Chomp’s hot chicken
sandwich with Rothaus beer.
Chomp’s watermelon
and cucumber salad.
C Chomp Kitchen and Drinks
homp has its own irreverence
but expresses it in tones of
defiance you often hear from
fraternity brothers at an Ivy.
Intelligence is channeled into good-natured
dares for those with social ambition.
It’s ostensibly a burger joint but — particularly
at the new Providence location —
it reads more like a bar. The soundtrack is a
mish-mash of ’80s favorites from Billy Squier
to Tom Petty and the taps never get a rest.
On most nights there are a dozen drafts and
Chomp offers beer the way Big King puts
down sake: seriously.
Want a Belgian? Allagash’s River Trip is
“brewed with local grains and spiced with
coriander for an extra hint of citrus.” Drawn
to something unpredictable? Proclamation
Ale’s Vic Secret is described as “a unicorn
on a farm of Shetland ponies.” If bottles are
your thing, Equilibrium Wavelength NEIPA
is “the distance between identical points in
the adjacent cycles of a waveform signal
propagated in space and describes the flow
of Photons.” Uhhhh…. Drink early and often
is clearly the common refrain.
As for sandwiches, Chomp plays a game
of rotation in which they dictate the extras
and you can choose your base: fried chicken
or burgers are a canvas that the kitchen loads
up with as much paint as possible. Prepare
to get dirty as sauces ooze out of everything
and napkins are put down by the fistful.
Fried chicken sandwiches ($16) are coated
in amalgams of hot sauce, ranch dressing,
honey, Alabama barbecue, Mozambique
sauce and jalapeno cream cheese. If you
didn’t think chicken was capable of spilling,
think again because the ritual includes licking
your hands like a dog and cleansing your
palate with an IPA. Burgers are equally
debaucherous, particularly if you order the
Bolognese ($16), which is topped with a thickskinned
sausage, tomato puree, mozzarella
and enough basil aioli to keep the wheels
greased. It’s a Federal Hill entree poured
over a pork and beef burger just to see who
would survive the experience.
It’s important to know, however, that
Chomp backs up their brazenness. These
sandwiches are good, even if they give you
the meat sweats. Their signature burger, overflowing
with housemade mac and cheese and
sweet tomato jam ($16), looks like a stunt.
But it’s impossible to put down, even when
you should. Exhibit A: A ninety-pound woman
wiping her brow in cartoon fashion goes
after the errant elbows of pasta with equal
amounts of delight and self-shame. Next to
her, a friend shrugs sheepishly and says,
“Yeah, you don’t really have a choice.” All one
can do is opt for a side salad instead of fries
in an effort to clear the pathway for more.
Servers clad in black circle frequently to
cheer people on — “You went to town!” — and
to refill the pint glasses. After all, the party
doesn’t end just because summer has. �
CHOMP KITCHEN
AND DRINKS
117 Ives St., Providence, 537-7556,
440 Child St., Warren, 289-2324,
chompri.com
MUST GET
The mac and cheese burger, any hot
chicken, a parade of draft beer.
90 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l OCTOBER 2020