Projo Food Blog

WARREN — Another gray, rainy day in New England led to thoughts of — where else? — the British Isles! After all, for much of June and early July it seemed the only things missing from the local landscape were the Changing of the Guard, the Blarney Stone and a visit to a pub for a pint.

In that mood, we set off to find the closest thing in the East Bay that would put us in the spirit — the Crossroads Restaurant, whose pub-like barroom, with its enormous hand-carved bar, makes one feel as though one has been plopped down in the middle of Victorian London. Men in bowler hats carrying umbrellas were nowhere to be seen, but Arlene Violet was, at a corner table with friends. Could Buddy Cianci, who often mentions Crossroads on his radio show, be far behind?

No denying there's a lot of charm: cupids look down from either corner of the bar; an old-time gramophone and small cannon sit on top. A giant rhinoceros head is mounted on a wall. A knight's armor stands ready, without the knight, nearby. Owner John Loughlin said 10 years ago he wanted to create the feeling of an English pub in what looks like the oldest, but is actually the newest room of the three very distinctive dining areas at Crossroads. The bar is not from Britain or Ireland, but from Manhattan.

But, realizing that all those drizzly days had finally taken their toll, we bypassed the clubby atmosphere of the bar and the small adjacent dining room where Violet was seated next to a big fireplace. Instead, we walked into … a summer patio. Here real trees are in bloom, floral jungle-print cloths cover the tables, red brick covers the floor. Once it was a real outdoor patio, but now there's a glass ceiling for whatever weather comes. I almost expected to see a parrot on a perch. Sliding glass doors separate patio from pub. (There's a third dining room, too, which resembles an Irish pub, though it was closed on the midweek day of our visit.)

Our drink choices reflected two of Crossroads' faces: a refreshingly sweet and surprisingly powerful watermelon martini, perfect for the patio; a full-bodied Smithwick's ale for the pub side.

There's nothing earthshaking about Crossroads' extensive menu, a broad mix of many favorites — stuffed potato skins, mushroom caps, fried calamari, even snail salad on the appetizer side; chicken marsala, sirloin a la mama, veal parmigiana, baked lasagna, fried clams, baked stuffed shrimp among the entrees — but what we sampled was very good. Surprisingly, the menu leans more to local seafood and Italian than to anything Irish. Loughlin said occasionally there's corned beef and cabbage as well as Shepherd's pie on the menu, and Irish entertainment every month or so. But he added, "My wife [Janis] is Italian, so a lot of the recipes are from her grandmother and mother." Keeping the family tradition, Loughlin's son, David, a co-owner of Crossroads, cooks in the kitchen alongside head chef Kevin Poissant.

They do a splendid job. The Maryland crab cakes ($9.95) — two the size of hockey pucks — looked a little overdone at first glance, but proved to be very moist and were chock full of big pieces of crab meat, which is surely what one wants in a crab cake but doesn't always get. At Crossroads they're done right, with a mild dipping sauce that doesn't hide their ocean flavor.

Just as big a hit were the Southern fried wings ($7.95), eight pieces of chicken wings and drumsticks that had a wonderfully crunchy crust, but were moist and meaty inside. The honey Dijon mustard dipping sauce on the side added just the right sweet-tangy touch.

All entrees include soup or salad. A cup of quahog chowder ($2.95 if ordered by itself) — rich, hearty and winning — was a buttery, creamy concoction loaded with chunks of clam and flavored with dill. The salad ordered with the other entrée was a big bowl of crisp mixed greens with slices of red onion, carrot, green pepper and grape tomatoes topped by my choice of a very good blue cheese dressing. It was so tasty, I finished every bite, but then decided that the nice coleslaw that arrived with my Surf and Turf was redundant.

There are several versions of Surf and Turf at Crossroads. All begin with a six-ounce, prime sirloin (mine cooked perfectly to a tender medium), topped with slices of sautéed fresh mushrooms. But one can pair it with baked stuffed jumbo shrimp, fried haddock, fried scallops, fried oysters or fried clams, each combo priced accordingly. One look at a luscious-looking fried clam plate on its way to another table convinced me to order them with the steak ($19.95). A generous serving of lightly fried whole-belly clams, slightly crunchy and bursting with flavor at every bite, they were clam-shack good. The dish had a large baked potato on the side (or rice or French fries) as well as the unexpected coleslaw.

With all that, the small side order of fried onion rings, which turned out to be larger than expected to boot, seemed over the top. We couldn't finish more than half the rings, which had been cut from large onions into slim rounds. They got high marks for a light batter that gave them a welcome crunchy coating while not overwhelming the fragrant onion underneath.

Chicken Nona ($16.95) was a hearty serving as well. Big chunks of tender chicken and many slices of sweet Italian sausage had been sautéed in a garlic and wine sauce that was creamy yet delicate. There were lots of sliced artichokes and strips of roasted red pepper in the dish as well for a wonderful blend of flavors, all served over penne. Grandma couldn't have done it better.

Dessert? After the big dishes and those onion rings we didn't think we could — unless there was some house-made specialty. There wasn't a house-made one in the bunch. And so we left the patio full and satisfied and ready for a bout with the real world.

Crossroads Restaurant, 133 Market St., Warren. (401)245-9305; crossroadsrestaurantri.com. Dressy casual. Wheelchair accessible. Reservations. Child seats. AE, MC, V, DIS. Two parking lots. Discount lunch specials 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tues. to Sun.; dinner 5 to 10 p.m. Tues. to Thurs. and Sun.; to 10:30 p.m. Fri. and Sat. Appetizers $3.95 to $9.95. Entrees $10.95 to $19.95. Wines are $5 to $8.50 by the glass; $18 to $32 for a bottle.

BILL OF FARE

Dinner for two at Crossroads Restaurant might look something like this:

Watermelon martini…$7.95

Smithwick's ale…$4.50

Southern fried wings…$7.95

Surf & turf with clams…$19.95

Chicken Nona…$16.95

Total food and drink…$57.30

Tax…$4.58

Tip…$12.12

Total bill…$74.00