Dining Review: Saint Martha in Warren

Photography by Angel Tucker

The restaurant at 40 Market St. has been home to several notable culinary endeavors — notably, Eli’s Kitchen and Hunky Dory — that have used the unassuming space to secure Warren’s reputation as an emerging restaurant scene. But the town’s status has remained tenuous: A few stalwarts draw in diners from Providence and Bristol, while others have quietly shuttered their doors. (More recently, it was Richard Allaire’s Metacom Kitchen, yet longtime residents can still remember Simone’s leaving its post way back when.) 

Potato gnocchi. Photography by Angel Tucker

But where Hunky Dory occupied the space with Southern goodwill and a healthy dose of pimento-laced camp, Saint Martha is playing it straight. Owners Corinne Kelly and Keith Vanetti (who heads the kitchen) opened the restaurant last October and though the menu clearly follows a farm-to-table blueprint, it’s the redesign of the physical space that manifests Saint Martha’s character. 

Much of the dining room’s design is purposely upcycled: an original tin ceiling, engraved coupe glasses, an eclectic array of stoneware in a variety of patterns that run the gamut from French flea market teacups to leopard print dessert plates. It’s a style that’s become increasingly popular in an environmentally conscientious age, but Kelly and Vanetti do it with sincerity rather than kitsch. The decor has a few aesthetic reference points — visions of Flan y Ajo and Faust flash briefly — but the vibe culminates in an experience that is both novel and warmly familiar. 

There are two defining elements to the restaurant: moody lighting that makes every meal feel like it’s been touched by twilight, and a series of European-style wood and wavy-glass partitions that separate the kitchen from the dining room. It reads differently to diverse diners — one man insisted he was back in Austria while another maintained it was manifesting a British pub — but the effect is singular: It’s a space that feels established. 

As it turns out, the kitchen is after the same thing. The menu turns over regularly, but ingredients are local and, consequently, stir up New England affection for the shifting of the seasons. There are mainstays, including squares of schiacciata (a bread similar to focaccia but thinner and crispier, made with einkorn, dark rye and semolina) served with frico whipped butter ($5). But nearly everything else is the culinary equivalent of Snapchat, a dish to be enjoyed before it disappears. 

Point Judith scallops with Macomber turnip and roasted maitake. Photography by Angel Tucker

A trio of seared scallops ($19) might be served on a late summer corn or a silky winter puree of turnips, each version a study in sweetened savory dishes with contrasting texture. The advantage of cooler months is that the kitchen offers numerous iterations of comfort food. There are whitefish croquettes — a marriage of kosher deli and arancini — served with cannellini beans and garlic aioli ($16). Or you could opt for one of the kitchen’s regulars, a flawless, pillowy gnocchi in Parmesan-rich beef ragu ($21). (Nothing about Saint Martha feels Italian until you order a plate of housemade pasta.)

But for a restaurant that focuses on the upper echelon of cozy, the biggest surprise on the menu is the year-round use of fruit that manages to regularly punch the palate. A lamb loin ate slightly tough but remained intriguing to the end because of mint oil and bright dollops of persimmon sauce ($27). The boldest dish, however, is a circus-like salad of radish and apple, persimmon, fig and feta ($15). It’s a panoply of colors — reds, greens, orange — and while every bite is slightly different, it all ends in an acidic rush of sweet pepper ferment sauce. It’s a curious, almost seasonless combination of ingredients that works seamlessly as a signature bite. 

The cocktail program, helmed by Autumn Elms, also loves a good fruit tinkering and every concoction shows off some unique syrup, shrub, juice or zest. Like the food, however, it’s the alchemy of ingredients that matters in the end and nearly all read as a harmony.   

Interior of Saint Martha. Photography by Angel Tucker

This pursuit of balance isn’t entirely exclusive to small businesses, but it is common, and at Saint Martha, it’s pervasive. Servers pluck details about their diners into conversation, and diners are quick to share those particulars as well. “You know, I’ve been making syrups for years,” says a sweater-clad man with a cocktail in hand. “I’d be curious to talk to you all about your process.” “You’re on!” responds the server, who is already eyeing the bar supply. 

Smoked whitefish croquettes with cannellini beans, pickled onions and roasted garlic aioli. Photography by Angel Tucker

That bar is an easy place to spend the evening as it situates diners directly off the stained-glass ensconced kitchen. It’s also a good place to graze, although entrees are not often small plates. There’s always a fish (often cod, but depending on the season, it could be tautog or halibut) in green crab nage with saffron mayo ($28), which tastes entirely unlike it sounds to someone suspicious of mayonnaise. It’s a silky, almost sweet dish, uniformly light and delightful. 

Hunter’s stew ($27–$35) is another story with varied characters — sometimes chicken with sofrito and Castelvetrano olives while, on other nights, rabbit with root vegetables. (Would I have liked for the rabbit to be stewed into oblivion instead of needing a knife? Yes, but not a deal breaker.)

Radish salad with einkorn schiacciata flatbread and a cocktail. Photography by Angel Tucker

For all the pronounced European air though, dessert at Saint Martha is the most American of the courses in that it’s overtly and unapologetically indulgent. There are usually four offerings, one of which might include a salty, intense miso caramel drizzled over pie or ice cream, and another that could be similar to a cranberry ginger meringue. There’s also a chocolate-rye cake that comes as a massive wedge with a variety of frostings. If it sounds random, it eats like a kid’s birthday cake, full of celebration and butter. Though perhaps this mountain of sugar isn’t as out of place as it seems. 

For all its romantic, mature leanings (it’s not unusual to see an entire room full of diners over fifty), Saint Martha is already a spot that draws in people to break bread and remember that they’re part of an extended community. Warren may have been feeling the loss of Metacom Kitchen, but a couple of newcomers have managed to set a table that feels entirely true to the town and to itself. 

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SAINT MARTHA

40 Market St., Warren, 401-561-0222, stmarthari.com 

The cranberry ginger meringue dessert at Saint Martha. Photography by Angel Tucker

Open for dinner Thursday–Monday; reservations recommended. 

Wheelchair accessible. Street parking.  

CUISINE: Modern New England with a European accent. 

CAPACITY: Forty-ish. 

VIBE: The bistro you found on vacation and returned to each night. 

PRICES: Snacks and appetizers: $5–$19; entrees: $20–$35. 

KAREN’S PICKS: Apple and radish salad, scallops, gnocchi, cod with green crab nage.