By Andrea E. McHugh
It’s straightforward to be seduced by the romance of Newport. The breathtaking sunsets, crashing waves, early-morning fog and absence of gridlock give this coastal metropolis a palpable Norman Rockwell vibe. Whereas summer season steals the highlight, Newport’s quieter months are extra intimate, with room to unfold out and time to savor romantic meals. Whether or not you’re sharing a primary date or a milestone anniversary, we’ve compiled an inventory of a few of the greatest eating places for preserving the romance alive.
Lucia’s Italian Restaurant
A Perch Above Thames Avenue
Whereas bemoaning Newport’s modifications has turn out to be a neighborhood sport, a stroll down Higher Thames Avenue could make it appear to be issues have hardly modified in any respect. As nightfall settles and the streetlights begin to glow, the protruding entrance desk within the window at Lucia’s Italian Restaurant beckons like a bit window on the world. Ascending the steps, one has to decide on between Lucia’s two eating choices: the informal pizzeria to the appropriate, or the extra intimate eating room to the left. Select the door on the left (although your fare is certain to please it doesn’t matter what). In response to proprietor Lucia Tacchi, whose placing crimson hair and heat smile have set the restaurant’s tone since 1993, the window desk is hands-down essentially the most requested one in her reservation e book. “Even individuals who have by no means been right here say they had been advised, ‘Reserve the window desk!’” she says with amusing. Tacchi says there’s been multiple proposal within the dimly lit eating room. Generally a suitor enlists her assist slipping the ring right into a flute of champagne or presenting the field with dessert. (Often her well-known home made tiramisu which, like the right proposal, is difficult to refuse.) “Thus far all people has mentioned ‘sure,’” she relates with a giggle, “after which all the eating room cheers. It’s very warming.”
White Horse Tavern
Desk for Two .. As soon as Shared by Hessian Mercenaries
Oh, if the partitions of the White Horse Tavern may speak, there’d be many tales to inform. When William Mayes Sr. opened this Newport watering gap on the nook of Farewell and Marlborough streets in 1673, he hardly had “cozy {couples}” in thoughts. Even as we speak, diners on the “oldest working restaurant within the U.S.” is probably not ready for a way alluring and untouched this place actually is. Glowing cell telephones are dreadfully misplaced right here, and dialog appears the chief type of leisure (how novel!). Tables surrounded by traditional New England Windsor chairs are lit by candlelight, lanterns are affixed to the partitions, and uncovered overhead picket beams may be discovered all through the bi-level restaurant the place Jacqueline Kennedy used to lunch. Arguably essentially the most romantic house right here is the bar space, adjoining to the ground-level eating room. The pintsized house hosts only a trio of tables and is especially welcoming on winter nights when the outsized fire crackles because it’s fed extra wooden. American culinary comforts are proper at residence on the menu, and the recognition of the lobster bisque, beef Wellington and steak frites assures these dishes aren’t going anyplace. Whereas not formal (at one time, diners had been sometimes dressed to the nines), the gown code right here is “sensible informal,” so that you’ll nonetheless need to look sharp within the place the place individuals have been making an impression for 349 years.
Vino Wine Bar
Swirl, Sniff, Sip … Stick Round a Bit
Nonetheless attending to know one another? Forego a proper dinner for a pleasant glass of wine at Vino Wine Bar in Newport’s Fifth Ward neighborhood. With dim lighting, reclaimed-wood accents, stone archways and partitions displaying extra vintages than one can rely, this wine cellar–impressed house has an simple sensual attraction. “We had been in Rome and noticed this lovely, quaint wine bar the place you’re surrounded by wine on all 4 partitions with deep, darkish woods all through, and we fell in love with that little house,” says normal supervisor Will Bard of his journey to Italy with the restaurant’s proprietor, Tony LaRusso. “We mentioned, ‘We have now to carry this piece of Italy again to Newport.’” Cozy as much as the darkish mahogany bar lined with luxurious upholstered chairs, or go for a double date on the candlelit excessive tops. Friday nights from 7:30 to 11 p.m. are NewportOUT nights, when the wine bar is devoted to the LGBTQ+ neighborhood and allies to converse, imbibe, and even take pleasure in dishes from neighboring Viesté Merely Italian. “There actually has not been any particular place in Newport for the [LGBTQ+] neighborhood … to go to, collect, sip an important wine and revel in some reside music,” says Bard. “It has labored splendidly.”
The Vanderbilt
Refined-by-Unstuffy Meets Scandalous-Turned-Sensual
With a reimagined inside impressed by “the insatiable wanderlust and rebellious spirit of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt,” the downtown resort bearing his surname has been propelled into a brand new period — and so has its eating areas. Commissioned by Vanderbilt in 1909 for Agnes O’Brien Ruíz, the spouse of the Cuban attaché with whom he was having an affair, the Georgian-style mansion has been remodeled with a wealthy palette of greens and blues, inviting furnishings and elegant-but-eccentric appointments. You’d hardly guess the property spent a long time as a YMCA. The Vanderbilt’s eating room invitations you to luxuriate. The Vanderbilt’s eating room invitations you to luxuriate, whether or not sharing a primary date or a fiftieth. Begin within the library with a bespoke aperitif just like the Elms Cup, made with Pimm’s (an English ginbased liqueur), recent lemon, ginger and Cel-Ray garnished with mint, earlier than making your approach into the eating room. A good-looking house with hovering ceilings, an illuminated triple-tier bar and a tufted banquette with pillows, the restaurant nonetheless feels intimate, particularly if you happen to rating the cosseted nook nook overseen by a taxidermied pheasant. Simply steps from the fireside, this coveted desk is rivaled solely by the menu overseen by James Beard Award–profitable chef and culinary advisor April Bloomfield. Dive right into a vermouth-braised rabbit with fennel, bacon and basil, or go for the decidedly extra informal Vandy Burger topped with bacon, garlic aioli and Harvest Moon cheese sauce from 5 Spoke Creamery in New York.
Forty 1° North
Sundown views and Seafood Towers
One of many biggest couplings of all time isn’t even human. The union of oysters and champagne remains to be consummated at Forty 1° North, the place you’ll see loads of 2-foot titanium seafood towers gracing tables with shiny silver champagne stands alongside. “We have now the Veuve Clicquot la Grande Dame 2008, and we undoubtedly see the Veuve Clicquot Brut with the seafood towers — they’re lovely champagnes,” says Ethan Umrichin, a meals and beverage supervisor there. “For a date evening or double date, the seafood tower is nearly all the time our first merchandise ordered,” says Jacci Grillo, an everyday visitor at Forty 1° North. “Crisp, chilly, uncooked — and the cooked shellfish is nothing wanting wonderful. I’m drooling fascinated by it.” Michael Calderoni, one other meals and beverage supervisor there, explains, “It’s a extremely attractive dish. It’s massive, it’s elegant, and it’s generally overwhelming. Once we carry out the seafood tower, the entire eating room is it.” And it’s not simply the aphrodisiacal oysters that set the temper: Three fireplaces may be discovered on the principle ground — together with one within the library, the place a pair would possibly have interaction in a pleasant spherical of pool.
Bouchard Restaurant
The Romance of France with out the Jet Lag
For 1 / 4 century, Bouchard Restaurant on Thames Avenue has been the upscale eating respite for {couples} in search of romantic, modern French delicacies. With numerous accolades, together with making OpenTable’s listing of the 100 greatest eating places for foodies in America, Bouchard simply eschews menu tendencies and media grabs by merely staying the course. The restaurant is considered one of only a handful remaining in Newport which might be thought-about wonderful eating, providing the elusive “white tablecloth expertise” with considerate, memorable meals by chef de delicacies Jessica Odunwa. Eating right here emulates dinnertime at a personal residence within the French countryside and appears insulated from bustling Decrease Thames Avenue outdoors. Inside, diners are handled to a softly illuminated eating room, plush chairs, hushed tones, and place settings punctuated by origami napkins pointed skyward. Jim Hedin and Kathy Finn of Newport make an annual pilgrimage to Bouchard to rejoice the anniversary of their first date almost three a long time in the past. “It’s quiet and intimate; you nearly really feel like you possibly can be anyplace,” says Finn, including, “The dinner and the service are merely the very best.” Hedin and Finn are not any strangers to the restaurant’s signature dessert, the Grand Marnier Soufflé. The pillowy soufflé rises above the rim of the white porcelain ramekin and is topped with a candle. For {couples} like Hedin and Finn, “bon anniversaire” is inscribed in chocolate on the serving plate under. When the candle is eliminated, the server (maybe the ever-popular Dan) dramatically pours a creamy Grand Marnier combination into the middle of the soufflé and drizzles the final drops o
