The café space is filled with local artists' work; the tables have flowers from the nearby gardens; the walls are knotty pine with similar booths and tables (four each). There are also tables outside in good weather, with chickens wandering around your feet. All of the crockery is made on-site.
The service was friendly, though the kitchen was a bit slow. Two suggestions: if wild-foraged or homegrown mushrooms are going to be served but announced simply as "mushrooms," (assumption: button or baby bella), perhaps the customer should be told and/or given a taste. The unannounced wine-sap mushrooms were so much not to my liking that at first I thought they were mushrooms past their prime.
Secondly, the corkage fee of $2 per person may be just fine, but should it be applied to a second glass, i.e. $24 corkage for six people, even if they had a different wine? Seems steep to us rural rubes.
But the food at Small Axe and the enchantment of its surroundings is worth a summer's expedition (or two).
Johnette Rodriguez can be reached at johnette.rodriguez@cox.net.
SMALL AXE CAFÉ |401.364.3638 | FANTASTICUMBRELLAFACTORY.COM/SMALLAXECAFE.HTML | 4820 OLD POST RD, CHARLESTOWN | SUMMER HOURS: LUNCH DAILY, 11 AM-4 PM; FRI + SAT, BREAKFAST + LUNCH, 9 AM-4 PM, DINNER, 6-9 PM; SUN, BREAKFAST + LUNCH 9 AM-4 PM | MAJOR CREDIT CARDS | BYOB | SIDEWALK-LEVEL ACCESSIBLE
Topics:
Restaurant Reviews
, Rhode Island
