Chef Jules Ramos has a winning way with restaurants. At the late InProv and Angels, and the great Mills Tavern, he created dishes that won accolades and gained loyal followings. Two years ago, he opened his own upscale place, Moda, designed by co-owner Dino Passaretta, and the trend has continued.
As with any restaurant that lays claim to chi-chi celebrity, as much attention has been paid to the esthetics of the place as to what happens on the plates. That credit goes mainly to Passaretta, who has managed restaurants and lounges from New York to Mexico City. He and Ramos, both Providence natives, met when they worked at Café Nuovo some 10 years ago.
Entering Moda, you walk into a sleek and striking lounge area, under a muted mirrored ceiling of copper-colored Mylar. The bar has LED panels behind the bottles that shift colors to change the mood of the space. Going up the stairway to the dining room, you pass under a graceful chandelier made of a cream-colored material echoed by hanging lamps upstairs. The crisp design is maintained by curved-back bent chrome chairs, but is softened a bit by walls composed of chocolate-brown leather panels, separated to form grids in the same burnt-umber of the ceiling. In warm weather, seating outside is appealing because of the waterfront view, although sitting inside provides an equally pleasant visual treat.
Dining at a window table, we had the best of both worlds, and looking over the summer menu pulled us out of our surroundings and into our appetites. There is a raw bar, of course, to not disappoint those inspired by the water. But the appetizers and salads ($7-$10) offered too many interesting temptations to settle for a plate of oysters. The crab rangoons have blue crab, rather than a less flavorful variety. A comfort food BLT salad has strips of bacon with its iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and blue cheese dressing. This kind of culinary concern and imagination pose a promising combination.
We shared an appetizer and a salad. The lobster and crab was an appealing combination for chowder, but I wanted to see Moda’s take on fried calamari. An elegant variation on the must-offer Rhode Island appetizer can be a restaurant’s signature. This version was top-shelf and unusually tender — probably pounded — but also remarkably greaseless, each ring with its thin coating of rice flour as dry as a rice cake. The marinara dipping sauce was tasty and mildly spicy, with a delayed heat that you might not even notice until it draws your attention. The squid was served in a small black kettle, cast iron like the small frying pan that hot, sweet corn bread came in, in lieu of a same old bread basket.
Johnnie’s arugula salad was also carefully designed in all its details. Raspberry vinaigrette sprinkled on, instead of tossed, providing a pattern on a stem-in pile poofed up like a bouffant hairdo. Sun-dried tomatoes lay in heaps, toasted almond slices were evenly distributed, and it all covered several triangles of dried ricotta. It was pretty and delicious.
