Capriccio

[Holly Moore]

Friends in Providence, naively hoping to wean me from grease and nitrates, ushered me off to Capriccio, one of Providence's finest restaurants - perhaps the finest. I had a great time. It was like stepping back fifty years in time and tagging along with my parents to the country club or a top north Jersey restaurant (in our case the Harbor or Llewellen Farms) to celebrate their anniversary.

Service staff in dark suits or tuxedos. Table side service. Flambes. Tall back chairs. Piano Bar. Candle light and mirrors.

A continental menu boasting dishes like Oysters Rockefeller, Tenderloin Strips Stroganoff, Steak Dianne, Chateaubriand Bernaise, Veal Oscar, Crepes Suzette - old friends long forgotten, not really missed, but so good to see again. Some modern dishes too and Capriccio's Italian heritage is well represented with pastas, scampi, and an assortment of veal dishes. But the hits for me, at least, were the menu items from the past.

Service - impeccable. Little things like my water glass never more than three sips empty before being refilled. Table-side cooking - the maitre' d standing tall, mentoring his assistant standing at his side and whispering a suggestion about an overlooked ingredient.

Around the table we had prosciutto and melon, oysters Rockefeller and lobster bisque for apps; Long Island duckling, tournedos Rossini, and a veal cordon bleu like special with crabmeat. All perfectly prepared.

Alas the experience got me waxing way too philosophical. Progress has to be good, and chef's like Grant Achatz have taken me on wonderful adventures. But the cost has been the loss of wonderful dishes that nowadays would be laughed off the menu of most restaurants as boring and unimaginative. Whereas music's golden oldies are respected and revered, fining dining's blasts from the past are almost always scorned and rejected.

[ErinB]

Thanks for the post Holly. I drive by this place all of the time, but never heard much about it.

You didn't get a chance to try their red sauce, did you?

[speidec]

Friends in Providence, naively hoping to wean me from grease and nitrates, ushered me off to Capriccio, one of Providence's finest restaurants - perhaps the finest.

I'm glad you enjoyed your meal there, but PLEASE, don't think of this restaurant as even ONE of the finest restaurants. Capriccio is a throwback to the late 70's-early 80's days of fine dining. It is NOT indicitive of the Providence dining scene at all.

[Holly Moore]

Friends in Providence, naively hoping to wean me from grease and nitrates, ushered me off to Capriccio, one of Providence's finest restaurants - perhaps the finest.

I'm glad you enjoyed your meal there, but PLEASE, don't think of this restaurant as even ONE of the finest restaurants. Capriccio is a throwback to the late 70's-early 80's days of fine dining. It is NOT indicitive of the Providence dining scene at all.

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That's the point that got me waxing way too philosophical. "Throwback" does not mean bad. I'm sure Providence, like any major city, has its share of sleek and trendy restaurants serving all the latest foods. But that doesn't mean that a restuarant which prepares it's style of cuisine extremely well using top quality ingredients and offers professional service including tableside preparation isn't an equally fine restaurant just because its cuisine is from another era.

I have not done any other fine dining in Providence (I'm assuming New York System Hot Dogs and Stanley's don't rate as fine dining thereabouts), but have done quite a bit so elsewhere. I'd wager that while Capriccio is anything but avant garde it qualifies as one of Providence's best restaurants and believe it would do the same in most any city.

[speidec]

But that doesn't mean that a restuarant which prepares it's style of cuisine extremely well using top quality ingredients and offers professional service including tableside preparation isn't an equally fine restaurant just because its cuisine is from another era.

That is the problem with this restaurant, there aren't any high quality ingredients. It is now a food factory, a throwback, the menu never changes and seasons are ignored. I had dinner there recently with my girlfriend and her parents, they love the place because it reminds them of a time long ago, but even they admit the food was poor. The steak diane was a fibrous cut that was completely covered in brown sauce. The sauces are easily manufactured somewhere else and every plate receives some brocoli trees and come undercooked carrots. My veal oscar was merely a poorly done scallopini with three asparagus spears, overcooked, pre-frozen lobster and a veal marsala sauce, no Hollandaise. Our white wine was poured in cheap goblets and the 'wonderful' service staff only poured it for us one time, we had to pour the rest ourselves. I commented about the glasses and we were brought water glasses that had just come out of the dishwasher and were very hot. I gave up at that point.

I know I sound cynical, but I am tired of so many restaurants half-assing it in the kitchen and surrounding themselves with a lot of false pomp and circumstance. N.Y. system hot dogs are tasty, but you get what you pay for. In Providence, there are too many restaurants like Cappriccio that make all the noise. If you dig deep you will find there are many more trying their best to provide REAL fresh ingredients and source their products other places than the back of a Sysco truck.

Try: New Rivers, Chez Pascal, Lot 401, Moda, Al Forno(although heading in the Cappriccio direction), and in the East Bay(Bristol and Warren) Nat Porter Inn and the soon-to-come, Persimmon.

[Chris Amirault]

Sorry Holly, but I have to agree with speidec on this one. It's a great bar, one of the two or three best in the city. And a trip there is fun, no doubt. But the food just doesn't compare to New Rivers, Al Forno... I mean, fill in the blank.

Capriccio -- and Joe Marzilli's, Blue Grotto, etc. -- all have an important place in the history of dining in Providence. But the bar is higher now.

[Chantilly Bob]

Al Forno(although heading in the Cappriccio direction),

I am pleased to report that we had a family gathering at Al Forno on Saturday night (not the kind of family gathering that you'd probably find at Capriccio), and the food showed no sign of decline whatsoever, despite George and Joanne being in Provence much of the time now.

Capriccio is old Providence. Al Forno, despite being 20 years old or so, is new Providence. Old Providence can be fun: Angelo's Civita Farnese is old Providence, for example. But there was virtually no good high-end food in old Providence.

[Holly Moore]

Sorry Holly, but I have to agree with speidec on this one. It's a great bar, one of the two or three best in the city. And a trip there is fun, no doubt. But the food just doesn't compare to New Rivers, Al Forno... I mean, fill in the blank.

Capriccio -- and Joe Marzilli's, Blue Grotto, etc. -- all have an important place in the history of dining in Providence. But the bar is higher now.

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I'd say the bar is different, not higher. I measure a restaurant by how good it does what it sets out to do. Capriccio knows exactly what it wants to be and does an admirable job of getting there.

And sometimes it is fun dining where one is surrounded by a Soprano's casting call instead of an audience of Food TV's typical viewers.

[Chris Amirault]

Al Forno(although heading in the Cappriccio direction),

I am pleased to report that we had a family gathering at Al Forno on Saturday night (not the kind of family gathering that you'd probably find at Capriccio), and the food showed no sign of decline whatsoever, despite George and Joanne being in Provence much of the time now.

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Ditto that. We ate there just before our daughter was born two weeks ago, and it was, as usual, fantastic.