Not Your Average Joe's

Familiar and not-so-familiar fare at this Framingham eatery

by Margaret LeRoux

Not Your Average Joe's 1138 Worcester Road (Route 9) Framingham 875-9929 Hours Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Major credit cards Full bar Handicap accessible

It's so tempting to state the obvious: Not Your Average Joe's is not your average restaurant experience. It's Hard Rock Cafe meets Bertucci's with '50s diner kitsch and super-friendly service. I realized I'd had a few too many cold shoulders from waiters lately when our server crouched at the side of our little table to point out his favorite wines and my companion and I actually smiled at him. This new addition to a chain of Not Your Averages (there are others in Watertown, Needham, and Randolph) opened in Framingham just before Christmas. Word has spread rapidly; early on a recent Friday, we got practically the last available table. Within moments a line had formed -- by the time we left well before 8 p.m., the wait was up to an hour.

What draws the crowds is a variety of imaginatively prepared standards at prices well-below $15 for most entrees. If you're in the mood for a burger, you can stuff yourself with the super burger ($6.95), a half-pound of wood-grilled ground sirloin, heaped with caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, topped with smoked mozzarella and a pile of shoestring fries. Add a very nice boutique brew like Otter Creek winter ale ($3.95), and you've barely broken a 10 spot.

But don't expect a cozy, quiet conversation during your meal. Everyone at Joe's seems to be having a very noisy, good time as they travel back in time to the 1950s. A few steps down from the entrance is the main dining "pit," which looks like a diner that's been enlarged. It's edged by big, cushy booths; hanging overhead are chartreuse, orange, and blue oval lights. At one end of the room is a wrought-iron sculpture, at the other a pizza bar surrounding a wood-burning oven. In the middle of the room are tables; the two of us were sandwiched between one for six and another table for two. Luckily, we got on famously with the other couples at our elbows. When one of them was undecided about her entree, the waiter suggested she ask my companion who'd ordered the same thing. He gave it a favorable review.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. If you're looking for familiarity, you'll find it in Joe's appetizers. Not much new here: but if you read carefully, you'll notice a few creative touches. Coconut shrimp ($7.50) are served with spicy orange marmalade and crispy, angel hair pasta, and crab cakes ($6.50) come with grilled corn and red pepper salsa.

Salads are especially appealing. There's almond-crusted goat cheese on mixed baby greens with raspberry vinaigrette and peppered pecans ($7.50); spinach with bacon, roasted red peppers, chevre, and grilled apples ($7.25) was tempting too. But we shared seared, rare sushi tuna ($7.95). The large plate held six thin slices of tuna, cooked around the edges and almost raw in the middle, garnished with sesame-oil-infused-rice-wine vinaigrette next to a pile of mixed baby greens. This was as good a salad as I've had in much more-expensive restaurants.

Joe's offers a good selection of wines by the glass; I enjoyed an oaky French Macon lugny les charmes ($5.50).

On to the main courses, there's everything from thin-crust pizzas, pastas, and a host of heartier selections. You'll find trendy touches here, too: meatloaf ($10.50) served with garlic mashed potatoes and barbecue gravy, an exotic curried melongene ($9.50), roast eggplant cups filled with grilled vegetables in Thai red curry sauce, pork tenderloin ($12.50) sautéed with red Bartlett pears, sun-dried cherries, and cowboy ribeye steak ($17.95), served with sweet potato fries and pickled red onions.

My companion chose one of the pasta dishes, mezzaluna ($11.95), half-moon-shaped, spinach pasta pillows stuffed with marscapone cheese and puréed artichoke. The pasta moons were arranged like a pinwheel around a colorful mound of slivered prosciutto, sun-dried tomatoes, and red onions in Madeira sauce. It looked as yummy as it tasted. He had to fight off my persistent fork.

My choice wasn't as successful, though it certainly sounded like a winner: wood-grilled salmon fillet ($13.50) on Israeli couscous with a roasted red pepper, coconut broth, and pea tendrils in rice-wine vinaigrette. The poor salmon fillet, though grilled to perfection, was coated with the thick sauce, heavily seasoned with red pepper. Israeli couscous grains are a larger variety than I've had before, and the excess sauce gave them the consistency of tapioca. I liked the originality of pea tendrils as a vegetable, just wish they were less stringy to eat.

Desserts, all priced at $4.95, include an awesome looking hot-fudge sundae, blueberry cobbler, and a tower of chocolate cake. We shared Boston Cream pie in a little custard cup with ice cream and chocolate sauce, a rich ending to our meal. The bill was a reasonable $57.80 before tip.