Phantom Gourmet: Simone's In Warren, RI
WARREN, RI - It takes some pretty serious standards for a restaurant to turn out the best food in town at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At Simone's in Warren, Rhode Island, Chef-Owner Joe Simone believes he and his staff are all on the same page.
"I'd like to think that we have the same standards, although mine are quite high. Everybody who works here has high standards. We try to operate at a very high level, and to try to do that for three service periods a day is a challenge, but that's what we're up for."
While Simone's has only been open a few months, Joe's reputation in the kitchen is well known. He trained in Europe, cooked all over America, and is passionate about serving simply great, unfussy food.
"I'm not the guy that wants to combine sun dried tomatoes and lemongrass and say I came up with the next new thing. I'm the guy that I want you to taste my food and you taste tradition and the deliciousness that simplicity can bring you."
To stay true to that philosophy, just about everything at Simone's is made from scratch, from pastas and breads, to stocks and spreads.
"I'm in the business to cook food from scratch the best way I know how, and I'm banking on that my guests are going to tell the difference," said Joe.
All the meals at Simone's focus on fresh, local, seasonal ingredients. That certainly is on display at breakfast, where the eggs are from a local farm, the Baked French Toast is topped with fresh berries, and the Crab Cake Benedict is bathed in lemony, buttery, homemade hollandaise.
"Every Benedict has to have, at its base, an excellent hollandaise sauce," Joe stated, "and we do, I think the best hollandaise in New England."
For a breakfast you'll be hard pressed to find anywhere else, order the Dutch Baby. This old German recipe may have a strange name, but take one taste and you'll be ready to rise and shine.
"Basically, it's a popover that's baked in a wide dish rather than a narrow dish. Like a popover it rises, but because it's wide, the center falls on itself creating a bowl," Joe explained. "We're gonna fill it with strawberries, pineapple, grapes. You have to drizzle a little maple syrup on top if you like, and then cut it up with a fork and knife, and eat it. It's awesome."
If you just can't get out of bed in time for breakfast, lunch is great here too, especially if you order Simone's Burger.
"We grind our own hamburger every day; cook it on our wood burning grill; and then we serve our burgers with caramelized onions, cheddar cheese, and Applewood smoked bacon. We serve them on a bun that we make from our focaccia and griddle on our pancake griddle until it's crispy and delicious," Joe described."
The kitchen here really shines at dinner, with snacks like Baked Oysters with Spinach and Pernod, and Deep Fried Olives stuffed with Roquefort.
Pastas are made in house of course, and they are all worth ordering, like the classic Linguini alle Vongole, with a broth that's good to the last drop.
"The broth is clammy, a little spicy, very garlicky, and addictive," Joe said. "We always have to serve extra focaccia with our Linguini alle Vongole, because our guests love to sop up the broth."
But the best dish might be the one known simply as House Pasta.
"The house pasta is a fettuccine noodle, it's tossed with asparagus, a little bit of vegetable stock, cream and cheese, and then we serve it on top of thinly sliced prosciutto that's draped over a warm pasta bowl. And for anybody that likes a cream pasta, this is a fantastic example," Joe promised.
Many of the entrees at Simone's are cooked on the kitchen's wood grill, which imparts a wonderful smokiness to dishes like the Flank Steak with Roasted Potatoes, and the Grilled Lobster that's brushed with herbed olive oil, and served in the shell.
"What you get is something a little bit crunchy, sweet lobster flavor, and excellent herb deliciousness going with it," Joe explained. "People are like, 'Wow!'. They are blown away because they've never had lobster that tastes like that and it's so easy to eat."
The dessert menu pays homage to classics like cool Butterscotch Pudding with whipped cream, and warm Chocolate Pudding, baked to order.
"Little crunchy on the outside, very creamy with chocolate on the inside, and we serve it with a scoop of homemade vanilla and creme fraiche ice cream," said Joe. "It is sort of a throwback to the old days when things were really good."
That feeling of a simpler time is exactly what Joe was looking for when he built the restaurant.
"Basically, the most important thing is sharing meals at a table with friends and loved ones. And so we have a nice clean space, high ceiling, open air. Everybody is sort of in one room; the kitchen, the bar, the guests, and we're all sort of interacting together. When people are happy, and they're all taking, and you can hear their glasses clinking and knives cutting, there's a wonderful positive energy that is excellent to experience."
You can find Simone's at 275 Child Street in Warren, Rhode Island, and online at simonesri.com.
Watch Phantom Gourmet on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 and 11 a.m. on myTV38.
