100 Years and Counting
Six Rhode Island Restaurants Still Cooking in Their Golden Years
Some of our state’s longest-running restaurants have survived Prohibition, the Great Depression, wartime food shortages, changing diets and fussy diners. Rhode Island has a surprising number of iconic restaurants that have stayed open for a century or more. That’s partly due to our fortunate location between Boston and New York, where a roadhouse on the local byways would serve as a haven for weary travelers. In addition, our resorts catered to the affluent—and Newport had a business and political elite.
Low ceilings, low lighting, wide-plank floors—historic restaurants have a nostalgic appeal. Satisfying food can be found in almost every successful eatery but a dose of history adds to the experience of dining out.
Before visiting these six historic restaurants, call or check their websites for up-to-date information on days and hours of operation as some vary with the seasons.
WHITE HORSE TAVERN
Considered the oldest restaurant in America, the White Horse Tavern must have been the Capital Grille of its day—the place where colonial gentry wined and dined while attending to government business.
After welcoming diners since 1673, the venerable building was in danger of demolition in the mid-1950s. But the Preservation Society of Newport County stepped in and restored this gem with its storied history that includes an owner who was a notorious pirate. It is now a National Historic Landmark.
The White Horse is upscale dining: white tablecloths, napkins folded into a crown shape and a business casual dress code. It offers a farm-to-table menu with dishes like Beef Wellington and duck breast. One can imagine that the old tavern served up many pints in this seafaring city. And all is served in a tasteful setting where colonial power players observe from portraits on paneled walls.
26 Marlborough St., Newport. 401.849.3600; WhiteHorseNewport.com
CARRIAGE HOUSE INN
Yes, George Washington did stop here, probably on his way to a portrait-sitting at Gilbert Stuart’s nearby studio and snuff mill.
Founded in 1760 as an inn and tavern stop on the Post Road between Boston and New York, the Carriage Inn has had many names over the years (my favorite: Hoof ‘n’ Feathers, circa 2010).
Roy Ring bought the place in 2017 and introduced a contemporary comfort food menu. Tradition is fine but a restaurant has to serve what its customers want to eat. “Customers drive what you serve,” he says. The Carriage Inn attracted him because “it’s so cool—this building has a different feeling than most restaurants these days.” Some walls in the Whiskey Room still bear char marks from a 1957 fire. The stable is now a banquet room and the dining room is a bright paneled space.
Four 19th-century carriages are visible through second-story glass walls. And somewhere up there a ghost slams drawers and plays with the lights. Roy captured her image when the new bar was being installed. (Ask him to show it to you on his iPhone!)
1065 Tower Hill Rd, North Kingstown. 401.294.0466; DansCarriageInnAndSaloon.Com
WILCOX TAVERN
Edward Wilcox must have realized the farmhouse he purchased from Joseph Stanton in 1811 would attract weary travelers en route from Boston to New York along the Old Post Road. The brown-shingled building with low beamed ceilings still retains the cozy charm of a home well lived in by two generations of Stantons.
Each of the five dining rooms has its own style. The Watchaug is a colonial-style taproom with wide-plank floors and a six-foot working fireplace. The Quinnie Room was added sometime in the 1930s. It’s a more formal space with wood paneling and high-backed leather chairs. The dining rooms and bar are filled with curiosities, like the Hoosier flour bin in the central hall.
The Tavern closed in 2012 and current owner Mia Byrnes reopened it in 2017. Mia kept some of the old dishes, like Rudy’s Pot Roast, a culinary homage to a former owner. But she’s introduced trendier and fresher foods, too; the crispy prosciutto-wrapped shrimp with a gorgonzola drizzle caught on quickly.
5153 Old Post Rd., Charlestown. 401.322.1829; WilcoxTavern1730.com
TAVERN ON MAIN
The weathered sign outside says “Stagecoach Inn” but it’s really the Tavern on Main. This rustic building had an expensive encounter with the state militia that almost put it out of business. In 1842, the Dorr Rebellion was fought in the surrounding neighborhood; soldiers bunked at the inn for three months and consumed a prodigious amount of food and drink that was never paid for.
When Dave Lumnah bought the place 14 years ago, he tried to spruce up the restaurant, but his customers complained. They didn’t even want him to replace the tobacco-stained wallpaper. Regulars come from as far as Plymouth, Massachusetts, for the “extremely diverse” four-page menu of New England specialties and retro additions like popovers and seafood royale. There’s a ghost here, too, and Dave invites members of the Rhode Island Paranormal Society for wintertime ghost dinners. “It’s kind of crazy,” says Dave, but the dinners always sell out.
1157 Putnam Pike, Chepachet. 401.710.9788; TavernOnMainRI.com
OLYMPIA TEA ROOM
This watering hole has endured many trials in its 103-year history. It dodged the ’38 Hurricane only to be scarred by a devastating fire two years later. Then there was the 14-year struggle to obtain a liquor license, finally accomplished in 1995. Now co-owner and sommelier Georgia Felber has curated a collection of fine wines to pair with their delicious menu. The legendary restaurant is a quirky mix of men’s club bar and ’50s soda shop. Dark wood booths, a black and white tile floor, pink walls and a sign that reads “Temperance” over the bar gives this historic property a distinctive look and feel.
“People say they love this place because it never changes,” says Georgia’s father, Jack Felber. “But it doesn’t even resemble what it was when we bought it. We’ve done nothing to the building, except change or move everything that’s here.”
Day trippers mix comfortably with celebrities whose yachts are docked across the road in Little Narragansett Bay. The Tea Room serves a varied menu, from American bistro to sophisticated dining. And, of course, the iconic Avondale Swan dessert—swan-like profiteroles and whipped cream floating in a lake of chocolate sauce.
How does a family-owned restaurant stay in business in a resort town with a short season? “Be here every day: This is a hands-on operation,” says Jack Felber. Clearly, it works.
74 Bay St., Watch Hill. 401.348.8211; OlympiaTeaRoom.com
AUNT CARRIE’S
Yes, there really was an Aunt Carrie. A farm wife from Connecticut who drove her six children to the beaches around Narragansett, Carrie Cooper began selling lemonade and clam fritters to local fishermen from a campground tent. Four generations and 100 years later, her descendants run the place from a gray-shingled building in Point Judith.
Some things have changed but the casual atmosphere and the original dining room are still there. Aunt Carrie’s is the perfect place to drop in and devour a lobster roll after a pleasantly exhausting day at the beach.
The menu has expanded from clam cakes (which they say Aunt Carrie may have invented). Now hungry beach-goers can get almost anything with scales or shells, including a full shore dinner with or without lobster. And for a touch of nostalgia, they can pick up a box of sticky-sweet saltwater taffy from the gift shop.
1240 Ocean Rd., Narragansett. 401.783.7930; AuntCarriesRI.com
