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We've compiled the best of the best in Newport County and East Bay - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
With five indoor and outdoor dining areas, this casually elegant restaurant is the center of Jamestown nightlife in the summer, especially at its expansive open-air bar. A 150-year-old beech tree in the courtyard lends its name to the locally owned restaurant, which has retained key staff from the former Trattoria Simpatico at the same location and menu highlights include local calamari, sticky ribs, house-made pasta, and grilled seafood dishes.
Drinks at a bar favored by the sailing crowd, intimate dinners by the fire, and relaxing lunches overlooking Newport Harbor are a few of the experiences possible at this multilevel complex. The first-floor Candy Store serves casual fare and has a sushi bar; the second-floor offers casual dining in the Bistro and cocktails in the Midway Bar; and the Summer Porch and 12 Metre Yacht Club Room on the third floor have elegant fine dining requiring proper dress. The Sky Bar serves Newport's most expensive cocktail, Newport Water, made with top-shelf Champagne, Grand Marnier, and St. Germain poured over ice.
At this mainstay on the Newport waterfront, you can choose your dining experience based on the ambience and vibe you're looking for. The posh, plank-floored Commodore's Room (business casual dress required) features country pâté, escargot, rack of lamb, stuffed lobster tails, and other classic offerings, while the Tavern has a more casual experience, with standard American fare like salads, burgers, and grilled meat or fish, old nautical charts on the walls, and a four-season patio.
This Tiverton restaurant masters the art of elegant waterfront dining with views of the Mount Hope Bridge and a menu that covers all of the New England seafood bases, from the raw bar and chowder to calamari and cioppino. It's the kind of place meant for lingering over a long dinner, but not too pretentious to leave sandwiches off the menu. If you want a burger or a shrimp po'boy, that's no problem, but do wash it down with a dessert cocktail like the Iced Rhody, a mix of espresso, Irish cream, and cinnamon syrup.
An 1818 rum distillery houses this distinctive waterfront restaurant—look for the timber ceilings, African granite from slave ship ballast in the walls, and framed sections of early-19th-century graffiti-covered plaster. Chef Sai Viswanath reinvents traditional New England fare by combining it with Indian preparations to create dishes like seafood sandwiches on naan bread and lobster sauteed in curry-tinged coconut milk.
The East Bay's best Italian restaurant can compete with any establishment on Federal Hill with its house-made meatballs, classic veal and chicken preparations, and a thoughtful wine list. One wall of the elegant dining room is paneled with wine crates; breakfast and lunch are served at the affiliated Roberto's Cafe.
Share green curry mussels, spiced-up Thai lobster, sinful tuna poke tacos with fried wontons for wraps, and other seasonal small and large plates at this restaurant with a rustic garden setting. With sprawling indoor-outdoor bars and seating, it's a quirky-fun meetup spot that takes everything from buttermilk brunch biscuits to fruity cocktails and mocktails seriously.
The first tavern opened here in 1673—and ever since, the premises have served, in turn, as a tavern, boardinghouse, restaurant, and even a meetinghouse for Colonial Rhode Island's General Assembly. Today, the tavern provides an intimate fine-dining experience, the mood set by the low dark-beam ceilings, uneven plank floors, and four still-working fireplaces; an outside patio is a more recent addition.
