Tastemaker

Chef Jim Crosby Dishes Out Modern Diner Fare

Meet the man behind Crosby's Cafe

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In the restaurant industry there are newbies and lifers. Chef and restaurateur Jim Crosby is decidedly a lifer, snagging his first gig before he could even drive a car. He spent twenty-some years in the trenches, and then transitioned from employee to owner with a handful of homey spots to his name. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Crosby sticks with time-tested diner favorites like all-day breakfast platters – but he also brings a modern emphasis on fresh ingredients to the table. Earlier this year he parlayed his crowd-pleasing formula into Crosby’s Cafe in East Greenwich, where he’s already built a following with updated family fare served morning, noon and night.

How did you get your start in the restaurant world?
I’m 48 now, and I got my start washing dishes when I was 15, so you do the math! [Laughs] It was at my aunt’s and uncle’s restaurant in Warwick. They did a lot of local seafood, steaks and chops. Things everybody loves. After that, I never really left the business. I’m sort of carrying the torch, you know? I still do a lot of seafood – baked scrod, chowder – and things like a good veal chop on my menu, along with the all-day breakfast.

How would you describe your cooking style?
Just honest food. I’m not a flashy kind of chef. I want to give people what they want – lots of choices, good prices, things they might have grown up with but made a little better. We make almost everything in-house, and I’ve worked on most of the recipes for a lot of years to get them right. A lot of restaurants use jars of roasted peppers for example, to save time and money, but those don’t work well in recipes. They taste soggy. So we roast all of our peppers in the restaurant, and you can really tell the difference in the food.

What should I try when I come to Crosby’s Cafe?
Our chicken noodle soup. We make it from scratch, starting with a whole chicken. That way you get a great stock without pre-made chicken broth, which can taste too salty or artificial. Everyone tells me that it tastes like their grandmother’s soup, which is the best compliment. I love that. And you should definitely get the corned beef hash breakfast. It’s made with real corned beef, a lot of it, and it comes with a couple of eggs, crispy homefries and toast. It’s by far one of our most popular dishes. Practically everyone orders it. It’s totally a different animal than the mushy, greasy versions that a lot of diners serve, made out of a can.

You opened Crosby’s in a location long occupied by another restaurant, the Village Cafe. What did you hope to bring to the area?
I’ve always liked East Greenwich. It’s kind of like a miniature Newport. But for a time there were only high-end restaurants and low-end restaurants there, and not really anything in-between the two. I wanted to do something family-friendly at a reasonable price. I also wanted to give people a big range on the menu: If a husband wants hash and eggs and his wife wants a nice salmon dinner, they can have it here!

What were some of your challenges?
There was already good traffic in the area, so that wasn’t an issue. We focused on keeping the regulars while also attracting new customers. It can be hard to change a menu without turning off people who’ve been coming for years. We kept price-points similar to the previous restaurant’s, and good food goes a long way. We enhanced some of the old recipes – made them more modern – without changing them completely. Basically we just try to keep everyone happy, to make this a place where they want to spend time, bring their families and come back again and again.

What does “modern” diner food mean to you?
Well, familiar dishes, but made fresher. There should be more robust flavors, better execution. A lot of chefs talk about “farm to table” nowadays – and it’s not like we’re going out to the farm to pick out our eggs here, but we make a real effort to use fresh products and make things from scratch. That’s important to me.

After all your years in the business, what keeps you excited to go to work everyday?
When I look out at a dining room and it’s full of people, talking and enjoying their food. And when people come back to eat with us two and three times a week. A restaurant becomes sort of like its own community. There’s nothing more gratifying than that.

Crosby’s Cafe 431 West Main Street East Greenwich 884-2499

Crosbys Cafe, jim crosby, east greenwich, cafe, comfort food, so rhode island magazine, dining, food, rhode island

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