For those of us who dine out a lot, tax season is a sobering time. Seeing all those restaurant amounts neatly toted up in the 12-month credit card statement makes you all too aware of what else you might have done with all those dollars.A few weeks ago, Retired Guy and I resolved to eat in more, and we've been pretty good about it — so good that last night we decided we deserved a meal out. I recalled that the new Nat Porter in Warren was offering a variety of specials, including 2-for-1 entrees Sundays through Tuesdays from 4 to 6 p.m. We squeaked in just under the wire, about 5:58, but the waiter said we were good for it.
The Nat has always been a beautiful place, an elegant restaurant in a Colonial-era captain's house on Water Street in Warren. A pair of youthful owners called quits on the place last summer after a three-year stint that was marked by some highs and some lows, but new owners took it over last fall. Their new menu shows a little more Italian influence than the old one did, but there's a nice variety, with most entrees priced from $17 to $26. We were well satisfied by grilled pork loin with sauteed apples and mashed sweet potato for $17 for both us (2-for-1), a glass of Shiraz for $5 and an apple and gorgonzola salad split between us for $4. Even with dessert (carrot cake, $6) and a Cosmopolitan for me ($8), our pre-tip bill was just $44.
The place was lovely, the service perfect, the background music a Sirius Coffeehouse mix — altogether, just the sort of tax-season economizing I favor.
Nat Porter, 125 Water St., Warren. (401) 289-0373. On Wednesdays through April, $36 dinner for two includes bottle of wine and live music beginning at 9 p.m.
