Downtown Westerly is an eclectic blend of cultures that include the United theatre and arts centre, quaint antique shops, the Knickerbocker music hall and various restaurants and pubs. The Café Westerly Rhode Island is a charming eatery in the heart of downtown, and adjacent to the United Theatre. This upscale dining establishment provides relaxed service. Dine here for delicious, upscale homemade comfort food that is unassuming. 1
Methodology
The Café Westerly Rhode Island
Before launching The Social Diary website, we have been actively participating in dining out. It was also our way of giving back to the communities since the Pandemic lockdowns. One restaurant we were keen to try was the Café in downtown Westerly. Like many communities, Westerly has felt the changing tides of new restaurants coming in to replace ones that closed.
The Social Diary also doesn’t believe in reviewing for the sake of reviewing. We are looking for nuances, so we will dine out at the same restaurant at least three times before we offer up our “opinion.” We are looking for consistency, more than trying to catch a restaurant out on a “bad day.” The same goes for any reviews we provide on this site or any other forums.
The Café Westerly Rhode Island is the first restaurant review from The Social Diary series. Therefore, it is important to set the tone and clear away any misconceptions. There is general public confusion about restaurant descriptions. The Café, often characterised as a fine dine restaurant by other commentators, is perhaps more upscale in nature. It is doubtful the restaurant makes any distinction. However, the Café is a delightful eatery with upscale vibe and offerings that sets them apart.
What is Fine Dining
Experience the Difference. There is a distinct difference when explaining the various dining “styles.” This includes casual vs upscale vs fine dining. Unfortunately, many blogs repeat misconceptions through faulty research. You find the same when watching videos on Youtube or listening to podcasters muddle through their rendition of etiquette and manners. The only way to understand the difference is through first hand experience. The Social Diary is all about elevating your lifestyle. This includes your palate too.
Food is Art not Linens. As you go up the dining rung, you will discover the “tasting menu” offered by fine dining establishments. The menu may start with amuse bouche, then each course offered is an elevated experience for the sophisticated palate. The price can start around $300, and it’s not unusual to leave the table with an $800 tab.
The multi-course tasting menu is unique to fine dining. Don’t follow the wrong advice. The “white tablecloth” service is not always characteristic of a “fine dine.” Most don’t bother with linens. Fine dining can come in the form of a gastropub experience. Food is art and presentation is everything.
What Fine Dining is Not. The Social Diary has noticed that people who don’t understand fine dining are also trying to redefine it. They use fancy made up phrases, such as “hospitality reimagined.” Fine dining is about having a refined palate, and the reason we savour caviar, not eat it. Sometimes, it’s a three hour experience.
Evaluation2
The Café Westerly Rhode Island
This story is the evaluation of The Café Westerly. This story may be fine dine heavy but it is important to view hospitality experiences with similar discerning observations. Every review is on a case by case basis. The Café Westerly is on the upscale spectrum of restaurants, based on their sophisticated food and beverage offerings and table service, and graded to a higher standard.
Fine dining is in The Social Diary’s DNA, but we understand that not every restaurant can meet those standards, or even want to. Some restaurants may believe that having a “white” tablecloth and charging exorbitant prices makes them a fine dine, however, technique, service and innovation win awards and Michelin stars. In fine dining restaurants, food is art.3
Additionally, in many fine dining establishments, it’s an elevated experience of luxury. Many upscale restaurants with excellent food and beverage selections don’t prop themselves up to this hierarchal ideal. Many are more down-to-earth, serving great fayre to the masses, rather than a select few who could afford the prices associated with such a fine dine. This is the case of The Cafe Westerly.
First Impressions
The Café Westerly Rhode Island
The Café is adjacent to the United Theatre, which makes a perfect pairing for a movie night out. There is an entrance from the United, so no need to leave the building to dine. The restaurant is a cozy space with an artistic vibe, with artwork lining the walls. Or, you can read the titles of books perched behind booths.
The space resembles an upscale Café, similar to a Parisian bistro like Café des Musées. Instead of burgers and fries (chips), you will discover potato and leek soup, duck two-ways, duck-fat fingerling potatoes and smoked prosciutto-wrapped meatloaf. The meat and cheese board has quickly become a “go to” staple, replacing the smoked fish board which is no longer on the menu.
One thing that is glaring for anyone visiting their website is the total lack of prices. We never did get a response from the Café and Tony Nunes the Artistic Director of the United just referred us back to them. Even Jean-Georges, a Michelin two star fine dining restaurant in NYC shows prices on their website.
There were a few schools of thought when we spoke about this on our dining forum. It possibly could be a competitive decision not to reveal prices. Perhaps it’s too much administrative work changing menus and prices. Maybe it’s about branding. Whatever the reason, most people want to see prices, even for fine dining establishments.
“If you have to ask the price, you probably can’t afford it.”
– Sir Walter
The Café is moderately priced local fayre that has become a community staple for many. So prices really don’t matter.
Service
The Café Westerly Rhode Island
If you only have an hour for lunch, don’t dine in Paris, where it’s a three hour love affair with food and drink. In France, everything does slow down. Here is all the ‘nuts and bolts‘ for The Café Westerly Beyond Yelp Review.
Pacing
The Café has a pacing regiment that is fluid and efficient. The server does not take your order at the same time. The restaurant provides an option of tap, spring or sparkling waters. There are other beverage options, including signature cocktails. The next is the starter or first course. Then you decide what your second course or main will be. After that comes dessert and coffee, unless you add another course before dessert. This pacing system may be foreign to some, but it’s familiar to ‘fine diners.’ The whole point of this ‘exercise’ is not to rush through the meal. That and the company we keep. It makes for a much more pleasant and fulfilling life.
The place setting is basic, but functional. The place setting includes a plate, no charger or placemat and cutlery inside a cloth napkin. A main fork and an oyster fork, along with the dinner knife is provided. The raw bar is a prominent feature on both the lunch and dinner menus.
As an historical reference, hosts would provide oysters as a first course to the delighted guests during the Gilded Age. Oysters continue to be a prominent and popular seafood item in Rhode Island.
Flatware
The appropriate cutleries arrive with the meal, or set prior to the course. The Café doesn’t offer a proper soup spoon, however. They offer a bouillon spoon instead. It’s such an odd selection for such a large soup bowl, which is the size of a salad plate. There is nowhere to safely place the spoon during resting intervals. Despite the spoon size, the soups are always an excellent selection.
Table Setting
We always order the meat dish in order to see the cutlery the restaurant uses. For the meat course, the restaurant switched out the dinner knife for the meat knife, however the server placed the blade facing away from the centre, where the plate would go. This is an elementary mistake and unfortunately, this occurred twice during separate dining experiences. There is an historic reference why the knife blade faces inward, toward the centre of the place setting. So happy Googling and exploring.
Upscale Comfort Food
The Café provides food that is unassuming, well prepared and seasoned. Some chefs and kitchens plate food like art. There is a certain “wow” factor reaction from the visual. This is not the case with the Café. The food styling is in line with comfort food rather than a gastronomic experiment of fine dining. However the cuisine is upscale by the ingredients and techniques used to prepare it. The flavours work in unison with each other, pleasing the palate in the process.
Portion, Pricing and Evaluation
Now to the nitty gritty of is this dine worth it? Yes, it’s worth it! The The Social Diary gives the Café Westerly Rhode Island dine four stars. This dine could have received five stars, if not for the mishap with the steak knife blade in the wrong direction. Place settings do matter! However, this does not negate the fact that the Café Westerly is an excellent place to dine. There are many dining choices, so it is important to give credit where it’s due.
The portion size is in line with restaurants of similar calibre. Having tried a variety of offerings on their menu, it is challenging to pinpoint one course that was better than another. The soups are always a welcome selection, given the cooler weather. We always have a meat selection, whether that is beef or chicken. We look at the temperature and techniques used to prepare the meat, as well as the cutlery offered.
There was one instance when the meat was a “tough” sell. The knife did not glide through the meat. Additionally, on the most recent dine, the plate was quite slippery on the slick table top. A non-slip placemat or charger would have worked in that instance.
Conclusion4
The Café Westerly Rhode Island
The Social Diary always refers to service as a dance, from greeting, seating and eating. This whole process tells a unique story about the restaurant and its people. Service is the engine that runs the whole operation. This goes beyond place settings and cutleries.
In The Café Westerly Beyond Yelp Review, the beating heart is the family. The team works in unison, and helps each other to succeed, together with the managers. This restaurant is a top-down success. You can see it in the ebb and flow of service, to the excellently prepared meals and vibrant environment.
- This story was updated to include relevant information. It was reformatted for clarity. ↩︎
- Changed from “Check list.” This story is closer to an evaluation, and not line items or bullet points. ↩︎
- Fine dine restaurants are noted by their tasting menus. Many fine dining restaurants are Michelin starred or other notable recognition such as The James Beard Foundation. ↩︎
- Postscript added for in-depth observation on teamwork, service and management. Top-down success stories should be elevated. ↩︎