Wildfire

Their subtitle is “Brick Oven Pizza and Bar,” but WILDFIRE is more than a place to throw a slice and a brew down your neck. At heart it’s a full-fledged, albeit surreptitious Italian restaurant. They get to have it both ways: with its name, attract clientele who don’t want to go to yet another Italian restaurant, and at the same time serve diners who can’t get enough of Italian food. Oh, to please the stray adamant Wasp they do have clam chowder alongside pasta fagioli and cedar-plank salmon as well as shrimp oreganata. But their forte and menu mainstays are things like “Wings Over Tuscany” and their signature brick-oven meatball as appetizers, and entrées like Tuscan braised short ribs and chicken scarpiello. And don’t forget all those pastas. Their three-cheese gnocchi Sorrento could make an Episcopalian weep. | 1874 Mineral Spring Avenue, North Providence | 401.353.7110