Oh Hey Buzz Food Chasers!
Welcome to “What She’s Having,” a lively weekly Buzz column dedicated to the culinary scene of Newport and Aquidneck Island. Consider me your cheeky Pied Piper of culinary adventure. How big of a local restaurant geek do you want to be? Let’s GO!
You can check out my space right here at Newport Buzz every Thursday. Let’s get you some intel on the zippiest spring cocktail programs and news on local James Beard Award nominees now being featured on Food Network. How about some recipes, grill tips, food-saving hacks, and captures of beautiful food fans, foodie photos? Let’s get in the kitchen with some of our favorite local chefs and ask them how it’s done.
Because it never gets old, you’ll want to know where to get the best chowder, lobster rolls, steaks, and burgers in town in 2024. Best outdoor bars. Best bartenders. Let’s do a tequila crawl! How about a peek at your favorite server’s double life?
You may ask, reasonably, why you should care about “What She’s Having.” Some of you may know me as the food writer of the last five years for Newport This Week, the city’s weekly local newspaper. I was the publisher of The Beat, a quarterly, full-color magazine in Fairfield County, CT dedicated to food and art, for 12 years. Earlier, I served as the restaurant reviewer for The Weekly, a Fairfield County mainstay paper that covered politics, arts, music, and more with a distinctive edge. Your girl was born and raised in NYC, but don’t hold that against me.
The last 13 years represent my second time living in Newport. Many years ago, I co-owned a comedy club that operated out of The Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina (shameless self-back-pat: We had Jon Stewart there, twice!). I’ve taken classes at the Florence, Italy outpost of the Cordon Bleu culinary school, but my love for cooking and restaurants is firmly woven into my DNA, with my Dad a graduate of Cornell’s former Hotel and Restaurant School and both parents excellent cooks in their day.
But this will not be a space for “reviews.” Too judgey. I’m just here to bring the news and the nuance, the scoop and the yum. Newport’s rich and evolving culinary community employs thousands of people annually, and though it only gets about eight full months a year to make its entire income, it continues to evolve, reinventing its operating model to align with a livable career opportunity. The industry is upping its game, with a strong stake in the quality and authenticity of the dishes and ambience they serve, while keeping another foot firmly planted in the fun.
The last 10 years have brought a head-swiveling change to the Newport culinary scene. It’s no knock, just a simple fact that this city’s many golden glories were rarely based on the selection of decent, if not all that special, New England seafood menu offerings. That’s all changed.
The tried-and-true outposts that have survived and thrived through Newport’s restaurant revolution continue while making room for the entry of new artisans and a new generation of restaurateurs, food makers, and growers. I couldn’t be more delighted and grateful to Newport Buzz for the opportunity to provide all the details and inside scoop to this amazing new audience. Y’all need to know about all of it and I got you!
Wendy Logan
What She’s Having
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