Bites Nearby: 1149 East

Not everyone can be at their best 100 percent of the time. Every human being including sports teams, business professionals, musicians, and restaurant crews have days where they rise to an occasion and perform exceptionally. And then there are those days where they fall short of the mark despite solid efforts. Falling short of a standard is not ideal, but it happens, and it's the response that sets the excellent apart from the mediocre. Acknowledgment, accountability, and corrective measures are what set a bad day apart from a downward trend.

A good restaurant having a bad day sums up the experience I had at 1149 East. It is located on Fall River Avenue in Seekonk right off exit 1 in Massachusetts from 195. I want to start off talking about the good stuff, because there is quite a bit. 1149 East opened in July 2009 in a newly constructed building. The stonework and landscaping are beautifully executed and an asset to the Seekonk landscape. The stonework continues throughout the restaurant, accompanied by nice tile, dark eclectic lighting, and dark leather booths. The interior has a beautifully designed bar space and restaurant layout.

 The menu had a great cross section of items, which offered something for everyone. It's like they started with a traditional American fine dining menu, and added a little extra class and local flair. The first page of the menu was heavy on seafood with some fantastic raw bar options, some delicious non-seafood choices and, of course, a chowder. The vegetable spring rolls were crispy and delicious, and I would have been happy to pick at least five other alternatives. The salad options with add-ins alone could have filled me up. Moving onto the entrées, again I was up against some tough decisions. I don’t know if it was my mood or the menu itself, but nothing jumped out as a clear front-runner. I could have picked any number of dishes from the pizza, pasta, specialty entrées, or seafood section. 

 I went for the lobster ravioli. It was a tough win over the pepperoni pizza. In retrospect, I should have gone with the pizza. My lobster ravioli was good, but came out at a temperature that was less than hot, and as a whole struck me as nothing special that came straight off the food service truck. The pizza would have at least guaranteed something that was started and finished in-house. Despite my difficulty in choosing, my fiancé, Amy, knew right away. She went right for the braised short rib. This was a big hit from the first time we dined here. It comes served as kind of a stew in a little cast iron crock. A friend we brought with us ordered a burger from the menu, which was a fantastic representation of a gourmet burger.

Though not everything was exceptional. 1149 East has earned awards for Best Business Lunch and Best Brunch. I’m sure they worked hard for these distinctions and earned them fairly, but the Thursday night dinner service we came in for was a touch off the mark.  The word "rushed" really sums it up. We were not rushed through our meal so they could seat the next table - on the contrary, the waitress was short with us, and seemingly busy and preoccupied for a restaurant that was about two thirds empty. When ordering, it would have been nice to receive a recommendation that a side would be fitting for the braised short rib. When the food is switched from the crock to a plate, it runs all over. It was not until we figured it out for ourselves and ordered a late side of mashed potatoes, that it accompanied the dish perfectly. We had to wait too long for the waitress to appear. We had three things in mind to ask for, and by the time I got to the third, I was yelling up the aisle as the waitress sped off. 

 As I mentioned earlier, despite the less than perfect experience this time, I like this place. The menu offers some fantastic variety. The outdoor seating is fantastic and the season is maximized with a fireplace and gas heaters.  Awesome touch.  It seems ironic to me, but shockingly consistent, that restaurants in general seem to be at their best when they are busy and running at full capacity.  One might think that on a quiet night, they would have little excuse for not executing every dish perfectly, but I guess volume helps to offset timing issues.  This must be why my lobster ravioli came out close to room temperature on a quiet night.