Perfect claws

Sole Proprietor knows its crab

by Margaret LeRoux

Sole Proprietor 118 Highland Street, Worcester 798-3474 Mon.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri. 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Sat. 4-11 p.m., Sun. 4-9:30 p.m. Major credit cards Full bar Handicap accessible

If you want to be reassured that the Central Massachusetts economy is healthy, stop in at the Sole Proprietor, as I did on a recent Tuesday night. That's right, Tuesday, traditionally one of the slowest nights for restaurants. But not at the Sole. Even though it's decidedly pricey, the place was packed. The crowd at the bar was three-deep. And the wait for a table considerable. Luckily I'd called ahead and made a reservation, so we cooled our heels for less than 10 minutes.

Despite the luxury of having a waiting line, the Sole's staff isn't taking the restaurant's popularity for granted. In the first of several examples of top-notch service, the hostess, manager, and our waitress each apologized for the delay.

We ate in the main dining room, which, because of its decor, is the restaurant's most appealing room. With warm, indirect lighting from pretty wall lamps and colorful chandeliers and with dark wood, wide Venetian blinds, and a semi-circular booth at one end -- and a variety of martini selections -- there's a '50s feel here.

The three of us had a big day ahead, so we stuck to Perrier and Sam Adams on draft. For appetizers, we shared an order of tasty smoked bluefish ($3.99) and cherry-peppered squid ($5.99). The latter was a plate of squid rings, battered, deep fried, tossed in a sauce of lemon, garlic, and cherry-pepper rings. Even though the sauce made the rings soggy, it was a flavorful addition. We gobbled up every bit of them.

We dined during the Sole's seventh annual crab feast, trumpeted by the gargantuan, inflatable, "Buster the crab" that sits atop the restaurant throughout the month of July. Crab specials are featured on the extensive menu, along with several nightly specials. We noticed mounds of steamed crabs at several neighboring tables, so the tri-Buster dinner ($16.99) was a natural choice. This was three, whole Jonah crabs (each the size of a small lobster) served with drawn butter. Our waitress cautioned us about the work ahead, "but it's worth it," she added.

The Sole menu has undergone many revisions over the years; I remember when it offered little more than baked, broiled, or fried seafood. Now you can have seared trout with caramelized onions and mushrooms ($14.99), stuffed trout roulades with herb feta cheese and spinach ($14.99), catfish tenders in crushed-pepper sauce ($14.99), salmon with black-sesame and candied-ginger crust ($16.99), or mesquite-grilled mako steak topped with black-olive-and-basil pesto ($15.99).

One of my companions chose a special, cape bluefish with shiitake mushroom sauce ($15.99), while I settled on sautéed soft-shell crabs ($16.99).

The two of us who ordered crab specials were offered salad or chowder for an additional charge, $2 for salad, $2.49 for clam chowder. The salads were uninspired; plates of greens with water still clinging to them, a thick slice of cucumber, and a wedge of tasteless tomato. But the dressings, blue cheese and Parmesan peppercorn, were very good. Same for the clam chowder, exceptional, in fact: one of the best renditions of clam chowder I've ever had.

The steamed Jonah crabs were worth every bit of effort it took to extract the sweet meat from the shells. They were also large enough for all three of us to eat our fill. Same goes for the soft-shell crabs; there were five of them in a wine, garlic, and roasted-red-pepper sauce. With our crab dinners came sides of mashed potatoes and a mixture of sautéed zucchini, summer squash, mushrooms, and broccoli, both pretty bland. Individually these vegetables can be interesting; I wonder why so few chefs do them well.

The blue-fish fillet was seared over a mound of pilaf-style rice; this rich, meaty fish needs little to adorn it; the shiitake mushrooms and a few grilled peppers did the trick.

The nice thing about eating most fish is you don't feel overstuffed. So when our waitress inquired about dessert, we were able to find room to share a piece of black bottom pie ($3.99) -- coffee and vanilla ice cream topped with hot fudge and whipped cream on a crushed-Oreo crust -- and flan ($3.50), a rather sticky version of custard in a caramel sauce.

The final proof of Worcester's healthy economy was the size of our bill. Not too long ago I would have gasped at $86.45 for a week-night dinner for three. I just hope the boom is long-lived.