Pearl Restaurant & Lounge, Providence

At Pearl Restaurant & Lounge, diners might find themselves twirling pasta around forks or trapping sushi rolls between chopsticks. Both eating styles are represented in the eclectic menu, which showcases inventive forays into Italian and Asian cuisines. There's pizzas piled with prosciutto and mesclun greens, raviolis stuffed with lobster, and pan-seared pork dumplings ripe for dipping into a spicy Szechuan sauce. And to model the food, there's also two types of dining atmospheres: a romantic outdoor terrace or elegant blue-lit dining room. Following meals, you need only step into the lounge area for a little nightlife; live music fills the 18,000-square-foot space on Friday and Saturday nights until 2 a.m. with the sounds of jazz, low-key beats, and Muzak renditions of the chicken dance.