Food Experience

Breakfast at the Barn

A Little Compton spot worth waking up early for

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As I walked into The Barn, a charming breakfast restaurant in the historic village of Adamsville, I realized “comfort” was a big part of the experience. The building fits perfectly into the rural landscape, as if it were built with the rest of the town. The inside feels like a picturesque version of – you guessed it – a barn! Features include beautiful exposed wood, beams, and a hayloft with more seating. It’s a perfect place for a cozy, sunny Sunday morning breakfast – which is exactly what I was looking for.

As I basked in the rustic aesthetic, I started reading the front of The Barn’s menu. There was a black-and-white sketch of the restaurant, and under it, a delightfully unnecessary history of the state bird, the Rhode Island Red, and a dedicated monument from 1925 apparently located across the street. I started thumbing through the menu and found it difficult to come to a decision. Everything looked delicious: Eggs benedict with artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, and creamed spinach, cranberry pecan French toast, coffee cake of the day. That’s the great thing about breakfast: anything goes, sweet or savory. But that’s not why I love breakfast. The reason I truly love it is that I can indulge in something almost exclusively reserved for the morning: eggs.

My typical breakfast out is made up of a dish based around eggs, and I try to manipulate the people I’m eating with to split some sweet dishes on the side. French toast, pancakes, waffles – I’m game for anything. In this case, I was with my friend Michayla – who is (luckily for me) also game for anything. At The Barn, I settled on a hash benedict ($10.99) for myself, plus we decided to split the Adamsville Johnnycakes ($6.59) and an order of the sweet potato pancakes with maple walnut butter ($9.49). With a description like that, I was happy to double-up on ‘cakes.

The hash benedict was excellent. The corned beef hash was appropriately salty and exactly the right consistency to bind the poached eggs to the English muffin beneath. The hollandaise sauce was note-perfect. The home fries were a simple but superb side to the stronger flavors of hash and hollandaise.

The johnnycakes were grainy in the most pleasant sense of the word, but the sweet potato pancakes were the star of the show. Sweet potato definitely isn’t the first thing you think of when you decide what would pair well with pancakes. But the subtle sweetness actually seems like a better choice than the overt (but more common) pairing of bananas, strawberries, or blueberries. For those looking for a little sweetness with their egg dish, without ordering something from the griddle, I recommend the Six Gun on a Bun sandwich ($9.25), made of corned beef hash, salsa, and egg with melted cheese on grilled sweet bread.

Overall, The Barn provides a fantastic breakfast experience. The atmosphere is thorough and feels extremely organic. The dish choices provide a lot of small twists on early morning favorites, keeping the traditional eater satisfied, but with just enough deviation to excite the  adventurous foodie. Final score for The Barn: Five pitchforks out of five!

13 Main Street, Little Compton • 401-635-2985

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