01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, April 27, 2006

MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal Arts Writer

WARWICK -- In 1801, when stagecoaches rumbled along the Post Road, Henry Remington built his house on the well-traveled thoroughfare running between Boston and New York.

There have been many changes to the neighborhood since those days. But the Federalist house built by Remington, who fought in the Revolutionary War, remains a landmark in the heart of Apponaug. Despite renovations and additions over the past 200 years, the front of the building looks pretty much the same as it did to travelers from a long-gone era.

In the 1930s and '40s, it was known as Biff's Cafe, and more recently it was the Boat House Tavern. But for the past six years, it has been The Remington House Inn, owned by brothers Pat and Mike Berek. They named it for Remington and added the "inn" part, although it has never taken in guests.

Several years ago, the previous owners added a cavernous lounge at the back of the building, so the Remington House seems a lot larger inside than one would have guessed from the outside. When we arrived for dinner shortly after 7 in midweek, the big parking lot behind the restaurant was nearly filled. Yet our table, set cozily in a bow window, was surrounded by many empty tables.

"The lot's almost full, but where are all the customers?" we finally asked Matt, our affable young waiter. He told us that a lot of people were in the lounge, and that there was a party of 25 just around the corner in an adjacent dining room.

Aha! We could hear them chattering away in the background, as well as a woman who was seated facing us about 25 feet away in our room. She seemed to have been appointed to entertain the other three people at her table, not to mention the person who had rung her cell phone. We could hear every word she said to the phantom caller.

With its low ceilings and wooden floors, the Remington House is not a place for quiet dining, although we guessed that with a full house, which often happens on weekends, the noise would meld into a dull, indistinguishable rumble.

Our window seat

The Remington House serves meals in several interconnected rooms. Some of the walls between them have been removed, giving the place a sense of both airiness and intimacy.

Our little dining area had a small fireplace across the room from our window seat; a slightly larger fireplace was just around the corner. Both now burn gas, although on this warmish night neither was burning anything.

The walls are a pleasing mustard color, with thick vertical beams shoring them up at what must be strategic, though seemingly randomly spaced, locations. A lone beam stands floor-to-ceiling in the middle, where the small dining rooms come together.

The floors in the older parts of the restaurant are hardwood; those in the oldest part near the big fireplace are plank flooring. Small chandeliers -- some pewter, some brass, no two alike -- add a soft glow.

Matt turned out to be that rare breed of waiter who knows instinctively what a customer really wants, even when the customer orders something else.

I ordered the Caribbean Martini ($7.25) and my dining companion the Key West Martini ($7.50). After Matt returned from the bar and put the drinks in front of us, we each took a sip and declared each to be exactly what we had wanted, mine on the sweetish side and my companion's a bit on the sour with its twist of lime.

Then I realized, Hey! Why is my "Caribbean" reddish and your "Key West" pale green with a twist of lime? The Key West is supposed to have "a splash of cranberry juice" and Caribbean Hangar 1 Lime Vodka.

Clearly, we'd each been given the other's drink. So we switched. But after one sip of the drinks we had actually ordered, we both decided we liked the other's better and switched back.

When I later mentioned the mix-up to Matt, his face turned red for a second. Was that an indication, perhaps, that he wasn't really the World's Greatest Psychic Waiter? Ah well, I'll still give him the benefit of the doubt.

Unusual, interesting

The drinks were potent, so it was a good thing we didn't drink them quickly, thus giving us time to mull over the extensive appetizer list with clear heads. Alongside such mainstays as fried calamari, shrimp cocktail, chicken fingers and wings, mozzarella sticks and potato skins, there were so many unusual and interesting choices.

A portobello mushroom is stuffed with crabmeat and cracker crumbs, served over a mesquite corn cream sauce ($6.99). The shellfish in the Clams Remington ($8.99) are sauteed with chourico, fresh tomato, garlic and onion, served over a thick crustini. The two potato cakes ($5.99) are deep fried and served with a basil pesto cream sauce. A shrimp and scallop pizza ($8.99) is topped with baby shrimp, scallops, fresh tomato, scallions, feta cheese and fresh herbs, finished with a drizzle of dill sour cream.

That pizza tempted, but then we spotted the Seafood Skins ($6.99) -- a potato topped with a blend of four cheeses, baby shrimp, small Bay scallops and scallions, with the dill sour cream on the side. It had some of the same ingredients as the pizza, after all.

A delicious surf-and-under-the-turf concoction, it was a mild-tasting treat that featured four crispy potato skins filled with a seafood lover's delight.

Even better was the Shrimp Remington ($8.99) -- four oven-roasted jumbo shrimp wrapped with lean slices of prosciutto, inside which were bits of roasted red pepper and fresh mozzarella.

The shrimp were fanned out atop a lemon beurre-blanc. It was a heady combination, the sweet, buttery lightness of the sauce and cheese and the delicate flavor of the shrimp contrasting nicely with the sharp saltiness of the prosciutto.

My companion declared that a meal could be made of two orders of the exceptional dish. I had to agree.

Out of the ordinary

Like the appetizer list, the entrees range from the familiar -- grilled pork chop, chicken Parmesan, filet mignon, veal piccata, lamb chops, chicken marsala, baked scrod, baked stuffed shrimp -- to things more out of the ordinary, with the pasta entries having the most pizzazz.

The Southwest Pasta ($15.99) -- "sauteed beef tips, garlic, onion, fresh tomato, scallions and corn in a Southwest-seasoned cream sauce served over penne" -- beckoned. So did the Basil Cream Shrimp and Chicken ($15.99) -- "sauteed shrimp, chicken, garlic, onions and fresh basil in a pink sauce served over penne." Then there was Mediterranean Pasta ($14.99) -- "sauteed pork medallions, garlic, onion, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, fresh tomatoes, feta cheese and spinach in a light sauce served over fettucine."

But my companion chose the New Orleans Pasta ($16.99), which Matt said was new on the menu -- "sauteed chicken, pork, littlenecks, shrimp and chourico with garlic, onions, tomato in a creole cream sauce served over penne." I, in a Portuguese mood, went for the Pork and Clams ($15.99), which sounded not far off a dish I'd enjoyed a few weeks earlier in Fall River. The Remington House version included "sauteed pork medallions, clams, chourico, garlic, onions and fresh tomato in a spicy brown red sauce served over white rice."

Despite their sharing pork, chourico and other ingredients, the dishes tasted different, especially in their sauces.

Although the sauce on my Pork and Clams was spicy indeed, it was a friendly kind of spiciness, not enough to overwhelm the milder flavors of the large, cut-with-a-fork pork medallions, nor the clams in their shells. The rice, too, was just the right touch to offset the spiciness of the chourico, garlic and chopped onion.

My companion's New Orleans Pasta had a mild, rather sweet and creamy sauce, allowing the gentle flavors of the three large shrimp, chunks of tender pork and chicken and the littlenecks to find their own voice. If pressed as to which of the two dishes we liked better, I believe it would have been a tie.

Pat Berek, reached by telephone the day after our visit, said the recipes for many menu items come from him and his brother, with "about 30 percent" from chef Cliff Cameron, a Johnson & Wales graduate. The Pork and Clams were Cameron's.

Generous portions

The portions at The Remington House Inn are generous and the prices surprisingly low for such a feast. The highest-priced entree is $17.99, with most in the $14.99-to-$16.99 range and several even below that.

"One thing my old boss (Al Castiglioni of Chardonnay's in Seekonk) taught me was to serve the masses, not the classes," said Berek.

So it was no surprise when the desserts we'd ordered arrived and we saw that each easily could have fed two people. Nevertheless, all by myself I greedily gobbled down the Apple Galette ($6), which Matt had described as a sort-of apple tart, which is how it appeared on the bill.

Soft, moist chunks of baked apple sat atop a flaky, wonderfully chewy baked dough base. That was topped by an enormous scoop of vanilla ice cream and a dollop of sweet whipped cream. Heavenly.

Possibly even better was my companion's Jamaican banana sundae ($7), which arrived in an even larger bowl than the ample one used for my apple tart. Warm, soft banana slices had been sauteed in rum and brown sugar, served with a slice of angel food cake flanked by two big scoops of vanilla ice cream. If the Caribbean Martini didn't take one away to warmer climes, the Jamaican banana sundae certainly would do the trick.

I think next time I'll order that. Make it two, in fact, and put everything else in a take-out box!

mjanuson@projo.com / (401) 277-7276

Details, details

The Remington House Inn, 3376 Post Rd., Warwick. (401) 736-8388. Dressy casual. Handicapped accessible. No reservations, except for Mother's Day and Easter. AE, MC, V, DIS. Parking behind the restaurant. Highchairs. Sunday through Thursday 4 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 4 to 11 p.m. Bar remains open every day to 1 a.m. Appetizers $5.99 to $8.99. Entrees $11.99 to $17.99. Wines are $5 to $7.75 by the glass; $17 to $75 for a bottle.

BILL OF FARE

Dinner for two at The Remington House Inn might look something like this:

Caribbean martini . . . . . . . . . $7.25

Key West martini . . . . . . .. . . $7.50

Seafood skins . . . . . . . . . . . . $6.99

Shrimp Remington . . . . . .. . . $8.99

New Orleans Pasta . . . . . . . . . $16.99

Pork and Clams . . . . . . . . . .. . $15.99

Apple tart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6.00

Jamaican banana sundae . . . . $7.00

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $76.71

Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. $6.14

Tip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $16.15

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $99.00

THE MENU

This restaurant's menu:

projo.com/food/menus/