Recently we went back to Z Bar, the Wickenden Street restaurant that is on my short list of places to eat and drink in Providence.I just deleted the word great in there, because that might be overstating the case, unless you mean by it (as I do) that Z Bar has consistently met or exceeded my expectations over many years.
There are many restaurants in Providence where you can spend a lot more on dinner in the expectation that they will absolutely slay you with flash and dash and (maybe) great-tasting food. (The recently opened Chinese Laundry leaps to mind.) But more often than not, such places will disappoint you. A year later, they will be last year's big thing, and then they die. Remember Empire? Kestral? Lot 401?
Or, in another scenario, it might be that a restaurant does have really spectacular food that is so expensive that people only go there for special occasions a few times a year. So the place goes into an embarrassing and sometimes prolonged period of decline and then dies, as Raphael's Bar-Risto did (Mar. 9).
Interestingly, Z Bar doesn't even have a website — and that in itself says a lot. (Some restaurants have such impressive websites that you wonder how much time is being spent on the food.) Here's what we had to eat there the other night: A three-course prix fixe special of a satisfying roast-chicken-and-white-bean minestrone served in a wide flat bowl, a salmon filet sauteed in an herbed beurre blanc sauce, and a wedge of chocolate mousse with raspberry coulis (that's sauce, only more intense and less of it.) Three courses for $19, and not a disappointing note among them.
For $17, we had a petite filet of beef in a cabernet demi-glace, with mashed potatoes and perfectly cooked whole green beans. Glasses of a perfectly serviceable Australian Shiraz were $6.25.Sure, a Cosmo was $10.25, but I didn't have to have one, did I?
If I hadn't had it, dinner for two with wine would have been $48.50 before tax and tip. Hot slices of fresh Portuguese bread as soon as we'd sat down in our prime corner windowseat, a lively (and somewhat loud) bar scene, warm colors, and the solicitous attention of longtime waiter Paul.
Rate that a great restaurant? Well, yes, I guess I do.
Z Bar and Grille, 244 Wickenden St., Providence. (401) 831-1566. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Reservations only for parties of 6 or more.
