New Atwood Ave. Restaurant Asks: Jeat?

If you want a clamcake, a Del's, a coffee milk, doughboy, sausage and peppers and a saugy, you used to have to drive around the entire state before you were sated.

Now, if you want to eat Vo Dilun food, the next time you find yourself asking a friend "jeat?" you've got a one-stop-shop for every culinary quirk the Ocean State is known for right here at home in Cranston.

Jeat? on Atwood Avenue asserts it has "Wicked good R.I. food" on its sign outside and General Manager Amit Beri makes the bold promise that if you close your eyes and eat the sausage and pepper sandwich, you might as well be sitting on Federal Hill.

"The sausage is hard to find," Beri said. "When you eat it, it does taste just like what you'd get on the hill."

The juicy sausage packs just enough of a heated punch tinged with flavor from fennel seed and a pinch of sweetness. Served on a bun, it's topped with peppers that have been cooked until they're soft.

That, along with the fish and chips and clamcakes and chowder, is one of the most popular items at Jeat? which first opened in the Providence Place Mall and now resides at Twin River in Lincoln. The Providence location was closed because the rent was sky high and the mall is a tough place to make ends meet, Beri said.

So Beri, along with owner Bill Beeley, are excited to bring Jeat? to Atwood Avenue, right next to Benny's, close to the intersection with Phenix Avenue. It's the former location of .

It's a high-traffic spot in the heart of the both the city and the state and Beri thinks people who are sick of fast food will relish the opportunity to have Rhode Island food while they're out shopping or for their lunch breaks.

"Locals like it because it's their food, and it's done right," Beri said. 

Beri leans in and said softly: "people tell me my chowder is better than Iggy's," referring to the popular Iggy's Doughboys and Chowder in Warwick and Narragansett.

Everything is made fresh at the restaurant, Beri said. And the prices are reasonable, with the sausage and peppers, or "Sausage 'n Peppiz" at just $5.99 and pizza strips for $2. Beeley, who has been a Del's franchisee for years, set up a Del's stand right inside Jeat?. Walking into Jeat? feels like stepping inside a living and breathing Don Bosquet cartoon.

Beri said local products are used whenever possible, such as the Newport Coffee and Yacht Club soda, which is made in Centerdale.

The restaurant also attracts tourists, who are drawn to it because so many Rhode Island specialties are under one roof.

"Tourists come in and they go crazy," Beri said.

Jeat? is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, but hours might change. It opened in mid-July.

For more information, call 383-1669.