TIVERTON —The Stonebridge Restaurant is no more but in its place, the Red Dory restaurant opened recently at 1848 Main Road in Tiverton, just across the street from Grinnell's Beach.

With a sweeping Sakonnet River view, the Red Dory provides a menu that is primarily western Mediterranean in character (Italy, Spain, France, northern Africa), and that emphasizes seafood.

Its chef/owner Steve Johnson until recently operated Rendezvous, a popular Cambridge, Mass., eatery that closed its doors last June.

For nearly 30 years, Mr. Johnson has lived part of the year in Westport (he's now a full time resident), for some of that time aboard a houseboat on the Westport River.

Last year he decided to make his professional move south to the Sakonnet area.

"I've been circling around for years, and had my eye on this location for a long time."

"It became clear a year ago it was the right thing for me." So he made the first telephone call about the possibility of opening a restaurant at the location in January, 2013.

The old Stonebridge Restaurant building dates back got the 1930's, and needed a lot of work. It has been completely renovated.

The name "Red Dory" is a made-up name, he says, that has no real story behind it.

"It's been gangbusters," he said. "It was really a fun project. We were able to overlay the needs of the building with my design."

The restaurant has seating inside for 50 guests at tables, plus room for an additional 20 in a separate room, and for another 18 at the bar.

It's called casual fine dining. "The place looks nice," he said, "but we don't have white table clothes. Our dishes, we hope, are well-executed and nicely presented."

The tables and chairs emphasize natural wood and iron.

"We're offering people a chance to enjoy food and family. We're not a temple to gastronomy. It's not a religious experience," he said.

There is no lunch menu right now, but he did anticipate having one in the summer. Mr. Johnson said. "I'm not quite ready to handle the lunch business. I've got a panini press, but haven't plugged it in yet."

Mr. Johnson said he buys much of what he uses in his restaurant locally — such as potatoes, eggs, salad greens, baby lettuce, beets, and carrots. From his comments, it's clear he knows many of the local growers and deals with them regularly.

He is also a customer who speaks knowledgeably about buying seafood right off the boats at dockside.

Asked to name his favorite spice, Mr. Johnson spoke about marash pepper from Turkey.

It's a flavor that he adds to his favorite fish, an appetizer on his menu: Grilled Portuguese sardines with lemon-fennel vinaigrette and maras pepper.

"These little fish have all the qualities," he writes in his blog. "First of all, and most important, they’re really tasty! One of the most abundant species in the ocean, and the current darling of the sustainability experts, health-wise sardines are an oily fish (like mackerel, bluefish, etc), and by that full of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins.  Also, being low on the food chain, they are happily devoid of heavy metals and parasites that much larger, older species acquire with age."

Another dish, that's become so popular that he's begun to offer it daily, is Moroccan spiced chicken, that is rubbed with a mixture of North-African spices.

The Red Dory is open from Labor Day to Memorial Day on Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 4:30 - 9 p.m.; on Fridays and Saturdays, from 4:30-10 p.m.; and Sundays, from 11:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.. It is closed Monday and Tuesday.

In the summertime, Mr. Johnson said, he plans to be open seven days per week, but the hours have not yet been decided.

For further information: see www.reddoryrestaurant.com/home.html. Or call 401-816-5001.