The stuffed quahogs get high marks for moisture, for flavor and for actually containing clams.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

NORTH PROVIDENCE — A reader wrote to recommend the North Side Grille, where she and a friend had a delightful meal in which “everything was freshly made and cooked to order” and “very affordable with a $1 drink special.”

A dollar for a glass of wine with any entree? Hard to believe, but true.

And so we were off in a flash.

Last July Curtis and Diana Bryant opened this airy, attractive restaurant in a former Bickford’s, which for many years had been a Mineral Spring Avenue landmark. In a subsequent phone call, Diana said they closed the place for a week to remodel and opened with a greatly expanded menu. She said that Curtis had worked for Bickford’s for many years and that the chain is a silent partner in their family-run operation. Diana said that both she and her husband and two sons “all do a bit of cooking,” along with a night manager who doubles in the kitchen.

The Bryants kept the breakfasts (one of the main attractions at the old Bickford’s) at the North Side Grille, but also expanded the menu to include things like Chunky Monkey pancakes and a Mama Mia omelette (Italian sausage, basil, tomatoes, mozzarella). They’ve also added many lunch and dinner items, plus a full bar service. Diana said she makes the marinara sauce, the polenta, the lentil soup, the caramelized banana dessert and many other items.

The end result?

You could spend all your waking day at the North Side Grille and be very, very happy.

Yes indeed, you can get a glass of house wine — merlot, chardonnay, white zinfandel — for only a buck with an entree order ($3.99 a glass by itself). Okay, so it’s not Beringer or Yellowtail or Robert Mondavi or Sutter Home, but hey! There are name brands for $4.99 a carafe from which to choose, as well. (There’s also $1 draught beer with entrees.)

There’s also a lot of charm in the decor. A good number of booths, some wide enough for only two, have white butcher paper over white tablecloths, plus pink napkins and green seats. The walls are sponge-painted a pale yellow and there are clay pots with a variety of plants stationed atop the panels that separate one row of booths from another. Those panels are high enough to offer some privacy and help make what actually is a large dining room seem cozy.

A bread basket was served with a most tempting and delicious dish of very garlicky olive oil, complete with slices of tender roasted garlic cloves which can be spread on the bread if one chooses.

I can’t recommend enough the restaurant’s stuffed quahogs ($5.99 for two), much better than many served at shoreline restaurants, which Diana said are made from scratch in the kitchen. Too often they arrive dry, crusty, overheated and so bread-y one wonders whether the only real clam part of the order is the quahog shell it’s served in. The North Side version is a marvel, very moist with big pieces of actual clams and fresh parsley. Get an order for yourself and it could be an entree.

Still hungry for more clams? The clams zuppa ($9.99) is a big bowl with a dozen littlenecks steamed in a hearty tomato broth with chunks of spicy chourico swimming in it. I always love the mix of the Portuguese sausage with clams or mussels and the North Side does the dish proud. If you’ve eaten all the bread with the garlic oil, order more. For this is a perfect dish for dunking. You wouldn’t want to miss any of the broth.

Before the entrees, you get either a soup or salad. The lentil soup was robust and full of the flavor of the little seeds. Another choice was New England clam chowder (plus Rhode Island red chowder on Fridays), but I settled for a garden salad. It was a large plate of very crisp mixed greens, with slices of cucumber, crunchy croutons and several sweet grape tomatoes. The bleu cheese dressing was creamy and rich with quite a lot of honest-to-goodness chunks of cheese in it.

The 12-ounce Tuscan Sirloin ($20.99) was done to a perfect slightly less than medium. The menu promised that the Black Angus steak would be comparable to those served at expensive steak houses. One bite and who could argue, for it was juicy and flavorful in its deep red heart. It was topped — smothered really — with caramelized onions and slices of portobello mushrooms cooked in a garlic butter sauce. All this decadence was crowned with shavings of Parmesan cheese.

On the side was a bowl of a very nice coleslaw, as well as crisp homemade potato chips that certainly showed an inventive touch by the kitchen staff.

To all this was added, for the sake of the review if not the waistline, a side of onion rings ($4.99) which was a much larger basket than we’d expected. The hand-cut rings had been lightly fried to a delicious crispness. They reminded me of the onion rings served at Arnold’s on Cape Cod, the ultimate onion ring as far as I’m concerned, although these were a slightly thicker cut.

The Seafood Fra’ Diavolo ($17.99) was not so very “diavolo” (it almost never is in New England), although it could have been if I’d taken up the offer of the red pepper flakes from our very efficient and cheerful waitress, Sandy. A big bowl of linguini in a light tomato sauce was topped with several fat and tender sea scallops, tender calamari rings, rich-tasting large shrimp and a quartet of littlenecks in their shells. It was a seafood medley of whose praises I’d be glad to sing any time.

Dessert seemed out of the question after that big meal. There was a cheesecake and a carrot cake, though neither are made in house. But then we heard about the caramelized bananas ($4.99) which changed our minds when Sandy said they were made right here (“from the banana tree growing out back?” I wondered aloud). It was enormous. A big bowl held two sliced bananas, heated in a sweet and gooey caramel sauce that Diana says is a house specialty, adding that she also makes the desserts for the Thursday free dessert nights. The bananas frolicked around a large scoop of vanilla ice cream, topped with toasted slivered almonds, the caramel sauce and spurts of whipped cream. Heaven on a plate, I’d call it.

Next time it will be a full order of the quahogs and the caramelized bananas for me. Who could ask for anything more?

North Side Grille, 1460 Mineral Spring Ave., North Providence, (401) 354-4244. northsidegrilleri.com Casual. Wheelchair accessible. Child seats. Call-ahead reservations for large parties Fri. and Sat. nights. AE, MC, V, DIS. Parking lot. Breakfast 8 a.m. to noon Tues. to Fri.; to 2 p.m. Sat. and Sun. Mon. open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lunch 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tues. to Sun.; to 3 p.m. Mon. Dinner 3:30 to 10 p.m. Tues. to Thurs.; to 11 p.m. Fri. and Sat.; to 9 p.m. Sun. Appetizers $3.59 to $9.99. Entrees $11.99 to $20.99. Wines are $1 to $8.99 by the glass; $15.99 for a bottle.BILL OF FARE

Dinner for two at the North Side Grille might look something like this:

White zinfandel…$1.00

Chardonnay…$1.00

Stuffed quahogs…$5.99

Tuscan sirloin…$20.99

Seafood Fra’ Diavolo…$17.99

Caramelized bananas…$4.99

Total food and drink…$51.96

Tax…$4.16

Tip…$11.00

Total bill…67.12

mjanuson@projo.com