Dining Review: Hangry Kitchen in Pawtucket

Restaurants often fall into one of two categories — those that feel familiar and those that are determined to expand a diner’s perspective.

The former usually puts the customer in charge of their own experience: You order your favorite food, you’re fairly certain you’ll get exactly what you want and, ultimately, it’s a validation of established affections. The latter, on the other hand, puts the kitchen in charge. The goal is to upend the status quo and, on some level, destabilize a diner just enough to prove that a chef can change the world in several small bites.

Roti plate. Photography by Angel Tucker.

That experience, though — to be an attentive student for an entire dinner — requires dedicated focus that can make the meal as exhausting as it is exhilarating. But chef Stacy Deetz, whose resume includes New England restaurants and appearances on “Top Chef” and reflects her ability to command a culinary outlook, has settled in a space between those worlds.

Hangry Kitchen, owned by Deetz — formerly Cogswell — and her husband, Robert, overtly embraces whimsy. The restaurant resides on a quirky corner in Pawtucket, between a car dealer and a collision center. The space is not large — it holds about thirty-five people in total — and its color scheme of orange and bright purple points to an unadulterated energy that refuses to get caught up in authoritarian eating.

Beignets. Photography by Angel Tucker.

Tables are made from rustic wood and flatware glistens with an iridescence that suggests a first-apartment aesthetic and a determination to treat each weeknight as a party. Accordingly, cocktails come out in glassware that feels like corners of Epcot Center. Gin and tonics hang out in a pink, bell-shaped glass, cranberry-infused drinks come in Champagne flutes, and fruity rum is presented in fleur-de-lys goblets that feel like medieval France in the age of wine coolers.

The menu is largely made up of shared plates that are readily recognizable but have shape-shifted into something more complex. Think of it as bar food that’s been filtered through a Willy Wonka app. (The subtitle at the top of the menu says “Nom Nom Chronicles,” which gives an indication that Deetz has entered the phase of her career that fully eschews pretense.)

A line of seared dumplings ($14) comes to the table looking traditional but they’re not. Stuffed with bacon and squash and served on a shmear of miso butterscotch, it’s a smoky-sweet combination that cries out for a margarita.

Fricco fries. Photography by Angel Tucker.

Hangry Kitchen is a place for grazers and those who believe condiments are as critical to a dish as the focal point. It’s a point made by the fricco fries ($7) — a french fry/cheese stick hybrid — which are dunked in cacio e pepe sauce for emphatic joy. Or the beignets ($9), which eat less like fried dough and more like a spring roll stuffed with loaded baked potatoes. They’re sprinkled with a sour cream and chive powder that bears an uncanny resemblance to salt and vinegar potato chips and offers a welcome burst of tartness.

In fact, the fryer is responsible for most of the restaurant’s best dishes and, at the top of the list, are Carolina red rice arancini ($12). They manifest Lowcountry food fully, in a single bite: smoky, crunchy, layered with flavor and — with an added smoked aioli dripping over the top — essential eating. Even the bite-sized lobster rolls ($17), which can be downed in two bites, leave their mark with a bowl of frothy lemon butter that makes quick friends with anything dunked in it. (If Deetz ever decides the restaurant business asks too much of its players, the world would wait for a line of bottled condiments bearing her name.)

Steak tostada. Photography by Angel Tucker.

Some of the larger plates lack the intensity of the kitchen’s small dishes — which doesn’t make them bad; it just makes them less imperative. Jumbo shrimp in tomato and Tabasco marinade with lemon aioli ($17) sounds like it’s got all sorts of bite to it but it’s actually pretty mellow in both heat and tartness. And while chicken pot pie johnny cakes ($14) are a good homage to biscuits and gravy, the high pile of cakes tends to soak up the gravy before you can relish it. Very few items top twenty dollars though, which allows for more meandering and less guilt.

There’s a patty melt on rye bread with Muenster for those who simply cannot see their way to modernity, or the scallion roti which anchors an international pu pu platter of sorts. An amalgam of pickled vegetables, beet spread and sweet potato fries fills out the perimeter, but it’s the scallion pancake and jalapeño jam that offer the best, last bite of a meal here. Or you can start dinner with it and call the whole thing a bread basket which, for $8, might be one of the city’s best deals.

Salmon tartare. Photography by Angel Tucker.

It is the savory items that manage to offer the most creativity, not only in flavor but in texture as well. Crispy inevitably partners with soft, and sweet almost always ends up transforming into piquant. Desserts, on the other hand, lean entirely toward sugar. Rice pudding ($9) is tempered by an array of tart tropical fruit, but chocolate-peanut butter mousse ($11) and a warm lemon skillet “blondie” ($10) are studies in full-tilt sweet. If you want to embrace this approach with abandon, there’s also Hangry’s take on Dunkaroos — a nightly cookie paired with dipping sauce ($7) for those who thrive on nostalgia.

Ultimately, almost everything about the restaurant speaks to a determined youthfulness. Deetz has the technique to go old school and upscale but that’s not this gig. There’s something in this small space that feels like a 2 a.m. tramp through an episode of “Chopped,” where all things have been doctored, fried and come out coated in figurative sparkles. In restaurants that demand myopic attention and devout reverence, it can be easy to forget that food is actually fun — but that’s Hangry Kitchen’s mantra. It’s a reminder that food doesn’t necessarily have to change the world; sometimes it just makes the day better.

Chef Stacy Deetz. Photography by Angel Tucker.

HANGRY KITCHEN
542 Pawtucket Ave., Pawtucket, 424-5812, hangry-kitchen.com
Open for dinner Tuesday–Saturday; lunch on Saturday. Wheelchair accessible. Street parking.
Cuisine Creative iterations of old-school favorites.
Capacity Thirty-five between dining tables and bar seating. Sixteen on the patio.
Vibe Pop-up carnival.
Prices Shared plates: $7–$22; dessert: $7–$11.
Karen’s Pics Anything fried, and every condiment.