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At first, Izzy’s Fish & Oyster’s Jamie DeRosa had no plans to open his intimate little restaurant for weekday lunch. Potential diners, walking by the busy SoFi street where the homage to New England seafood shacks stands, had other ideas.
Chef de cuisine William Crandall explains, “The restaurant wouldn’t be open during the day, but we’d be having meetings or prepping for dinner, and people would come in looking for lunch. We decided that we might as well open.”
With its bright nautical theme, featuring whitewashed walls and a giant octopus mural, Izzy’s is an inviting place for a midday meal. The restaurant, which opened this past October, has quickly become a neighborhood favorite for what can be described only as comfort-food-by-the-sea. Many items from the dinner menu are easily translated to lunch, such as the restaurant’s lobster roll, served cold or warm.
The sandwich, priced at $26 in the evenings, is available as a half portion at lunch for $13. That half, served with waffle fries, is all you need to be sated.
Izzy’s features a host of sandwiches, including fried clam bellies on a roll, served with bread-and-butter pickles, and chilled blue crab salad on a roll ($13 each).
Fried chicken sandwiches are trending, and Izzy’s rendition, topped with arugula, heirloom tomatoes, and Buffalo-ranch sauce ($15), is a good choice and a selling point for your friend who’s not into seafood. Another option for carnivorous types is the Painted Hills farm burger, with cave-aged cheddar, bacon, and onion jam on a potato roll ($16).
If you’re craving a feast, Izzy’s offers a special lunch consisting of a cup of New England clam chowder; your choice of a half lobster roll, clam belly sandwich, or blue crab salad sandwich; a Narragansett beer; and a whoopie pie for dessert for $25.
The lobster poutine is a decadent overload of food. A cheerful yellow skillet is topped with waffle fries, lobster, cheddar gravy, and bacon ($12). If you find yourself with that rare weekday hangover, this should cure what ails you. Get an order for the table to share — it’s a mammoth portion of richness that includes generous hunks of lobster meat.
If you’ve got a business meeting or a beach date after lunch and can’t afford to lapse into a food coma, Izzy’s offers several lighter options, including a crisp salad of sugar snap peas, Grana Padano cheese, mint, and
Of course, you can’t go wrong with a dozen oysters. The restaurant offers Island Creek oysters at half price during lunch.
Izzy’s lunch is served Monday through Friday from noon to 3 p.m.
