TSK: The Sequel

Thames Street Kitchen Returns to an Eager Audience

Though rehearsals and prep begin long before the audience arrives, the players have now taken their places and the spotlights are turned on. Chefs Chad Hoffer and Matt Brown are on stage. The doors open and eager fans pour into the restaurant, with 12 of them taking front-row seats at the chef’s counter for the performance to come.

Newport’s TSK (Thames Street Kitchen) is back—even on Thames Street! And diners, who were crushed when the team of Chad and Julia Hoffer and Tyler and Anna Burnley closed the previous TSK on New Year’s Eve of 2015, are also back ... and giving it rave reviews.

Technically, the 45-seat restaurant is now TSK at the Revolving Door. TSK will be a long-term “guest,” collaborating with fellow restaurateur Albert Bouchard, who runs the popular Bouchard Restaurant right next door. (TSK will also have 30 more seats outside this summer and early fall).

And TSK owners have not been idle. They opened the burger spot Mission on Marlborough Street in 2013 and the fried-chicken eatery Winner Winner in their old TSK spot on Lower Thames in May 2016.

“We were looking for a concept that would work year-round in Newport,” Chad Hoffer says, about Mission. “We wanted locals to come as well as tourists, and it’s worked. It’s turned into a fun, cool, hip place to hang out.”

Winner Winner, with fried or rotisserie chicken, plenty of “sides” and iced hibiscus sweet tea, has developed a similar neighborhood (and year-round) presence. It’s co-owned and run by Steve Yerger, who had worked at TSK.

“TSK is much more challenging,” Chad points out, “because we change the menu often, as we look for local and seasonal ingredients. We’re much more involved on a day-to-day basis, even in such details as fixing the ice machine!”

Tyler and Anna are in charge of Mission, Chad and Julia TSK and Steve Winner Winner. But all those roles shift when help is needed at one place or another. Julia might take over for Steve in a family emergency; Julia and Anna might fill in front-of-house roles when needed.

Chad and Tyler worked together at BLT Prime in New York City, Chad’s first job coming off a six-month culinary program after growing up with his parents owning diner-type restaurants in North Dakota.

“I started washing dishes when I was 11,” Chad recalls. “There was a lot to learn in those places—speed, organization, how to move in a kitchen.”

Matt took a slightly different route to TSK, as well as its sequel. He attended Johnson & Wales, ending up in Newport at Castle Hill Inn. He walked into TSK one day and loved their emphasis on local foods and on purchasing whole fish and butchering their own meats. He and Chad hit it off and they worked with such rapport that when Matt went on a year-long WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) tour of Thailand, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, he came back as soon as Chad let him know that TSK was re-opening.

“I left Australia to come back!” Matt says, with amazement. “I was so sure that it would be right. The people, the food—I knew that the lifestyle was something I wanted.”

What Matt saw overseas—a closeness to nature, a sense of tight-knit community among farmers and producers and consumers—he hadn’t experienced in the United States.

“But we try to do that here at TSK,” he says. “To tie in the freshness of the food to the atmosphere in the restaurant—to make it all one. To make sure that from start to finish, the diners can appreciate these things as much as the chefs.”

And they do. Patrons gather at the small bar in front to await seats for dinner, meeting friends and making friends. They watch avidly if they are at the 12-seat chef ’s counter to see Chad chopping vegetables, Matt stirring a sauce, line cook Nate Dubuc sprinkling salt on top of the fresh-baked milk breads (with a different butter each week). Chad reaches for more serving bowls below his station; Matt sears the sirloin flap that’s a regular on the menu. They also offer what they call Mission cuts, a limited number of prime steaks, usually sizeable enough for two. They make these special cuts from the whole animal while the remaining beef is used at Mission for its hamburgers.

This summer, diners might watch Chad or Matt grilling vegetables, charring onions, whisking a roux or steaming littlenecks to create a clam succotash. They might see Chad stuffing a sea bass with fennel and a quartered lemon and then carefully grilling it. Or Matt grilling a spatchcocked half chicken (from Amish farms in Pennsylvania) with a spicy sauce rubbed into it.

The creativity of these two chefs at TSK is nonstop, but their dishes aren’t fussy. Chad calls it “New American cuisine,” and he admits to inspiration from food trends— ”you can’t avoid what’s out there. But I push myself to be individually creative,” he says. “I’m excited for the corn and tomatoes of summer; we will use them in lots of dishes.”

Similarly, Matt says: “I’m always pushing and continuing to learn. I want to try new flavors and to try things outside the box.”

“We also brought back some of the things that were popular, such as the raviolo,” Chad says. “We want to be reminiscent of what we were.”

Matching Matt and Chad’s expertise at the stove is General Manager/Beverage Director Corey Hayes’s background in wines. He touts TSK’s 75 esoteric labels, including grape varietals from southern Italy and France that are rarely found in New England. They also have a half-dozen signature cocktails and some interesting brews, including a milk stout and a Mexican lager.

When dinner (and the show) are finished, applause might take the form of a wave or a thumbs-up at Chad and/or Matt. The encore: Matt’s colorfully tattooed arm waving back and Chad’s wonderfully warm smile.

TSK—Thames Street Kitchen
509 Thames St., Newport
401.846.0400; TSKnpt.com