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Julian’s
A certain amount of funk
BY JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ
(401) 861-1770
318 Broadway, Providence
Open daily, 9 a.m.-1 a.m.
Food served until 11 p.m.
Major credit cards
Sidewalk access

When you undertake as ambitious a schedule as has Julian Forge with his seven-year-old restaurant on West Broadway, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, it makes sense to hire nine or 10 young cooks to keep the kitchen hoppin’. On a recent visit, I spoke with Forge and head chef Andrew Nicoll, who were proud of buying almost nothing pre-packaged for the restaurant and developing a clientele of devoted vegans and vegetarians.

A certain casual funkiness has always distinguished Julian’s. It’s there in the eclectic decor: original local art and memorabilia from Forge’s personal collections hang on the rough brick walls; a bicycle, a disco ball and mismatched chandeliers dangle from the ceiling; small hand-painted tables sit in the window niches. It’s there in the inventiveness of the menu. At breakfast, you can find several homemade hashes; at lunch, a pickled vegetable salad, with beets, cucumbers, Brussels sprouts, and peppers, all house-pickled; and at dinner, Greek grape leaves, Asian noodles, or Caribbean banana/coconut sauce on roast turkey breast. (It’s there, too, in Forge’s unfolding plans; Julian’s will undergo renovations during July, although a special menu will be served on the patio, with the usual bar service.)

The vegetarian angle at Julian’s came about through customers’ requests and young cooks who were interested in creating recipes using tofu, tempeh, soy milk, and other non-animal-based foods. The results include Julian’s own soy burger (served with smoked tomato ketchup, grilled onions, mushrooms, and spinach for $6), their own Italian tempeh sausage (with smoked tomatoes, white beans, and a portobello ragout over basmati rice, $13) and smoked, grilled tofu slices with a maple/chipotle sauce over grilled sweet potatoes and sauteed green beans ($12). These entrees exist alongside grilled sirloin, lamb kebabs, grilled chicken, tuna steak, and, on occasion, smoked venison.

Being a long-time vegetarian cook, cooking teacher, and even now, a mostly non-meat eater, I’m always curious about vegetarian preparations. Thus, on the first of two recent visits to Julian’s, I ordered the smoked tofu, served that time with avocado, grilled red onions, black beans and rice, plus baked wonton chips and a tamarind-cilantro sauce. It was delicious, with the tamarind sauce highlighting the smoky flavor.

On my second time around, I tried the tempeh sausage, as described above. Tempeh is a wonderful product, made from whole cooked soybeans that have been fermented into a dense, chewy cake, more meat-like in texture than one might think possible from a bean still considered by many Americans as cattle and hog fodder.

The cooks at Julian’s combine tempeh with spices and form it into sausage patties, a very generous amount of which was settled atop the portobello ragout and rice. My only problem with this entree was that the rice was undercooked. What made this dish memorable were the outstanding house-smoked plum tomatoes, which we had experienced on our first visit. When I took home the leftover tempeh and rice and beans, and mixed them with the mushrooms and tomatoes for a burrito filling, the smokiness of the tomatoes was what still sang out.

Bill’s choice of fettuccine with shrimp ($16) was even more successful, with the capers giving a lemony taste to the sauce, and the grilled shrimp and grilled zucchini were both excellent. A bit of anchovy, fresh basil, and Parmesan built other layers of taste into this dish, and we could hardly stop eating it.

A starter course of grape leaves with lentils, dried cherries, couscous, and a mint-yogurt sauce ($5.50) had similar multiple flavors bursting here and there. Though a bit tricky to eat, the grape leaves stuffed with grain and cherries were yummy, and the sauce was sparked by fresh garlic as well as mint.

Forge, with advice from his very capable cooks, likes to change the menu frequently, so that in-season produce and/or meats and seafood can be used to their best advantage. There’s always a blackboard packed with specials, and even the drink specials change — the June menu highlights a Òcream-sicle,Ó with Stoli Vanil and orange juice, and a Òwatermelon cosmo,Ó featuring Grey Goose Citron and watermelon Schnapps.

The proprietor is justifiably proud of the house-made desserts and house-smoked items, including the tofu, the tomatoes, and salmon. In May, the grilled smoked salmon was featured as an entree (it’s currently among the appetizers), and my friend ordered it, expecting a grilled salmon steak. Instead, she was served a heap of smoked salmon, a.k.a. lox, which had been heated on a grill. No matter what may have thrown off the schedule of house-smoking the salmon, the cook could have informed the waitress of the switch, so that she could have informed us.

Whether you view Julian’s as a gallery, a community hangout, or a place where you can bump into some amazing food, it’s definitely worth a stop for its own particular ambiance. And if it’s not raining sometime this year, grab an outside table — a great place to people-watch on Broadway or to chat with Julian himself.


Issue Date: June 27 - July 3, 2003
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