Forager and Sicilian pizzas, background, and orecchiette with rabe and sausage at Wildfire restaurant in North Providence.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

NORTH PROVIDENCE — Judging by the number of cars in the parking lot and the scarcity of empty tables at Wildfire on a recent Wednesday evening, it seems that the “brick oven pizza and bar” concept has caught on since its opening in May like, well, wildfire.

Wildfire comes from Frank DiBiase, who also operates both the Providence Oyster Bar and Providence Prime on Atwells Avenue. But this classy looking bistro (which, in the Rhode Island vernacular is “where Stuffies used to be”) is more moderately priced and has good-sized portions. I’m convinced that those are the two key ingredients to a restaurant’s success in Rhode Island. Judging by the number of people who were leaving clutching plastic bags of their leftovers, Wildfire has struck a chord. General manager Marty Goulding said in a later phone conversation that the idea was to give the place a hometown dining experience. “It’s upscale, but it’s a place where you can bring your grandparents and just share a pizza.” Although it can seat up to 250, it seems much more intimate.

A long bar wraps around a corner of the dining area, right up to the big gas-fired oven where you can watch your pizza being prepared by one of the cooks out in the open. Tall tables and chairs line the high wall opposite the bar which separates the bar area from the expansive L-shaped dining room. Despite the three big flat-panel TVs tuned to various sporting events over the bar, two other big flat screens in the dining area tuned to the Food Network and lively conversations going on all around, the place has a subdued tone. Tables are black with black seats and so are the banquettes, brightened by far-spaced stripes of orange, brown, beige and red. There are several black-and-white photos along the walls, featuring DiBiase with celebs Anthony Quinn and Bill Clinton on visits to his other restaurants and former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., who is a regular here, according to our cheerful server, Erin.

Although Wildfire bills itself as a “brick oven pizza and bar,” it’s apparent from the extensive menu that it’s much more than that. A quick look around to see what other diners were eating showed that very few had ordered one of the dozen pizzas on the menu. Instead, there were sandwiches — from a list that includes chicken parmigiana, grilled Greek tuna wrap, Parma prosciutto with provolone cheese — several kinds of burgers, paninis — including Tuscan skirt steak, Cuban pork and portabella with caramelized onion — or one of the many entrees — grilled Mediterranean Ahi tuna, grilled apple-brined pork tenderloin, flame-grilled Gorgonzola rib eye, twin tournedos of beef, lobster ravioli, gnocchi Sorrento and tagliatelle Bolognese among them. Prices are mostly in the $14.99 to $16.99 range, although the tournedos are $21.99 and the Gorgonzola rib eye is the priciest at $24.99.

After sipping a very good margarita and very sweet Planter’s punch and enjoying the delicious warm rosemary rolls served with a fragrant garlic and olive oil dipping sauce, we decided to start with an appetizer. Wildfire has a large selection that includes seared Ahi tuna, tomato bruschetta, mozzarella parmigianabut our first choice was sold out — braised littlenecks with vegetables, sweet Italian sausage and cannellini beans. Instead we ordered the sausage-stuffed mushrooms ($8.99), one of the house specialties.

Served in deep-dish crockery, the mushroom caps had been filled with ground sausage mixed with bread filling and topped with an Alfredo cream sauce. The stuffing had the rich flavor of the sausage, but with too much filler when we discovered an actual sliver of sausage in the bready concoction, it was greeted as a real find. The overcooked Alfredo sauce had had congealed to the consistency of melted cheese.

We ordered pizza — actually two — a difficult choice from a list that included a citron shrimp, clam, a BBQ chicken and, the most intriguing sounding, the Think Green, which was topped with cucumbers, red onions and kalamata olives. Pizzas range in price from $12.99 for a 12-inch eight-slice medium, to a larger eight-slice pie priced from $15.99 to $19.99.

In the interests of sampling as much as we could, we ordered the house specialty the Sicilian and a medium-sized Forager, which is a garden-like melange. The surprise was that although there were sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, caramelized onions, Asiago cheese, roasted garlic, plus rosemary and sage on top of the Forager, the thin-crusted pie was not at all soggy. One edge of the crust around the rim (and there was very little crust there) was charred. But the rest was cooked just right and the bottom was crisp without any burn signs. I could have done without the caramelized onions, which made it very sweet. But the other veggies made for a colorful and healthy meal.

The Sicilian had traditional ingredients — sweet Italian sausage, mozzarella, basil, red sauce — plus dabs of ricotta and those caramelized onions. The ricotta actually was a nice light touch. Curiously, however, considering the array of ingredients on both pizzas, one would have expected a more robust flavor. The unexceptional dough didn’t give the pizzas much pizzazz.

My dining companion’s orecchiette with rabe and sausage ($12.99) had a mild-tasting garlic and lemon sauce (complete with a slice of lemon in the mix). Besides the orecchiette, called “little ears” because of their shape, there were slices of sweet Italian sausage that added depth to the sauce, cherry tomatoes and, for a little zing, spicy broccoli rabe. Each ingredient maintained its integrity in this delicious dish.

My brick-oven turkey rustica ($15.99), a house specialty, had three good-sized slices of boneless turkey breast that had been marinated with rosemary, lemon zest and garlic. They added their fragrant touches to the meat, which had been taken from the oven just in time, the edges showing just a hint of char. The outside of the turkey was crisp, but the inside was moist and tender. On the side, a big mound of whipped red bliss potatoes and very fresh and spicy sauteed broccoli rabe were perfect. I could go for a plate of those alone.

For dessert there was a small selection. The only one made on the premises — a sort of dessert pizza topped with, among other things, chocolate sauce — sounded like one pizza too many for us. So we shared a chocolate-and-peanut-butter cannoli ($7.95) which was wonderful. Two thick cannoli were covered with a layer of hardened dark chocolate, then stuffed with very light, very creamy ricotta that had been infused with peanut butter. It was sort of like peanut butter cups for grownups. The cannoli logs sat, crosswise, atop swirls of chocolate sauce, with sliced strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream on the side.

mjanuson@projo.com