Franklin Cape Ann
118 Main St., Gloucester
978-283-7888
franklincafe.com/franklin-cape-ann
Open for dinner Sunday through Thursday, 5 to 10:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight
All major credit cards accepted
Ground floor is accessible to the handicapped
Intimate, hip, and low-key, the Franklin Cape Ann has become an anchor of Gloucester’s lively restaurant row at the west end of Main Street. The restaurant opened 12 years ago as a spinoff of Boston’s popular Franklin Cafe in the South End.
Three years ago, Maria Figurido, a former waitress and bartender turned general manager, bought the place. Despite separate owners, the two restaurants, along with a newer version in Boston, the Franklin Southie, still have enough in common to share a website.
We visited the Gloucester outpost on a Thursday evening at 7:30. The restaurant’s name isn’t noticeable from the sidewalk, just a large neon martini glass, unlit. Dunkin’ Donuts it’s not.
We’d made a reservation, which the Franklin recommends, but we needn’t have. The ground-floor dining room wasn’t quite half full. (There is also a second-floor dining room with its own bar and outdoor seating in summer.)
We sat at a booth near the front door with a view of the late-season Christmas lights in a tree across Main Street. Inside, on the wall opposite us, was a quirky wide-angle photograph of a Gloucester fishing boat in drydock, seen from below. It looked like Noah’s ark.
The atmosphere in the narrow, high-ceilinged space was relaxed and inviting, with lots of dark wood wainscoting, dim lighting, music by Nora Jones and Tracy Chapman at low volume, and an elaborate curved bar in back. If people still smoked, it would be smoky.
Despite the empty tables, the room felt animated. A full house here would definitely be loud.
The one-page menu has a number of original touches without being confusingly pretentious. Appetizers, which include skillet-roasted mussels ($9) and fried lobster dumplings ($10), run from $8 to $11. Seven of the nine entrées cost from $18 to $23, the exceptions being a $15 sirloin cheeseburger plate and the $32 filet mignon.
We enjoyed an appetizer of grilled chicken-thigh tacos with fresh salsa and blue cheese aioli ($8), which involved lots of smoky-flavored meat and bite-sized veggies served on warm open tortillas.
A baby spinach salad ($8) was an attractive array of greens mixed with spiced walnuts, thick, chewy bacon chunks, and, best of all, slices of cider-poached apples.
An entrée of braised, boneless short ribs ($23) came with mashed sweet potatoes and stringy crisp-fried onions. It was filling and tasty, although the sweet potatoes seemed almost sugary, which made an odd contrast with the ribs.
A lighter entrée was a dish of pan-seared Atlantic cod ($22). It arrived with oyster mushrooms and small scallion spears on a bed of buttery mashed potatoes. Actually, it was only somewhat lighter; we couldn’t finish it. Half the cod ended up coming home to be savored another day.
For dessert, we split a refreshingly lemony crème brûlée ($8). The crunchy, gingery sugar glaze on top was decorated with a pair of fresh raspberries, one for each of us. Yum.
For those of you who like not only to eat food but to watch it, the shared website of the Franklin Cafés (www.franklincafe.com) features short videos where chefs demonstrate things such as how to make your own french fries from scratch.
Like we say, hip but unpretentious.
COCO McCABE AND DOUG STEWART