EXPERIENCE CAV
Monday - Wednesday
Bistro Menu
Tuesday
Half Priced Bottles of Wine
Wednesday
Live Jazz & Martini Specials
Saturday and Sunday
Brunch
14 Imperial Place • Providence, RI
401.751.9164
cavrestaurant.com
Think Spring!
• Dine in or Take-out
• Open daily
at 11:00 AM
• Party platters and
buffet menu available
• Karaoke Thursdays
401-334-3200
Lincoln Mall Plaza
asiagrille.com
84 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l
MARCH 2020
The chocolate margarita with pistachio
layer cake; the interior of the restaurant
is both industrial and rustic.
grilled pizza, it’s easy to be derivative but
this papyrus-thin version is particularly
noteworthy. The kitchen does stick to
a handful of traditional ingredients for
appetizers — ribbons of prosciutto,
stewed white beans, oil-poached tuna
— though the American bar crowd does
chant softly in the background as a plate
of parmesan-dusted potato chips parades
out with a sidecar of aioli. (“Mine,” says
a hovering man on what is clearly his
last date.)
And while other restaurants might
throw a communal table into the mix
to force camaraderie, this one does so
despite most people dining in duos.
Sure, the rib-eye or roast chicken for
two help conjure a collective spirit but,
when one person orders the entire roast
chicken, swearing to bring home the
leftovers, passersby offer cheerleader-
decibel encouragement as if they have
wandered into an episode of “Man vs.
Food.” As the wooden slab of lemon-
scented chicken whittles down to just a
wing, bystanders offer a thumbs-up in
support of the unlikely feat. Tables may
appear independent, but the ’Cino
crowd works in relative unison and
unequivocal zeal.
The kitchen responds to this goodwill
with a hefty portion of familiarity in
pasta and potatoes. Bolognese and cacio
y pepe make an appearance as do
Chianti-braised short ribs on a mountain
of mashed potatoes. It’s all feel-good
food, including the unexpected presence
of sandwiches on the dinner menu. The
informal approach suits the space as
piadine, gift-wrapped in wax paper,
share a plate with sharp lemon-laced
greens — casual but not without care.
Chicken Milanese is served on grilled
flatbread with white beans and
chicories and, suddenly, a sandwich
seems pretty special. No doubt Bar
’Cino’s most appealing characteristic is
its “Cheers” mentality: Everyone knows
everyone or they will by the time the
meal ends. Servers offer their favorite
dishes to indecisive customers and most
are willing to forge common ground.
Not surprisingly, the space most
closely resembles a bar, intimate in all
the right ways and full of opportunities
for hushed conversations. But the longer
people sit, the more it feels like some-
thing different. Most people are drinking
but the alcoholic merriment is eclipsed
by the sense that you just wandered into
a general store in a town your family’s
lived in for four generations. Even the
desserts come out in wholesome form: a
square of tiramisu full of housemade
ladyfingers and drenched so deeply in
coffee that you could eat it for breakfast.
A small dome of Nutella-rich chocolate
cake calls itself a souffle but it’s more of
a dense, barely cooked brownie or a lava
cake that escaped the 1990s for more
fertile ground.
But the most admirable sweet is a slice
of pistachio-ricotta layer cake that bears a
distant resemblance to the Italian flag
and which, topped with coarsely chopped
pistachios, is everything we have come
to love about Italian cuisine. It’s both
pristine and rustic, accustomed and
extravagant in its just-sweet layers.
We may never tire of heading out to a
restaurant that feels other-worldly and
that transports us entirely. But Bar ’Cino
makes it clear that coming home is
always the best stop on any journey.