Decades ago, back before Providence had a restaurant scene — or even a mayor with a rap sheet — elegant dining in Rhode Island was epitomized by a place in Newport with tuxedoed waiters, The Black Pearl.

A yachtsman who liked to eat well, a man with the delightfully old-money name of Barclay H. Warburton III, had transformed a seedy dock shack on Bannister’s Wharf like Cinderella. He named the place after a beloved sailboat, fitted it out with the restaurant equivalents of polished brass and well-oiled teak, and offered food that was up to his standards. Those standards have remained high.

We have still never eaten in the Commodore’s Room, the fancy dining room with its white-tie ambiance: forest green walls with black trim, period prints and illustrations of late 19th-century sailing, fine china and real silver. If I want to pay for ambiance, I can rent a Masterpiece Theatre video.

We recently had lunch in the adjoining tavern room, where the menu is much the same and the prices — between the smaller mid-day portions and the paper napkins — are lower. We could have eaten out on the patio, but there was a chill in the air and the interior was much more interesting. Large old nautical maps, discolored with age. Glass protecting the tablecloths from riff-raff, but the same high-gloss black trim of the posh room, which seems more appropriate here, since the bar would look inviting to a pirate in need of a grog: cable-reel tables, bend-wood and spindle-back black chairs.

Even for dinner, the tavern prices are nominally lower. Among the appetizers, the fried brie is a buck-and-a-quarter less, at $6.50; the escargot prepared with garlic butter for $8, rather than bourguignonne (red wine and mushrooms) for $9.50. Some of the entrŽes look to be identical in both rooms, such as the salmon with a mustard-dill hollandaise ($18.50 and $23) and the grey sole panetiŽre ($21.50 and $24). The latter was declared by our lunchtime waitress to be her favorite dish ($18.75 mid-day), rolled in crumbs, pan-fried, and served under a Champagne beurre blanc sauce.

But enough about shopping bargains. You come to The Black Pearl for a treat, and there are tempting opportunities here. If you’re in a brunch mood, eggs are served until 2:30 p.m., and in addition to omelets you can have eggs Benedict versions with crab or smoked salmon. Their clam chowder ($3.75/$5.75) is deservedly celebrated. Johnnie doesn’t like bacon or salt pork in her chowder, and when she asked whether it contained these and was told no, she was pleased. No, the waitress continued, it contains veal stock. Well, her loss, my gain. There is an extra heartiness to this rich version, chockfull of clams and yellow from butter as well as cream. It’s so popular, they sell it by the quart to go.

The "mussels Black Pearl" ($11.50) made up to my companion for that. A large bowl heaping with more than four-dozen black beauties was thunked before us. Fat, fresh, and Narragansett Bay’s own, they were in a milky broth topped with shreds of fresh basil leaves and begging for the crisp rolls set next to them. That and a couple of bowls of chowder would have made a meal.

My dining mate was glad she didn’t over-order, but when her bulging tarragon chicken salad sandwich ($7.25) came, she knew she’d be taking home half. The accompanying potato salad was tasty and the chicken came in big chunks, rather than mushed, but the expected licorice tang of the announced herb didn’t come across.

I considered having the recommended grey sole, or perhaps the chicken potpie for a cheap ($9.75) snack, but the list of items from the grill attracted me. Prices ranged from the $23 rack of lamb to the $13.25 chicken in hot pepper marinade. The brochette of shrimp and sea scallops ($17.25) won the appeal debate. The accompanying fried shoestring potatoes matched the adjacent julienned veggies, as though Martha Stewart was giving advice in the kitchen. But I was more impressed with the center of attention: three fat scallops and an equal number of medium shrimp, nicely grill-scorched and in a pool of beurre blanc flavored with lime and tequila. Quite delicious.

Delicious enough for us to return the following day for dessert. Everything is kitchen-made, from the traditional apple-raisin bread pudding to the hardly New England Key lime pie. But we indulged in what sounded like two even more interesting items. The French vanilla cheesecake ($5.25) was remarkably light as well as flavorful, under a choice of drizzled chocolate or berry sauce. The chocolate pecan pie ($5.75) had the decadent addition as a separate layer under the nuts, rather than adulterating the butter and corn syrup custard. Good decision. Like hiding a bar of chocolate inside.

Chef J. Daniel Knerr has kept the Warburton culinary pennant flapping in fine style. If the Black Pearl is still sailing, I’m sure it’s riding high.

Bill Rodriguez can be reached at billrod@reporters.net