Cassarino's on the Hill

Cassarinos

Well, my weekend of culture did not end with the Museum of Fine Art. Early this winter Laurie suggested we go to a restaurant on Federal Hill in Providence. There are many restaurants on the hill from little hole in the wall pizza joints to really high scale way out of our price range places. Neither Laurie nor I had ever gone out “to fine dining”. Most of the places on the hill are Italian.

When we were making plans to go, I got the pinched nerve in my neck. I didn’t want to waste money eating expensive food while sitting in pain so we waited until I healed. A couple weeks ago I reminded Laurie of her idea and asked her if she still wanted to go. After looking online at a bunch of menus we (she) picked Cassarinos. We (she) chose it because the menu was large with a large variety of choices, and the prices were reasonable (15-25 dollars for most meals). She made reservations for Thursday night. We didn’t want to deal with Providence traffic, both automotive and crowded restaurants, on a weekend night.



Clams Zuppa

Our reservations were for seven, but because there wasn’t any traffic we got there about fifteen minutes early. There is free valet parking. This was great because it was freezing cold and parking is tough anyway. It turned out there wasn’t any need for reservations; the place was only half full.

We got bruschetta for an appetizer. Laurie got chicken parm for the meal. I got clams zuppa (linguine in a red clam sauce with a dozen littlenecks). For dessert I got crème brulee. Laurie as she had been planning for two weeks ordered tiramisu. I had never tried either dessert before. I was definitely missing out. Holy cow, were they good. The entire meal was delicious. I did not have any faults with my meal at all. Laurie’s only complaint was there could have been more sauce on her chicken parm. Laurie got two lemon drop martinis. I had one beer and a water (designated driver).

Without the drinks, the meal would have been about $60. I don’t think that’s too bad for a night out to a fancy restaurant, besides I spend that in gas to fish all the time. It was something different that I have never done and it was fun.

Tiramasu

Post script: I completely understand that a restaurant review has absolutely nothing to do with Southern New England Outdoors. I chose to write about it because a fancy restaurant is as foreign to me as false albacore are to a Nebraska wheat farmer. It was a new and different experience for me and well out of my comfort zone.