The name is cleverly e.e. cummings-style lower case. The menu is counter-chic, typed on an old Royal manual found at a neighborhood thrift shop. The plates are mismatched thrift shop finds, too; the coffee mugs bear slogans like Mother and Tennessee State Fair.
Even the doggie bags are whimsically marked, "ate."
The food is determinedly downscale. Chicken soup and spaghetti and meatballs; chicken and rice, and roasted chicken with stuffing and mashed potatoes, along with entree prices that range around the low teens.
In concept and in its low-key, friendly ambiance, eat is brilliant, conceived by owner Charlie Robinson to fill a neighborhood niche. In a field of slick, upscale restaurants, eat feels like the late '60s swept back in, when we were going to reject the forces of materialism, reuse resources and live more simply.
One can see that Robinson and his staff had fun with this, and it makes for a lively, likable place. Eating at eat, though, is more of a mixed bag, in food and service, than one might want even at these prices.
Chef Jocelyn Goldsmith has the capacity to make the mundane taste special. In a phone interview, she explains that everything is made from scratch in the restaurant and several of the dishes reveal the benefits of such care. Fried clams, not something I usually crave, were wondrously light inside, crunchy without. They irresistibly evoked what one remembers and hopes to find at a beachside clam shack (and almost never does.) Plump oysters, corn, potatoes, plenty of pepper and a very light hand with cream distinguished the oyster stew.
The polish of a warm winter vegetable salad ordered as an appetizer on my first visit gave promise of a finely tuned hand. Tiny baby yellow beets, minute turnips, parsnips, slivers of roasted red peppers, and crisp-cooked bright Brussels sprouts were burnished with a balanced vinaigrette. The plate was beautiful, the flavors true and clear, the result satisfaction.
A white truffle pizza with a good thin crust and just enough shaving of earthy truffle along with Parmesan was another nice beginning, much better than an oddly constructed mushroom tart of crumbly, almost-burnt crust, thick filling and cheesy topping.
I wanted to like the plain-spoken entrees but found most of them too heavy. The roast chicken with stuffing and mashed potatoes boasted juicy breast meat carefully handled but the stuffing and mashed potatoes together made the dish boring, not brightened sufficiently by cranberries. A special of lamb sliced over vegetables looked like the blue plate special at a family-style restaurant all right. The roasted onions, big chunks of carrots and other vegetables were clumsy, the spaetzle needed more seasoning and the gravy was heavy and gelatinous.
Cheese ravioli covered with a thick spinach cream and clumps of steamed spinach also was a rich but heavy dish. Less sauce was a better bet, as in a thick-cut but lean pork chop with lots of mashed sweet potatoes and bright accents of dried cherries. Shrimp sauteed with lots of chili peppers and spices had just the right zing. But the accompanying monstrous mound of black beans and rice needed editing: it looked sloppy and tasted redundant after several bites.
Several fish entrees fare better, especially a simple oven-roasted bass over delicious potato-leek hash, the vegetables diced into a savory stew of contrasting white and pale green. Tomatoey broth and lots of garlic, cayenne and other spices gave bite to a seafood stew full of mussels, clams and salmon. And pan-seared salmon was barely undercooked so it stayed moist, but the fish was oversalted and the scallion potato cake underneath too oily.
Desserts are the only part of the menu not made at the restaurant. Coconut cake was worth the calories, a voluptuous end to the meal. But other desserts were ordinary, like the brownie sundae. Two cookies, certainly a reasonably priced ending at $1 each, were supposed to be chocolate chip and one oatmeal, but tasted exactly alike and very sparing in the chips. Eat has a succinct wine list and designer beer list with prices that stay in line with the food; none of the wines goes over $25. The little bar area has a friendly feel, especially toward the late evening when patrons drift in and the staff members come out of the kitchen still in their whites.
But the relaxed drift of the place seems to infect the wait staff, several of whom couldn't quite get the routine down. On the first visit there, the server apologized rather lamely at the end of the meal for forgetting drinks, having to be reminded about missing tableware and so forth. Certainly, the servers were friendly and polite but the room, not crowded but with tables too closely placed in several spots, seemed disorganized. Although many diners might say that formal service is off-putting, it's amazing how uneasy service that is off-kilter and badly timed can make one feel.
In an era when people are eating out many more times a month than for a special occasion, eat could fill a valuable niche: home-style food at reasonable prices in a restaurant setting. Now if some of those glitches can be smoothed out.
Tips & hits
