My darling foodie friends, don’t let the daffodils fool you. A few 58-degree days aren’t going to usher in Spring in Newport. That season won’t be here FR-FR for at least another month, probably more, followed the very next day by summer. So, keep your Wellies handy and don’t put away your sweaters just yet, but feel free to begin the approach to lighter, fresher foods, dreamy brunches at the shipyard and lobster right off the boat on the harbor. Our food and beverage community doesn’t follow the island’s protracted winter calendar and some of our summer faves are already cranking up their kitchens, conjuring warmer days ahead.
The indoor/outdoor Belle’s Café, located alongside the massive sailing ships at the Newport Shipyard, opened for the season in March for breakfast and lunch daily from 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., serving fresh, locally sourced menu items. Build your own omelet or Benedict for breakfast or go for buttermilk pancakes or pearl sugar waffles. For lunch, there are burgers, panini, salads, lobster rolls and a kids menu. The casual setting belies the top-notch food served here. It’s a gem and slipping in before the season gets underway is how the pros do it.
Besides big ships and Bennies, nothing says Newport in season like fresh seafood. Also open for the duration is Hooked, the next door, sister restaurant to Vieste Simply Italian in Wellington Square. The restaurant opened on April 2, with a fundraiser for Newport Mental Health. Spring hours are Wed. through Sat. beginning at 4:30 p.m. Besides a comprehensive raw bar, Hooked serves appetizers like grilled octopus, oysters Rockefeller, crispy tuna rolls and fried oysters. The rest of the menu continues with a seafood extravaganza, with fresh fish straight off the grill, seafood linguine with choice of shellfish, Scampis, Marsalas, Picattas and Fra Diavolo. Got a landlubber in your party? Substitute the fish for chicken.
The Newport Lobster Shack on Long Wharf is the spot for sparking up your own spring seafood celebration, with live lobsters caught by a cooperative of our own local lobstermen for sale every weekend. Meanwhile, the Shack’s kitchen has fired up its grills and set its pots on simmer to serve up the freshest prepared seafood in town, from fried lobster bites to cold lobster rolls, full lobster dinners, lobster bisque, fish and chips, calamari and more. Put on your fisherman’s knit and hunker down at one of the covered picnic tables for your feast, or take it to go, Fri., Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (lobster market opens at 10 a.m.).
Daffodils and lobsters en masse? Sounds like spring to me.
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