small bar at the back. Speidel cooks with Rick Hilles and Nicole Holden, and his fiancee, Lisa Harrison, fills in at the front of the house. (They will be married in January.)

From the beginning, people who had loved Speidel's magic touch with food at the old Gracie's sought him out in Bristol, and he's had a steady clientele of regulars ever since. You definitely need a reservation to get in, especially on Fridays and Saturdays.

The menu changes frequently and is adjusted almost nightly depending on what fresh local foods Speidel finds available. A few months ago, I had an appetizer of Four Town Farm asparagus spears, simply prepared with shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano, that was a perfect distillation of spring. Now that it's fall, a warm salad of roasted beets, goat cheese, and pickled fennel captures the soul of the season.

Occasionally, dishes I've had at Persimmon have missed the mark, but like others of the restaurant's following, I readily excuse such lapses as part of the price of an evolving vision. Speidel says he's still finding his way in a place that's finally all his own, a place he'd like to have a feeling somewhere between a casual bistro and a serious dining establishment: "I don't want it to be stuffy. I want people to feel relaxed, but also to have a really special dining experience."

To that end, he plans to upgrade eventually from casual table and chair set-ups to white tablecloths, and perhaps a couple fewer tables, to allow for more breathing room among diners.

Seasonal contemporary

Speidel, who graduated from Johnson & Wales four years ago and has worked at such highly regarded Providence restaurants as Neath's, Empire, and Gracie's, describes his style of cooking as "seasonal contemporary American cuisine, using worldly techniques to prepare American ingredients."

He has a deft and sure touch with sauces and flavorings, and a beautiful way of presenting food, but in my recent experience Persimmon has stumbled a bit on the main attraction: the meat or fish in the entrees.

On one visit, after my companion and I were thrilled with an appetizer of lobster risotto, we were disappointed in both of our entrees. A pork porterhouse chop had terrific flavor -- melding maple syrup and soy in a rich brown sauce over a ragout of potato gnocchi and local mushrooms -- but the meat was tough to the point of being hard to chew ($24). And our other entree -- two thin filets of tautog that our server had described as one thick one -- didn't seem to have borrowed any flavor from their tasty base of baby fall vegetables cooked as a ragout with couscous ($24).

But oh! that lobster risotto! It was heavenly, and enough to have made a meal of all on its own. Later, Speidel would tell me that risotto is one of the first things he learned to cook, and he considers it to be a hallmark of his skills. "We never hold a risotto, as some restaurants do. It is always finished to order, even though that may take a little bit more time."

The lobster risotto we so enjoyed had been enhanced with native sweet corn and bits of lobster, buttery and tender ($10).

Our other appetizer was also excellent: a carefully constructed warm salad of roasted beets paired with earthy chunks of goat cheese and served with the interesting textural additions of pickled fennel and navel orange segments. The whole was lightly dressed with toasted almond oil, honey and vinegar for a perfectly calibrated whole ($7).

Cheese experience

These days, almost every trendy restaurant in these parts seems to offer an appetizer plate of a selection of cheeses and accompaniments from the Farmstead shop in Providence, coyly described as "a cheese experience with treats and surprises."

Each presentation is different, and all of them are lovely and delicious, as is Persimmon's, where the treats and surprises we encountered included pieces of honeycomb, candied figs, almonds, halved Concord grapes, and nasturtium blossoms ($12). Still, for people who eat out a lot, the ubiquity of the Farmstead cheese plate begins to dilute its appeal.

The service at Persimmon is uneven: During the summer, we were charmed by some polished and knowledgeable servers, but more recently we've encountered waiters who seem nervous and inexperienced.

One left us waiting inexcusably long for our drinks and afterward warned us cryptically that because we weren't ordering appetizers, our entrees "would be awhile." They were, and when they did arrive were both underdone: My grouper filet ($25) was still raw in the middle, and too much of a roast chicken ($22) was bright pink.

Speidel apologized later when told about the undercooking, and said that while he and his team strive not to overcook, they certainly intend their dishes to be cooked to doneness. He also said that he's aware of the problems with service and is working on developing a more professional serving staff.

Work in progress

Also something of a work in progress, he said, are the desserts. We have found them in general to be nice, but nothing beyond the ordinary.

They are made in-house, and we enjoyed a warm chocolate-pudding cake with chocolate ice cream ($7), which was densely chocolatey and very good. A peach-and-plum tart, though lovely to look at in a fluted almond crust, hadn't been cooked enough to soften the fruits and meld them with their sugary topping, as I like a fruit tart to be.

The wine list is on the expensive side: A Chianti Classico -- not a Reserva -- was $49. There are not a lot of suitable choices in what I consider a reasonable price range of $20 to $40. Offering a few relatively inexpensive Cotes du Rhone, for instance, might help to offset the heavy emphasis on trendy Pinot Noir wines, ranging from $35 to $85 for a bottle. (Glasses are $7.)

Still, all in all, I count myself a Persimmon fan, and I expect to be back there often to find out where Speidel's vision is taking him now.

***

Persimmon, 31 State St., Bristol. (401) 254-7474. www.persimmonbristol.com. Upscale bistro. Open for dinner Tues.-Sun. 5 to 10 p.m. Credit cards: MC, V, AE. Handicapped accessible. High chairs available. Reservations advised. Parking on street or in lot.

Appetizers from $7 to $16; entrees $21 to $27; desserts $7 to $9. Full bar. Wines by the glass $6 to $8, by the bottle, $25 to $85.

***

Bill of fare

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

1 cheese plate...$12

1 lobster risotto...$10

1 beet salad...$7

1 grouper...$24

1 pork chop...$24

1 fruit tart...$7

1 pudding cake...$7

1 bottle Pouilly-Fuisse...$60

Food and drink total...$151

Tax...$12.08

Tip...$30

Total...$193.08

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Persimmon