A tasty escape from daily grind

Owen and Ollie's Restaurant & Pub

Four kids. Five nieces and nephews. A slew of holiday festivities.

After the stress of the Christmas season has finally passed, there's nothing I look forward to more than enjoying a meal I didn't have to prepare.

So, on a recent snowy evening, my husband and I packed our children into their pajamas early, left them with their nanny, and headed out for dinner.

We arrived at the restaurant at the stroke of 5 and met my parents. It was a place midway between their home and ours, an American restaurant "with a touch of Irish" in Dracut's refurbished Beaver Brook Mills. My parents had been urging us to try it for a while.

I must confess my husband and I had our doubts about Owen and Ollie's. It opened last April, and we had heard mixed reviews. We figured it would offer the usual pub grub. We were wrong, and delighted to discover it.

As soon as we walked through the door, the day's stress melted away. The hostess smiled and seated us at a comfy booth in the smaller of the restaurant's two dining rooms, an area usually occupied by families with young children. Every table in this room has its own television set, allowing parents to dine in peace while Scooby-Doo and Dora the Explorer entertain the little ones. We chose to sit here - although I would have preferred a table by the fireplace in the larger dining room - so that my parents could catch news coverage of the Iowa caucus.

The room was designed with acoustics in mind. The booths have very high backs, so each table is quite private. We were able to converse easily and hear the newscast without being interrupted by nearby diners or their TVs.

We started the evening with a couple of appetizers, the chicken tenderloins ($9) and a plate of strips and dips ($8), crispy corn tortilla strips served with homemade spinach and crab dip and topped with melted cheddar cheese and chunks of tomato. My mother was thrilled with the plump chicken fingers, which were perfect for her beloved gorgonzola dipping sauce, but the strips were a table favorite: the ingredients were fresh and offered a nice blend of tastes and textures.

"We do our best to cater to local tastes," said chef Greg LaFontaine, a 20-year veteran of the kitchen who honed his culinary skills on the job, most recently at Sal's in Lawrence. "We're trying to do something fresh and different, but not so different that it scares people away."

That philosophy means that each item on the seven-page menu incorporates ingredients you might not find in similar dishes at other restaurants, such as Guinness barbecue sauce. It also means that LaFontaine is apt to remove items that don't do well. To my father's chagrin, the meatloaf was banished for this reason.

Other items on the menu have been better received, particularly those celebrating the Irish heritage of Owen and Ollie's owners, local residents Harry and Mary Kay Gorman. Several entrees have "a touch of Irish," and many are served with Owen and Ollie's signature soda bread.

The beef and Guinness stew ($16) is a house specialty, as is the corned beef and cabbage ($13). Both are delicately seasoned with potato, carrot, and parsnip, and then slow-simmered.

A seafood lover, I opted to try another Irish classic: beer-battered haddock ($14). Dipped in a Bass ale batter and deep-fried to a golden brown, the filet was served with seasoned fries and cole slaw. The fish was light and flaky, not greasy. I enjoyed it so much that I cleaned my plate - even though I was full long before my last bite. The portions are generous, but not overwhelming.

My companions decided to order other house favorites: the Delmonico ($20), a 14-ounce rib-eye steak charbroiled to taste, and the baked scallops ($18), a hearty portion of plump sea scallops baked in white wine and topped with bread crumbs. Both were delicious, but it was my mother's dish that earned raves.

She chose the shrimp and crab scampi ($18), which offers a different take on an old pasta favorite. The shrimp were tender and juicy, and were complemented by large chunks of crab meat. The sauce was particularly notable for blending American tradition with a hint of Italy. It pairs a garlic wine butter sauce with fresh tomato and scallion for a taste that is both unique and sinfully delicious.

BRENDA J. BUOTE