Metacom Kitchen Adds to Warren’s Dining Scene

When you enter the new Metacom Kitchen in Warren, your eyes are immediately drawn back to the open kitchen. One chef was expertly rolling out sheets of fresh dough for a fettuccini main. Further back, Richard Alaire, chef and co-owner along with his wife Sue, stands at the pass, where he can survey the whole dining room.

It’s strange to think that it was just March when fuzzy green Irish hats were teetering atop an inebriated horde for Saint Patrick’s Day in this very building, when it was the Old Tinkers Nest Pub. After a complete gutting and renovation, the place is unrecognizable. The bar is the only memory of the former space, but, refinished, it fits right in with the new distressed wood aesthetic. Richard plans on taking advantage of the fact that the kitchen reaches out toward the bar by working closely with Bar Manager Steve Patterson with rapid spice infusions, like their Autumn infusion, made with gin, green cardamom, orange long pepper, rather than the typical pumpkin pie spices we’re currently being beaten over the head with.

Richard’s aim is to take approachable and moderately priced food and set himself ahead of the pack on execution, ditching the ceremony. The menu takes the familiar and adds a bit of intrigue and the technique of fine dining. For instance, their Rhode Island Mussels is a pressure-cooked, strained zucchini, tomato and onion broth with a splash of vermouth. Richard hopes his customers will find their

favorites, but also find something that they can’t quite put their finger on. For him there’s no conflict between a pretense-free place that attracts re- peat business and making intriguing food that gives him and his team a chance to learn and experiment.