All aboard for kickin’ grub

Railroad chili at Railroad Station Bar and Grill, Cloverdale. (Jeff Kan Lee/PD)

A restaurant like the Railroad Station Bar and Grill in Cloverdale could very well be the best restaurant in town in many places across America. But in Sonoma County, it’s a sports bar with some kickin’ grub to go with the row of beers on tap and the 65 choices of beers and hard ciders by the bottle.

The big, open room is not an old railroad station. It’s named for the station that will be the northern terminus of the SMART train from the Larkspur Ferry to Cloverdale when both phases of construction are finished. The Cloverdale depot has been built since 1999 and continues to wait for the train to arrive. When it does, passengers will find the Railroad Station Bar and Grill waiting just a few steps away.

You can tell it’s a sports bar by the seven large, flat-screen TVs placed strategically around the room, tuned to a variety of competitions. The sound is turned off so there’s no cacophony of announcers hollering.

Service couldn’t have been nicer; it was gracious, friendly and helpful. Our waitress seemed genuinely happy to serve us, and that makes any dining experience better.

The food is an elevated sort of pub grub, and while the kitchen uses local ingredients and makes its dishes from scratch (the menu brags that they do not have a microwave on the premises), they are hit-and-miss in terms of quality. For instance, the Railroad Chili ($4 a cup; $7.50 a bowl ***) was a definite hit, rich with good ground beef in a spicy – but not firehouse spicy – chili base that’s loaded with three kinds of beans.

An example of a miss was the “hand-cut French fries” that came with the entrees. The first problem was that they were overcooked to a burned-looking dark brown that might have made them crispy; yet somehow they were also limp and soggy. A place like this, where burgers and fried foods are a central part of the menu, should have wicked good fries, especially when there are five kinds of special fries that include Disco (like Poutine), Garlic Pecorino, Bacon Cheese, Truffle & Herbs, and Chili Cheese.