Nearly 20 restaurants serving cuisine from Thai to johnnycakes can be found along a stretch far from the city measuring just three-fifths of a mile.
Welcome to Main Street in East Greenwich. For the second of our series on Restaurant Rows in Rhode Island, we’re dining in the suburbs with a selection that would be the envy of many a downtown. The waterfront is just a short walk down the hill – and the site of another half-dozen eateries – and the heritage of the sea is felt throughout. The first United States Navy was commissioned way back in 1775 in the historic Kent County Courthouse on Main Street.
While none of the eateries on the street go back quite that far, there are a few spots vying for the title of oldest restaurant on the street. That honor goes to the venerable Jigger’s Diner, which can trace its roots at 145 Main St. all the way back to 1917. One national restaurant critic raved about the johnnycakes at Jigger’s, calling them “the best on the planet.”
Two other landmark restaurants anchor the district, starting with the Post Office Café at the corner of Main and Division. The building was the town’s post office until the 1970s and occasionally a patron will attempt to mail a letter in the restaurant’s lobby while waiting to be served creative Italian cuisine. The Post Office’s sister Pinelli-Marra restaurant, The Grille on Main, diagonally across the street at 50 Main serves imaginative modern pub fare from a chef who once worked for actor Robert DeNiro.
The Grille’s calamari has at least one fan in the neighborhood – Pamela Johnson, the chef at Cornucopia located at 241 Main St. She cooks what is described on the sign out front as “Organic Food With Attitude.” Her menu is a prix fixe of three courses which changes weekly. Her ingredients are 90 percent certified organic with the remainder carefully sourced from farms, ranches and fisheries using sustainable practices. She would like to make it clear – Cornucopia is not a vegetarian restaurant. There is beef on the menu, a filet from Wolfe’s Neck in Maine.
Lorraine Barros has several pots bubbling at Bayside Bistro at 250 Main St. Barros developed her recipes after spending a career as a music teacher. “So many people liked my cooking and said I should open a restaurant.” Under a previous owner and name, the café specialized in soups. Barros expanded the menu to include sandwiches, spinach pies and calzones and, in an homage to her native Maine, lobster stew and whoopie pies. Although Bayside has been open only since last summer, it already is a local landmark. A movie crew filming nearby has discovered Barros’ comfort food and has made it somewhat of a hangout. This is not by coincidence. She carefully sources her ingredients, buying eggs from a local farmer and produce at the Goddard Park Farmers’ Market.
Perhaps because of the sheer number of restaurants, the close-knit relationship among the restaurateurs on the street is not as apparent as on other Restaurant Rows. Pamela Johnson would like to see that changed. She has met her new neighbor, chef-proprietor Peter Perrone, who made over the space occupied by an Indian restaurant into a steakhouse called Black and Blue at 455 Main St. Johnson would like to see more interaction with her fellow chefs on the street to foster creativity. Judging from the crowds on Main Street outside the restaurants on any given night, it may just be that they are too busy to socialize. •
Dining Out with Bruce Newbury (bruce@brucenewbury.com) can be heard on TalkRadio 920 WHJJ-AM Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at noon.
