XO

X still marks the spot

by Johnette Rodriguez

124 North Main St., Providence, (401) 273-9090
Open Sun-Thurs, 5-10 p.m., Fri-Sat, 5-11 p.m.
Major credit cards
Sidewalk access

When the artful and trendy XO Café opened in 1997, it fit into its surroundings at the foot of College Hill like a canvas finding just the right frame. Step into the bar, with its carefully orchestrated mix of elegance and funkiness and you might swear the place was set up by RISD students.

In fact, XO is a collaboration between co-owners John Elkhay and Rick and Carol Bready, with Carol designing the black and gold theme, Rick overseeing the bar and veteran restaurateur Elkhay, along with fusion genius Jules Ramos, developing an imaginative and exciting menu. Nothing is quite what you expect it to be at XO; everything has a twist, and you leave with your head spinning with new ideas.

The artwork is as stimulating as the food. Bready painted a large mural with familiar faces in the bar, from Brando to Groucho. Eric Boyer did the black screen nudes that hang on one wall of the dining room. Everywhere you look, there's something to catch your visual fancy. In the cigar-friendly bar, the XO team has dreamed up a baker's dozen cocktails to tempt you, along with Beamish stout and Stella Artois on draft, and a broad selection of wines.

And then you turn to the menu, which sets other senses in motion. The salads feature an "egg-free" Caesar, and the appetizers span the globe, from the Far East to Venice, sometimes within the same dish. Elkhay's signature Bento box appetizer ($18.50) allows you to taste half of XO's beginners, so we chose that, along with a plate of smoked salmon carpaccio ($8.50). The latter was delicious, sliced so thin that it was transparent and served with a small mound of baby greens and a drizzle of wasabi oil.

The four items in the Bento box compartments were: calamari dipped in rice flour before frying (very light and crispy) with a smoked jalapeno mayonnaise; lobster wontons, the lobster filling mixed with a Thai mango sauce; roasted prawns with soba noodles; and boneless Szechuan short ribs with tamari braised spinach. The delicate variations played upon each item, from hot to sweet, from savory to smoky, creating a veritable symphony of tastes.

Bill and I were joined by a colleague with an affinity for fine food. From our vantage point in the main dining room, we had a good view of the wood oven, in which the pizzas are cooked (a nightly special, plus beef tenderloin with Yukon gold potatoes, three-cheese and rock shrimp with roasted corn, and pumpkin seed pesto, are on the menu) and where the chicken and pork are roasted (the chicken under a brick, so we hear).

Tempting as the pizzas were, we each decided on a dinner entree: striped bass for our friend ($22); pork tenderloin for Bill ($20); scallops for me ($24). Contrary to Rhode Island custom, you're not paying for quantity here but quality, with parsnip matchsticks and avocado slices atop the scallops, a piquillo pepper mole on the pork, and overnight-braised tomatoes along with the striped bass.

It was a bit difficult to get comments from my tablemates because they were so concentrated on their meals. The striped bass was crusted with chestnut flour before cooking, but the accompanying black "beluga" lentils, with the slow-simmered tomatoes and artichokes, were sufficiently distracting to receive the bigger compliment. Similarly, the roasted pork tenderloin seemed to fit the Bill quite nicely, but I only caught murmurings about the polenta cake, which was redolent with cumin and topped with cilantro oil.

I, on the other hand, took careful note of my main attraction: pan-seared "day boat," i.e. ocean scallops. As large as jonnycakes and as thick as a steak, they were expertly cooked, not overdone, and their heft was enhanced even more by the surrounding seafood stock that had been reduced to a glaze. The crunchy parsnips were a nice contrast to the soft butternut risotto, though I would have liked more bite to the rice grains.

XO's menu leads with its desserts, stating boldly: "Life is uncertain, order dessert first." In truth, two of the half-dozen offerings, the vanilla cake and the chocolate lava cake, are made-to-order, so you might want to consider the time factor. But even if you wait until the end of the meal to make your decision, you can't go wrong with the creme brulee trio, three tiny crocks balanced in an iron sculpture, their flavors changing daily. Ours were vanilla, blueberry and orange, and we all agreed that the orange was the winner, with its bright fresh taste.

The restaurant's name is up for interpretation -- a kiss and a hug, a tic-tac-toe game, or perhaps the label on a bottle of Singapore fish sauce (which is where Elkhay came up with it). But for most visitors, XO has come to mean a place that lifts you out of the everyday into something Xtra-Ordinary.