How do you approach a new restaurant that's had as much fanfare as Mill's Tavern? You just plunge right in, bringing along visitors who are equally enthusiastic in their love of food. In this case, our daughter and son-in-law from Seattle were eager to check out this newcomer to the Providence restaurant scene.

From the valet parking and refolded napkins to the San Pellegrino in an ice bucket, everything at Mill's Tavern is done with quiet panache. The pacing of the service, the comfortably elegant decor (by Kim Nathanson D'Oliveira), the imaginative menu (with ex-X0 chef Jules Ramos in charge) -- all are intended to make customers feel coddled. And we did.

Co-owner Jaime D'Oliveira has been in the restaurant business for 28 years: working at a Newport Creamery when he was 15, later joining Al Forno for five years, and opening, in 1989, the widely-acclaimed Angels -- where the cuisine led Food and Wine to cite him as one of the country's top 10 chefs. After Angel's, he oversaw the establishment of 10 Capital Grilles and made a connection to Ken Cusson, who would become his co-owner at Mill's Tavern.

Word has it that the partners spent a cool million to create this 160-seat restaurant, complete with wood-burning oven, wood rotisserie, and wood grill, in the former Pilgrim Mills building. Most of the old pillars have been given a dark patina, though some have been rebuilt with rough-hewn ledgestone. It's the classic "everything old is new again" look, with references to colonial taverns in the globed chandeliers and wide plank floors and to a seaside wharf in Patucci Shehan's oyster-shell mosaic at the raw bar.

And that's where the menu begins, with oysters and littlenecks on the half shell, poached shrimp, crab claws, and Mill's seafood salad, or a shellfish platter for $38. Our party moved on to look at salads and soups, with an early summer tomato salad ($8) for Sabrina, and Maine lobster chowder ($8) for Stefan and for me. The chowder was redolent with thyme, textured with tiny, diced red bliss potatoes and corn niblets, and scrumptious with chunks of lobster meat. The salad featured unusual heirloom tomatoes and some smaller yellow and green varieties, all sliced with shavings of dry ricotta and sprinklings of fresh oregano. Both salad and soups were generous, with plenty to share around the table.

For entrees, we pondered 17 choices, from the oven, rotisserie, stove, and grill, and, without quite planning to do so, we ended up with one from each: rack of lamb ($24); suckling pig ($21); halibut ($21) and swordfish ($22). Our attentive waiter, Denis, suggested we order two sides for the table, so we got mashed potatoes ($5) and asparagus ($7).

As it turned out, the rack of lamb was served atop goat cheese-mashed potatoes. The tiny chops were encrusted with Pomerey mustard and horseradish, and they suited Stefan just fine. Never one to pass up something in the pork line, Bill savored his spit-roasted pig with mashed sweet potatoes and braised Swiss chard. The pork was brushed with a tasty house barbecue sauce.

The women at the table turned to their seafood. Sabrina was drawn to the halibut partly for its blood orange and peach salsa, and she described the fish itself as "melt-in-your-mouth delicious." The bed of crab and potato hash was another fine companion. My swordfish steak, expertly grilled and also terrific, was the only unaccompanied entree at the table, though the red bliss potatoes with fried shallot rings and the wood-roasted asparagus quickly filled the gap. The swordfish had layers of taste, from the smokiness of the grill to the pungent capers and mustard sauce draped over it to its own characteristic sweetness.

As if all of that weren't indulgence enough, pastry chef Robin Toste's dessert menu now demanded our attention. Among others, it listed Angels' angel food cake with chocolate sauce; a summer fruit gazpacho with avocado sorbet; a peach-and-strawberry cobbler; and a Portuguese bread pudding with a Madeira caramel sauce ($7 each). We decided on the latter two, and enjoyed them both. The bread pudding was moist with plump currants and accented by the swirl of sweet sauce at its base.

What I have left out? The cheese plate ($9), with a choice of three from six offerings; a good martini; great wines by the glass; a seasonally changing menu; and terrific acoustics -- in the packed restaurant, sitting next to the open kitchen, I never felt I had to shout at my tablemates. It's really quite a special place, in a city full of special places. Welcome back, Jaime.

Issue Date: August 16 - 22, 2002