Crispy Pork Belly

DINNER • SUNDAY BRUNCH CRAFT BEER & COCKTAILS

4 0 1 . 4 3 4 . 8 7 0 3 B L A C K D U C K T A V E R N . C O M

EAT FISH

Open Daily • Port of Galilee

, Narragansett • 401-783-2306 www . GeorgesOfGalilee . com

Dirty crab rice with creole spices .

you can take liberties with chicken wings or waffles , but the originals are so enduring that each subsequent rendition risks falling short . Willis , however , came to play . Wings ($ 15 ) are fried three times and shellacked with sweet potato caramel until they crunch like salted candy apples . Mac and cheese is a side dish ( as the South dictates ) and , while it ’ s topped with crushed Cheetos , its gruyere-forward nuttiness puts it firmly in the adult world . If pimento cheese on biscuits sounds like too much of a time warp commitment , the kitchen has you covered with a plate of blistered shishito peppers with the bright orange cheese on the side .

The toggling back and forth between comforting dishes and those more experimental comes naturally to the young servers . They enthusiastically champion the calamari for those who can ’ t bring themselves to branch out , and suggest the $ 80 table-serving rib-eye with mole pasilla and duck fat confit potatoes . But the best dishes on the menu need little cajoling from anyone . No one needs to be convinced to eat a barbell of fried chicken sitting on a waffle ($ 21 ) — it self-advertises . And yet Willis still wants to turn the volume to eleven , topping the seriously crunchy chicken with bourbon sage butter and chili-maple crumbs . No wonder we ’ re all desperate to claim this dinner-dessert hybrid as our own .

The restaurant ’ s crowning glory , however , takes a totally different tack . Chicken and dumplings ($ 16 ) come to the table in a trough-sized shallow bowl , looking almost like a serving of gravy ornamented with slivers of baby radish and microgreens . What lies beneath is an

amalgam of confit chicken , dumplings barely bigger than a plump pea and a just-cooked egg nestled in the center . It ’ s reassurance personified , a plate of everything we ’ ve ever loved and the promise that it hasn ’ t been taken away , even in current chaos . Everything about Saje , in a sense , is a different walk down the same path we ’ ve chosen : the sky shines just as bright but filters through the leaves differently and with pronounced warmth .

Depending on the lens , Saje isn ’ t really all that different from other restaurants on the Hill . The most successful draw in crowds because they render yesterday an infinite expanse of time in a single bite of food . For some of us , that comes in a platter of pasta ; for others , it ’ ll always be seared shrimp in a pond of sweet grits with a shake of hot sauce ( or , in Willis ’ s world , a drizzle of herbaceous oil ).

The experience may not be entirely transportive — the soundtrack overhead leans more toward house music than anything born out of the Delta — but Atwells may need to ease its way into a cultural shift . Easy enough , as this is food that spans the centuries and isn ’ t too concerned about trends . Maybe the quickest way to cross geographic lines is with a simple bowl of something sweet . Oreo beignets ($ 11 ) eat like hot doughnut holes and peach cheesecake ($ 8 ) tastes like a panna cotta covered in fruit crumble . And for the occasional lucky person , the bar might just send over a shot of Tito ’ s and schnapps , not to wash it down but to soak it up . �

80 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l NOVEMBER 2020