Rise and Shine

For the past few years, I’ve been driving by Riptides, the quaint restaurant inside the Grinnell Inn in Narragansett, and it always caught my eye. The colorful flowers and tables for two on the wraparound porch are lovely and tempted me to stop so many times. But there was always something that prevented me from checking it out, until now.

Under the threat of an early morning rain, we ducked inside and were surprised with the size of the dining room – quite large. The L-shaped counter offers eight stools, and there’s even a bakery on the premises if you want to grab and go. The young staff welcomed us warmly to Riptides. “Sit anywhere you like,” said one pretty girl with a ponytail. We grabbed a spacious table in the heart of the dining room.

We asked for coffee while we studied the extensive breakfast menu, and huge cups of java quickly arrived. All the basics are on one side of the laminated menu, while the other side offers the specials. And, what specials. I immediately started planning a return trip so that I could try the really interesting dishes.

On this maiden visit, I went with a real southern dish, a single egg over easy with home fries and plenty of sausage gravy served atop a flaky biscuit. The egg was cooked perfectly, and I found it impossible to eat just a few of the golden brown chunks of tender potato. The sausage gravy and the biscuit are what made this dish “southern” – a specialty I’ve experienced in the deep South, on road trips from Tennessee down through Alabama.

So I can scratch Riptides off my culinary bucket list. But I’ll be back there real soon, I hope. Let’s see… I definitely want to try the Breakfast Burrito, but the chicken and waffles will have to come first. Ever since I saw the Mildred Pierce mini-series on HBO, I’ve been craving that unusual dish.