Thirsty? Leave it to The Thirsty Beaver

On the outside, it looks like a log cabin. On the inside, it's a bar and restaurant with wood floors, wood beams and enough Cranston references to make a Thunderbolt or Falcon smile.

It's the Thirsty Beaver on Atwood Avenue.

Fresh off its soft opening a couple of weeks ago,  last night, it celebrated a ribbon cutting with Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung and members of Fung's Economic Development Department.

You can't get much more local than The Thirsty Beaver. The owners are three friends who grew up together, went to school in Cranston and felt their souls planted here even when they moved out of town for college, or to go to Hollywood, law school or wherever.

The trio: Justin Erickson, Ed Brady and Jeff Quinlan, already run Vanity, a 1920s speakeasy-inspired nightspot in Providence. But Erickson said they "wanted to bring something home."

Quinlan described the concept as "Bugaboo Creek with more action" — not quite a family restaurant, not just a bar, not just a restaurant. Call it a pubstaurant, complete with a life-sized beaver who might show up at your table, do a little dance or try to beat you in a heated game of trivia some night.

The name comes from an idea Quinlan had after an encounter at a family reunion a few years ago. He talked to a man named Tom Beaver — the husband of his mother's sister. He said his sister opened a saloon in Wisconsin named the Thirsty Beaver.

"I thought it was a cool name and when this building came to my attention, it came into my head and I put my own spin on the concept and here we are," he said.

Business has been good, with many locals coming to check the place out. On Tuesday night, a group of boys wearing Falcons jackets sat at a table near Erickson's mom, who chatted with the mayor a few minutes before the ribbon cutting. At the bar, people gathered, drinking beer, eating appetizers and chatting. If you're from around here, you would recognize most, if not all, the faces.

"We've got food, entertainment, sound, sight, atmosphere," Quinlan said as he gestured towards the front windows which afford views of the old Cranston Police Department headquarters — now being used as a school bus lot — and Atwood Memorial Field across the street. "It will be nice in the summer when we open the patio, have some chairs out there. You can relax, watch the games, watch the school buses."

The Beaver, located at 288 Atwood Ave., has a menu with food cutely named after Cranston landmarks and famous people that will spark memories and conversations among locals and might have out-of-towners scratching their heads. But that's the point — this isn't some massive national chain coming into Cranston and pretending to be local by nailing Route 66 replica road signs on the wall. This is the real deal, the owners insist.

Try the Atwood Fries, or the Phenix Crossings (waffle-cut potatoes). There are Oaklawn Ave. onions, Alpine Sweet Fries, Pulled Park Ave. Pork and if you like nachos, there's the Buffalo Beaver Fever — tortilla chips, buffalo chicken, blue cheese blend, bacon, celery, salsa, sour cream and scallions. Try one of the West Side Sandwiches, like the Cranston Girls — veggies, mozzarella and balsamic in a spinach wrap. Or the Ranger Rick Reuben, if you're low on your sauerkraut quota.

There's pasta, wood plank pizza, burgers. Oh, and beer. Plenty of beer.

Along with pub fare and beer, the Thirsty Beaver will have live DJs on some nights, live music, a ladies night on Thursday, Karaoke on Wednesday, trivia Tuesdays and that silly beaver walking through the dining room. So even if you're going stag, you can always try to get a hug from the furry critter when it walks by.

Larry DiBoni, the city's director of economic development, said the location has changed hands numerous times in recent years. None of them lasted very long.

But with the freshly-rehabbed building and a strong local connection that seems to be building a following already, DiBoni has his hopes up for the Thirsty Beaver.

"These guys are from Cranston," he said, admiring all the woodwork inside the dining room. "They're going to be here for at least 30 years."

And if all goes well, there could be more beavers popping up and building dams around Rhode Island.

"We'll see how it goes, but this is a concept I want to run with," Quinlan said. "We might open four, five, of these. A franchise thing."

So stop in, order a beer, try the Itri Meat Treat pizza or Ed Lemoi's Linguini and see if you, too, will be a Beaver Believer.

Check out the Thirsty Beaver menu at their Web site by clicking HERE.

You can follow the Thirsty Beaver on Facebook and on Twitter, too.

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