On sunny summer weekends, when Thames Street is choked with tourists, Newport can be a good place to avoid restaurants. You’re more likely to have a pleasant experience mid-week. That’s especially so when you go at lunchtime, when pricey restaurants are more affordable. We did just that at the Clarke Cooke House, on Bannister’s Wharf, and were continually impressed.
They have three dining areas and two kitchens, and daytime seating is in the casual Candy Store section, named after one of the prior incarnations of the 1742 building. The eclectic décor signals Newport (sailboat photos); Italian bistro (marble-topped café tables); and 1970s Mandalay (bent-bamboo chairs with woven strips of green and cream vinyl). On our visit, there was plenty of natural light flooding in both the street-side and harbor-side, where we were seated, so we were cozy on this rainy afternoon.
Come in the evening and you can blow $60 on twin lobsters or $36 for pan-seared breast of Magret duck, with foie gras and braised turnips. But lunch offerings are affordable, with a couple of entrees under $10 (sautéed cod cakes and chickpea crepes are each $9.95).
In addition to entrees, four burgers and seven sandwiches are available. The latter are a well-chosen assortment, with interesting variations or accents on several usual suspects. For example, the tomatoes on the roast beef are marinated, and the horseradish mayo is amped up with black pepper. The tuna is complemented with contrasting flavors: anchovy and radish, hard-boiled egg and lemon. Most sandwiches are under $9 and come with French fries. (The one we later ordered to-go proved to be a jam-packed delight: called a Bayaldi, after the Mideastern eggplant appetizer, it contained, in addition to that vegetable, zucchini and marinated portabellas, with a red bell pepper coulis and a tasty black olive tapénade, all on bread sliced very thinly, to let the flavors coming through. It was as delicious as it sounds.)
The salads have thoughtful touches as well. In the spinach salad ($9.95), caramelized spiced pecans and sun-dried cherries assert themselves through a raspberry-balsamic vinaigrette. For heartier luncheon appetites, there is a wood-grilled sirloin salad ($19.95) and a sesame-tuna salad ($18.95). The latter is fine-tuned with fried leeks and shiitake mushrooms, and the menu specifies that the seared tuna is “RARE,” a declaration that the fish is sushi quality. (Starting at 4 pm, at the one-hour break between lunch and dinner, a sushi bar opens in that dining area.)
Lunchtime appetizers, although few, contain two Vietnam¬ese treats (each $9.95). We passed up the mango-and-celery root spring roll for something even more in¬triguing, “crispy Vietnamese-style sizzling pancakes.” Two tightly folded pieces of crepe were served with three medium shrimp, lots of basil, mint, cilantro shreds and even more fat mung beans, all doused with the sort of rice vinegar and chopped peanut sauce served with nime chow. We loved every tangy morsel.
Johnnie also enjoyed her wood-grilled Statler chicken breast ($12.95). It offered a trove of interesting flavors, with dollops of hummus, a tabouleh made with barley, rather than bulgur wheat, an amusing eggplant and walnut jam, and mesclun tarted up with a ginger-pomegranate dressing.
