Bristol, RI

[MLZeats]

My wife and I will be staying at the Point Pleasant Inn for a few days in the early fall and would appreciate recommendations for area dining. We will be dining out for both light lunches and dinners.

We are very flexible on cost and ambience; we are inflexible on the quality of the food: it must be good or better. If we have a minor preference for a particular cuisine it would be for "regional" food; i.e. food/dishes which are tradiitonal to the area and at which the area restaurants excel. We do "fine" dining in NYC through our work all year, so we are not focused on that type of restaurant. Having stated our preference, if there is a place worth making an exception, we will.

We are willing to travel up to an hour from the Inn, but not into Providence. Our preference is for restaurants in the surrounding towns.

Thanks in advance to all who make suggestions.

[roger desmond]

A sort drive from where you are is Aunt Carries in Narragansett. Truly local, fresh, unembellished seafood. Bring your own wine, very casual dress, screened in windows overlooking ocean and do try the sea snail salad. Awesome!

http://auntcarriesri.com/

[Chris Amirault]

Champe Spiedel (cspiedec in eG Forums) runs Persimmon Restaurant in Bristol, which has won a few awards and lots of stomachs throughout the region. I'd urge you to go there for sure.

[ekaim]

I visited Bristol last Labor Day and researched the restaurants in the town and locale. Unfortunately, the one night I actually stayed in Bristol the two restaurants that looked most promising were both closed (of course). But you should look into DeWolf Tavern, which gets exceptional reviews, and Persimmon. The latter was taken over last year by an acclaimed chef who had been chef/owner of a well-regarded Providence restaurant. Both of these restaurants are in the center of the town, within a few blocks of each other.

I hope you get an opportunity to reap the rewards of my research, since I didn't. In case you're not familiar with Bristol and the area, by the way, I can heartily recommend it. A lovely town and environs. It has the feel of Newport without the crowds and overcommercialization. (One of the tour books calls it "the new Newport.")

[NewEnglandSteve]

Persimmon gets my vote too. We've always had great experiences there.

[MLZeats]

Thanks all.

Persimmon and DeWolf were already on my list of "possibles" from reading other blogs/sites, so now I will underscore them thanks t o your input.

I heard about Aunt Carrie's previously but, unfortunately, it appears from its website that it is not open during our stay.

I look forward to additional suggestions.

[John Talbott]

Champe Spiedel (cspiedec in eG Forums) runs Persimmon Restaurant in Bristol, which has won a few awards and lots of stomachs throughout the region. I'd urge you to go there for sure.

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Saturday night we went to Persimmon, 31 State Street in Bristol, RI, 401-254-7474, which represented to me another cross between El Bulli + Danny Meyer. By that I mean that while the products were good and the cooking solid, the dishes were too deconstructed and upside-down in structure; to whit, the gazpacho consisted of a mound of crabmeat, cuke cubes, corn kernels and nuts with a tablespoon of sauce underneath. In brief, good stuff but "truth in labeling" was missing. The amuse gueule was a nice morsel of fluke with dill and citrus, the intercourses were inventive and good: a sweet corn soup with chanterelle and a grape sorbet. The bread crust was superbly crackly. I was not entranced by the two salads: one of heirloom tomatoes, corn and other tiny items, the other warm beets with more chopped veggies and the third first – a lobster risotto - was dressed with an overly assertive truffle oil/sauce. However, the mains were superb; a rabbit confit and sausage cassoulet with tarbais beans and veggies and an incredible black bass, crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside with trumpet mushrooms. One of us finished with a nicely lavender-flavored panna cotta. Any bumps? Yes, very slow delivery of plates and an absence of decaffeinated espresso. Bill = $173.00 for four before tip. Chef Champe Spiedel is clearly a talent if he doesn’t let the over-the-top ideas for dishes trump solid product and cooking.