Front dish is seared duck breast with Mango-ketchup sauce and rear dish is crab cakes with Romesco sauce.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

The aromas wafting from the kitchen were intoxicating as we walked into Eleven Forty Nine Restaurant.

“What is that delicious smell?” I asked the server. She couldn’t tell me, confessing to not noticing any one thing as she became spoiled by the day-to-day interaction with the cuisine of executive chef Jules Ramos.

After three appetizers and a brick oven pizza, the dish I craved only by its scent was put in front of me. It was the short ribs served en cocotte, in a covered cast iron pot. They smelled of all the wonderful ingredients with which the meat cooks for 14 hours — a mirepoix of onion, carrots and celery, tomatoes, red wine and herbs including rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and juniper berry. They tasted even better.

Fragrance is only one of the intriguing things about Eleven Forty Nine. Its location is rather storied there at the confluence of Routes 95 and 4. People remember it as the home to Floyd’s, Camelot Court, Rosebud’s, Jason’s, with its in-ground swimming pool in the back, Paragon and Mario’s Bravo. That’s why the name that represents its address seems so very right.

This is the first entry into the restaurant wars by John G. Picerne, real estate developer, and Thomas L. Wright, a former senior vice president at Johnson & Wales University. They have hardly treaded lightly. They bought the restaurant at auction for $3.75 million and purchased the real estate for another $2.8 million. Then they reportedly did a million-dollar-plus total renovation. They hired staff with a track record: general manager Rand Robison from Newport Harbor Corp. (his background includes managing at Providence’s Capriccio’s and CafÉ Nuovo) and chef Ramos, whose career developed in Providence at Atomic Grille, XO, Mill’s Tavern and Moda.

Their money feels well spent, with a stylized space, attentive service and beautifully prepared and executed dishes.

An attractive outdoor patio area, enclosed for the winter, is warmed by a fireplace, which was roaring the night of one visit while the rain pounded just beyond the doors. The spacious lounge with its rectangular bar is set off from the dining room with a wall of glass block. The dining room booths are large and comfortable. The restrooms are spa-like with individual water closets, dark woods, a brown and turquoise color scheme and a lineup of wasabi lime soap and hand lotion.

Picerne and Wright have indeed created a metropolitan oasis in suburbia and Ramos is in top form here with his Asian influenced appetizers and specialty dishes.

Three small bite dishes — Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes ($8), Crispy Pork Dumplings ($8) and Asian Duck Breast ($10) — would be satisfying enough to make a dinner for two.

The crab cakes were amazing on their own. They use only the sweet meat of blue crabs, Ramos said after the visit. And they are 90 percent crab, a figure I wouldn’t quibble with as only a taste of onions and celery could be found. They are simply dusted with a panko flour before cooking, Ramos said. The crab is served with an excellent Romesco sauce that’s spicy sweet but with layered flavors. Ramos makes it with piquillo peppers emulsified with almonds, garlic, anchovies and olive oil and one could enjoy it with nothing else. The crab cakes also sit on a shaved fennel salad.

The Pork Dumplings were a wonderful delicate dish with ground pork flavored with ginger, garlic, scallions and soy wrapped in a wonton skin. They were two bites of heaven for each one and didn’t need the sweet hoisin BBQ sauce with which they were paired.

The duck was a full plate of seared then sliced Long Island duckling breast. This Asian influenced duck was marinated in a soy-sake blend before cooking, which imparts a lot of flavor. Candied pecans are a perfect garnish for the dish. Ramos’ Mango Ketchup is an interesting combination of mango puree, star anise and ginger.

We tried the brick oven pizza of the day ($12) with mushrooms and prosciutto but it had too many mushrooms to taste anything else. The Tomato with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil pizza ($10) enjoyed on a subsequent visit was preferable with a nice crisp crust and fresh flavors. I found that pizza, paired with a Caesar salad ($7) with the lightest dressing one can imagine and house-made herb croutons to be a lunch choice for two, or even three.

Beyond the One Pound Beef Short Rib ($19) that was excellent with its roasted vegetables and meat that falls off the bone, the Yellow Fin Tuna ($23) was a thick, perfectly cooked piece of fish with a most welcome teriyaki glaze that made it glow. It was served on a nice bed of sautÉed baby spinach. Ramos said all the fish at Eleven Forty Nine is from Foley Fish, the New Bedford, Mass., company.

I didn’t try the most expensive items on the menu, which are the steaks; a New York Sirloin is $34 and a bone-in ribeye is $36. Nor did I feel the need to go down the Italian route as the menu offers chicken Parmesan and four pasta dishes. Eleven Forty Nine’s menu is large and includes side dishes with vegetables and potatoes, but that may be too much food for most.

The wine list is elevated with addition of “Interesting Reds and Whites,” 10 half bottle selections and some 30 choices for wines by the glass.

Jason Vieira, the executive pastry chef, has a winning fall lineup of treats. On a separate visit just to fully appreciate them, it was hard to choose the best from among a Molten Chocolate Cake, Apple Crisp and Cranberry Walnut Bread Pudding (all $6). But the bread pudding, with those sweet cranberries and maple ice cream topping was at the top of that class, followed not far behind by the apple crisp with its cinnamon streusel. But I wouldn’t give back the gooey and glorious molten cake.

The moral of the story is to save room for dessert.

gciampa@projo.com