Oyster bar the catch of the day

By Katie Haughey, Staff Writer


In a sea of Italian restaurants, Atwells Avenue’s Providence Oyster Bar stands as a unique eatery that offers more than a dozen kinds of mollusks at any one time.



Michael Degnan, the restaurant’s general manager, said the restaurant keeps local oysters from Watch Hill, Moonstone Beach and Quonset on the menu, but also imports them from Prince Edward Island to Virginia and from the West Coast.

Such is the quality of the food and service at the Oyster Bar that it received an Award of Excellence from the Distinguished Restaurants of North America. Just three other restaurants in Rhode Island – Capriccio in Providence, Restaurant Bouchard in Newport and Sea Fare Inn in Portsmouth – have won the designation.

Degnan said the award is something the restaurant pursued for months.

“It’s a very intense process,” he said. There’s a 75-point inspection that mystery diners assess. Those undercover diners rate everything from the food and drink to the service and cleanliness of the restaurant. The assessment even includes the way they’re greeted at the door.

Winning the award is “really validating,” Degnan says, especially in a job where he considers a 60-hour workweek “slow.”

The Oyster Bar, which is owned by Frank DiBiase, opened its doors in 2000. At the time, DiBiase said, the concept of opening an oyster bar on Atwells Avenue, famous for its Italian cuisine, was “a little risky – but I think it’s proven to work out well.”

“Atwells Avenue is such a culinary hot spot in Providence that I thought being a little diverse would work,” DiBiase said. “There’s a lot of diner traffic out there.”

Outside the restaurant, the staff sets up tables for alfresco dining. The diminutive outdoor faÁade doesn’t hint at the spacious interior of the restaurant, decorated in a New Orleans theme. The 62-seat bistro is long and rectangular, boasts a polished bar with more than a dozen seats, gleaming floors and brown leather banquettes and chairs. An open kitchen offers diners a preview of what’s going to be on their tables, which are covered with butcher paper stamped with the restaurant’s logo.

In an alcove in the rear of the dining room, a booth dubbed “the mayor’s table” is where former Providence Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci was a frequent customer.

“He was here three or four days a week for lunch and dinner,” Degnan said. “When his car was out front, people came.”

“Buddy was a frequent customer, and like any well-known Rhode Islander who eats at our restaurants, it helps with our success,” DiBiase said.

Upstairs is a private function room that is booked almost nightly, Degnan said, for everything from sales meetings to anniversaries to birthday parties.

Guests in the room, which holds about 20 people, have their own wait staff and access to the full menu.

The menu itself is a collection of unique dishes, including buffalo fried oysters, smoked Scottish salmon and a rotating collection of oysters. While there are only 12 on the menu each day, the restaurant has about 40 varieties in its repertoire. There’s also a wide variety of fresh fish available nightly.

DiBiase also owns Providence Prime, a steakhouse next door to the Oyster Bar, Stuffies in North Providence and the Spring House on Block Island.



Published 06/18/2005
Issue 20-10

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