Fun, Funky and Hunky Dory

When’s the last time you proclaimed that dinner was “fun”? The four of us who had a spread from Hunky Dory in Warren did just that. What’s this yummy crunch in my salad? How did they cut a pea pod vertically? Or corn on the cob? How did they get the batter on the chicken so light? And so it went for the meal from Sam Duling and Joanne Ray’s new restaurant. Duling’s answers to the above are: “sliced turnip”; “with a very sharp knife—we do it the hard way, the way it’s supposed to be done”; and “ah, there’s a secret to that!” Duling started working in diners in his native Ohio at 13; he gradually moved up to cooking at upscale spots on Nantucket; in Charleston, South Carolina; and in Providence. It was in Charleston where he truly saw the advantage of “going local” for ingredients and also rediscovered his love of Southern food (his mother and grandmother hailed from Georgia). “Southern food has such a checkered past,” Duling notes. “I like to teach people about its roots.” So Duling doesn’t just feature fried green tomatoes or rice “middlings” risotto but also places pickled jalapenos atop the pimiento cheese spread. Fun, right?

40 Market St., Warren. 401.245.1809; HunkyDoryRI.com