Family Style Dining - All You Can Eat at Wright's Farm Restaurant in Harrisville, Rhode Island

The traditional family style dinner where folks gather around a large table, dining on course after course with unlimited servings is a popular pursuit for native Rhode Islanders and out-of-towners who wing it to our poultry palaces. Chicken family style, an all you can eat meal comprised of salad doused with Italian dressing, rolls, pasta (shells, ziti, or penne), and roasted potatoes or fries with those legs, breasts, or thighs, is one big Italian Job pulled inside the confines of the smallest state in the Union. Several restaurants which offer this unique tradition of dining share common attributes: their once humble abode expanded to a huge banquet facility capable of accommodating more than 1,000 patrons at one sitting; banquet rooms with elegant names resemble barrack mess halls flanked by walls bordered with floral wallpaper and painted in shades of sage green, mauve, or burgundy.

When families get together to celebrate milestones like birthdays and weddings, a family style, all you can eat chicken dinner is the preferred sit down. Those worth flocking to include: Lancellotta's Banquet Restaurant, 1113 Charles St.,North Providence; Lombardi's 1025 Club, 1025 Plainfield St., Johnston; Twelve Acres, 5 Douglas Pike, Smithfield; The Bocce Club st louis ave woonsocket West Valley Inn, 4 Blossom St., West Warwick. The restaurant most seem to cluck about, flying the coop far and wide to patronize is Wright's Farm Restaurant, 84 Inman Rd., Harrisville.

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Gene Wright, the main supplier of chickens for The Bocce Club, began outdoor dinner events for the Knights of Columbus and other organizations out of a garage on his farm in Harrisville in the early 1950s. He'd cut feed barrels in half lengthwise and used them as makeshift chicken barbecues. In 1954, Wright took a customer's suggestion and opened up a restaurant-Wright's Farm Restaurant.

Purchased by the Frank T. Galleshaw, Jr. family in 1972, Wright's Farm Restaurant has steadily expanded operations to six dining rooms and has become a landmark in northern Rhode Island. Sprawled on a pastoral setting, the place still has farm appeal, while its manicured lawn encourages an after dinner stroll. A large gift shop and toy store with a vast array of items is a browser's delight while waiting to be seated inside one of its six dining rooms.

As lovely as these accommodations may be, it's what gets carried out of the kitchen that wows all the birds of a feather who flock to Wright's Farm Restaurant on a Thursday and Friday 4 pm-9pm, Saturday 12 pm-9:30 pm, or Sunday 12 pm-8 pm. The Galleshaw family motto by which their family serves other families is "quality, quantity, and consistency" at per adult, .95 for children 4-10 years, and children 3 and under go free. Only cash or check payments are accepted. So, let the dinner begin with rolls made fresh daily in their own bakery, along with salad tossed with Wright's Farm Classic Italian Dressing. Loosen your belt for shell macaroni with tomato sauce made from their own recipe, and make room for the main entrée. I can attest their chicken is succulent and tender, while the fries are the freshest I've tasted. Two kitchens, 75 ovens, and a wait staff of more than 160, assure a constant flow of food delivered with promptness.

Wright's Farm Restaurant salad dressing, pasta and barbecue sauces, frozen chicken pies, fudge, and other Wright products can be found in grocery stores and supermarkets throughout Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as their gift shop. Wright's Farm Restaurant is a well-orchestrated Italian Job, quite capable of delivering a tasty and sumptuous all you can eat, family style chicken dinner to native Rhode Islanders and out-of-towners who gladly wing it to the boonies of Harrisville for a hearty meal.

Family Style Dining - All You Can Eat at Wright's Farm Restaurant in Harrisville, Rhode Island

Eva Pasco
Author, UNDERLYING NOTES (238 pgs)

Chick Lit for Discerning Women: Winding past Rhode Island's coastal communities, prominent landmarks, cherished institutions, and olive oil spills of the underworld.

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