A Seaside Town Growing Big on Flavor
As a warm summer morning unfolds in Westerly and locals slip into their rise-and-grind routines, Chiyoko Samuelson plays the role of conductor amid the symphony of humming cold press juicers and hissing espresso machine steam wands. Her husband, Brian, who grew up summering in Westerly, will soon meet her at their coffeehouse, Stick + Fin, after a quick check of surf conditions at nearby Matunuck Beach. The scene from this little corner of Main Street is a salt-tinged snapshot of a day in the life of coastal America.
OLD SOULS
Unquestionably, the reopening of the spectacular Ocean House hotel in Westerly’s Watch Hill village in 2010 kicked off a tsunami of new and noteworthy businesses alongside reimagined icons throughout the town. Stalwarts like the 1912 Westerly Railroad Station became a mixed-use space, combining a waiting area for passengers with a new arts venue, while the 1933 Knickerbocker Music Center (aka The Knick) was revamped, an upgrade that paled in comparison to the two-year, $12 million renovation of the United Theatre, unveiled in 2021. It’s hard to imagine year-old Martin House Books, formerly Savoy Bookshop & Café, was once a derelict hotel dating back to 1888; and the 124-year-old Westerly Armory now serves dual roles as museum and community center.
There may be new names and faces, but walking around Rhode Island’s westernmost town, peppered with vintage-style murals and original late Victorian, Greek Revival and Art Deco architecture, feels like time stood still at just the right moment.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
No one knows this better than homegrown talent Padraic “Pat” Fazio, whose first foray into Westerly’s dining scene was Ten Sandwiches, a seasonal sandwich shop he opened in his 20s with his brother Paul (and has since relocated to Watch Hill). More than 15 years later, they swung the pendulum in the opposite direction with the debut late last year of Bird in Hand, an upscale restaurant just a stone’s throw from the train station.
“I grew up here in the early ’90s, when, like, nothing was going on. It was kinda depressing. It’s come a long way, which is great to see,” he says, noting nearby additions including The Cafe and High Hope Tavern that have helped resuscitate Westerly’s downtown pulse. “There’s entertainment and stuff happening, and the United Theatre is a great thing to have in town.”
Earlier this year, the theater announced “Nashville North,” a partnership with Nashville institutions the Country Music Hall of Fame and The Bluebird Cafe, to bring Nashville-based singer-songwriters to Westerly to perform. The initiative is led by Scott Swift, father of Watch Hill’s most famous homeowner, Taylor Swift, and will include educational and community events around the region starting this fall.
Bird in Hand’s chef, Eddie Montalvo, who’s worked in leading Rhode Island restaurants including Al Forno in Providence, Coast at the Ocean House, and now-closed Fluke in Newport, cut his teeth under the tutelage of Michelin-starred chefs and restaurateurs. Here, he’s built the menu around local seafood—scallops, fluke and striped bass among his personal favorites. “Fish lends itself to my clean, bright style,” says Montalvo. “The profile of fish is subtle so everything else needs to be subtle to balance it.” But there’s also plenty for carnivores, house-made pastas and careful considerations for restricted diets, all giving the restaurant a neighborhood vibe.
Similarly, River Bar opened downtown last year at the start of the busy summer season when Westerly’s population swells to nearly double. Clinging to the banks of the Pawcatuck River in a 125-year-old former textile mill wheelhouse, with walls made from brick used as ballast on a transatlantic crossing, River Bar is the vision of Aaron Laipply and James Wayman. The two first earned Westerly street cred when they opened Nana’s, an organic bakery and pizza shop-meets-bar in 2022 (their flagship Nana’s, in nearby Mystic, Connecticut, was named one of America’s best new restaurants by Esquire Magazine).
Despite his Southern roots, Wayman—lauded by Saveur, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure and more—took naturally to New England foodways, and is widely known for sustainable sourcing from land and sea, whole-animal butchery and being a fine-tuned forager. Working in tandem with River Bar’s Executive Chef Kevin English, Wayman describes River Bar’s seasonally driven menu as “globally inspired, locally sourced,” but the two can take local to the next level.
Sure, there’s calamari, but River Bar’s is made from locally landed squid and dusted in cornmeal from heirloom Flint corn from Stonington’s Davis Farm, just five miles away and, markedly, Connecticut’s oldest continually operating farm, dating back to 1654. The cornmeal is then milled in Pawcatuck, just across the river.
The miso oven-baked haddock incorporates handcrafted small-batch miso by Moromi, Wayman’s venture founded with local partners Bob Florence and Debbi Michiko Florence, who share his passion for fermentation. Fungi is from Seacoast Mushrooms, and if you’re lucky you’ll score a dish with Stonington red shrimp from Sea Well Seafood, also in Pawcatuck; local shrimp caught between 500–2,000 feet of water is a rare depth for the crustacean that makes their high-fat meat particularly sweet and tender.
And at Sunday brunch, you might find a breakfast sandwich with “soupy,” a dry-cured spicy pork sausage and bona fide Westerly delicacy (the second annual “SoupyFest” was held at the United Theatre in April, and a documentary, Westerly’s Gold: Sweet, Spicy, and Full of Tradition shot by local filmmakers, was screened at the theater that same month). Nearby Westerly Packing makes and sells soupy in sweet, mild, hot or “triple hot” varieties.
RISING TIDES
Cinder, opened in 2022, takes a different approach: Make elevated dishes but make them super approachable. Think: fast food, but from scratch. Barbecue and slow-cooked meats are Cinder’s cornerstone, but vegans and vegetarians aren’t left behind on the menu of bowls and creative house-made naan bread tacos. This summer, Cinder debuts a new outdoor bar serving batch cocktails, beer, wine and snacks. “Town gets so busy for such a short amount of time … and, here we are on the riverfront, so we wanted a place for those folks to hang out and get comfortable while they wait for a table,” says owner Sam Agnello. At first, he thought the influx of new dining spots was somewhat unnerving, but he’s come to see the benefit of more doors opening here. “It’s already a rising-tide effect.”
With nearly 15 years under its belt, Grey Sail Brewing is a mainstay of the town, but even the elders are making changes. In 2020, Grey Sail launched a sister company on site, South Country Distillers, and earlier this year, the company acquired Outer Light Brewing Co. based in nearby Groton, expanding the brewery’s regional portfolio of craft beer.
Westerly’s culinary newcomers reach beyond the town’s historic district. William Wright & Co., starting to brand under its better-known colloquial name, “The Stand,” has morphed from a humble, pandemic-born, seasonal roadside farmstand into all-female-run mini-marketplace, stocked with produce, dairy, fresh bread, artisanal foodstuffs, prepared meals and fresh cut flowers. A cedar shingle idyll perched on tranquil Colonel Willie Cove, The Stand is, yes, an aesthetic “Rhode Island summer” Instagram fever dream, but it does the work of a small farmers market in one fell swoop.
And amid the swell of new openings, there are icons like seven-time James Beard Award–nominated chef Jeanie Roland, who anchors the dining scene. Westerly’s culinary matriarch, Roland is a seasoned talent in the sea of newcomers. In 2011, she opened Ella’s Food and Drink with her husband/business partner James, quickly earning praise for its elevated, globally inspired menu blending classic French fare and American favorites. She reflects on Ella’s opening as a turning point in the town’s dining offerings.
“I think it has been evolving, and, I don’t want to be like this, but we can take credit for that: If we never went and took a risk on a little town like Westerly, opening a restaurant like ours at that caliber,” she says. “I mean, it was very, very difficult, and I’ll be honest with you, it’s very difficult still, because we’re still in a small town that’s seasonal.” She says she wants to see Westerly thrive year-round, while acknowledging there’s a new energy and more full-time residents (and she’s correct—from 2010 to 2020, Westerly town’s population increased by 2.42%, according to Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program). “We’re at that cusp of ‘little town, big town,’ and we’ll see what happens.”
Andrea E. McHugh is a freelance writer who has written for the Hartford Courant, Baltimore Magazine, Daily Candy, Design Sponge, Providence Monthly and more. She resides in Newport.
Westerly’s Coffee Culture
For a small Rhode Island town, Westerly is big on java joints, with more than half a dozen doling out caffeinated concoctions for the daily grind. Stick + Fin gives SoCal vibes with RI Surf Co. surfboards and coastal-inspired local artwork for sale amongst beverages, toasts, smoothies, bowls and more. Junk & Java serves up a funkier flair with eclectic specials and a quirky gift shop.
Bibliophiles can get their brewed awakening at Cafe 1888, surrounded by two stories of stacks inside Martin House Books, while Nana’s, pulling triple duty as a restaurant, bar and “all day cafe,” is serious about its breads, pastries and espresso drinks by Canyon Coffee, a Los Angeles–based specialty coffee roaster specializing in organic and regenerative organic certified coffees. Old Man Joe’s on Main Street is marking its first year in business and is quickly gaining a reputation for its organic naturally leavened bagels and pastries and coffee selection. Fresh Cup Café is now owned by Chef Jamey Maloof who arrived by way of Sift Bakery, while Perks and Corks is one part coffeehouse, one part martini lounge.
Westerly Data Points
DINING:
Bird in Hand
12 Canal St.
401.388.8449; BirdxHand.com
The Cafe
3 Canal St.
401.357.0300; TheCafeRI.com
Cinder
169 Main St.
401.229.3377; CinderRestaurant.com
Ella’s Food & Drink
2 Tower St. • 401.315.0606;
EllasFineFoodAndDrink.com
High Hope Tavern
18 High St.
401.388.8450; HighHopeTavern.com
Ocean House
1 Bluff Ave.
855.678.0364; OceanHouseRI.com
Nana’s
82 High St.
401.213.3911; NanasRI.com
River Bar
37 Main St.
401.561.7050; RiverBarWesterly.com
LIBATIONS:
Grey Sail Tap Room & South County Distillers
63 Canal St.
401.212.7592; GreySailBrewing.com
Perks and Corks
62 High St.
401.596.1260; PerksAndCorks.com
COFFEE:
Cafe 1888
10 Canal St.
401.561.5938; @cafe_1888_westerly
Fresh Cup Cafe
9 East Ave.
401.596.2400; FreshCupCafe.com
Junk & Java
49 Beach St.
401.315.0111; JunkNJava.net
Old Man Joe’s
134 Main St.
401.424.9862; OldManJoes.us
Stick + Fin
163 Main St.
401.388.8164; StickAndFin.com
ENTERTAINMENT:
The Knickerbocker Music Center
35 Railroad Ave.
401.315.5070; KnickMusic.com
United Theatre
5 Canal St.
401.388.8208; UnitedTheatre.org
RETAIL:
Capizzano Olive Oils
5 Coggswell St., Pawcatuck, CT
860.495.2187; CapizzanoCo.com
Gray Goose Cookery
93 Watch Hill Rd.
401.315.5017; GrayGooseCookery.com
Martin House Books
10 Canal St.
401.561.6101; MartinHouseBooks.com
“The Stand” by William Wright & Co.
95 Watch Hill Rd.
401.212.7728; WilliamWrightAndCo.com
Westerly Packing
15 Springbrook Rd.
401.596.3404; WesterlyPacking.com
