EXPERIENCE: A coastal

from The Bay September 2022

VOICES OF THE BAY: A Warren

By Angie and Jeff DiMeo

A Jamestown Jaunt

Feel like family dining at three Conanicut Island haunts serving up baked eats, pub fare, inspired seafood, and more

Just a bridge or a ferry trip away from Newport is a burgeoning culinary destination on the bay – that’s right, we’re talking about Jamestown. After spending a day that turned into night at this underrated coastal town, we found an abundance of options to get your foodie fix. Here’s a taste of the date night adventure we elected.

SWEET SNACKS

First stop was the Village Hearth Bakery & Cafe. The amazing wife-and-wife duo Stephanie and Lindsay Haigh are the owners and operators of this cute bistro, and they ooze passion about what they do. Scratch-made pastries, breads, sandwiches, and more, as well as local organic co ee from Dean’s Beans, are all created and curated with the utmost care.

One step onto the ethereal property and we were immediately drawn to its charm. Secluded outdoor seating underneath a canopy of trees makes for the perfect intimate getaway, or a beautiful deck filled with private and communal seating options is perfect for friend groups. All of this is complemented by the aroma of freshbaked goods and coffee filling the air. We dined on a couple of delicious bites: avocado on multigrain toast with all the garnishes and a breakfast sandwich with thick-cut bacon on a sweet Portuguese muffin. Then we grabbed some sweets and headed to Beavertail Lighthouse for a stroll, taking in the views of stunning Narragansett Bay.

LANDMARK LUNCH

After working up our lunchtime appetite, we settled into a cozy table at Narragansett Cafe. Known locally as “The Ganny,” this spot has been a Conanicut Island staple since 1946 for quality pub fare, live music, a relaxed atmosphere, and staff that make you feel as though you’re family.

When Cecelia Verta and Joseph Colon (both now in their 70s) learned that the downtown landmark was up for sale at the end of 2020, they were afraid that Jamestown wouldn’t quite be the same without it. They set out to purchase the establishment with the sole purpose of “keeping things the way they are,” they share, and to ensure there’s always “a safe place where

Avocado toast on multigrain from Village Hearth Bakery & Cafe

Narragansett Cafe is a go-to for live music and pub fare Scallops served with risotto from Beech

locals can come to eat, drink, and mingle.”

Our favorite eats on the menu were the fish ‘n chips with homemade tartar sauce, gigantic clam cakes, and crispy onion rings. We made a promise to each other that we would come back for the live music they feature weekly (with no cover charges, ever).

NEW NEIGHBOR

Strolling through downtown Jamestown is a treat in itself; souvenir shops, housewares, and art galleries are all on hand. After a bit of shopping and watching the many sailboats in the harbor, we sauntered over for an early dinner at Beech, just steps away from The Ganny.

Beech is a newcomer to Jamestown’s eclectic dining scene and aims to be an all-seasons gathering place built around a 150-year-old beech tree. If you’re familiar with the former Simpatico, the location is now the home of Beech, where you can find several romantic dining areas, including a lively outdoor bar and rooftop nicknamed “The Treehouse.”

Operating partner Kevin Gaudreau and executive chef Eric Warren do a terrific job of showcasing the unique terroir of the region by using locally sourced produce and seafood to create imaginative yet familiar dishes.

Because of the newness of Beech (we were lucky enough to be their first seated guests), we wanted to sample as much as possible. Highlights include the crispy fried Brussels sprouts with a green onion aioli and chili peppers; toasted clams with parmesan, oregano, and butter; and George’s Bank scallops with a lemon beurre blanc – we can’t stop thinking about this exquisite coastal risotto dish.

A return trip to Jamestown may have to include a couple of repeat visits, but thankfully for us, there’s even more to explore along Narragansett Avenue that a single day out couldn’t contain.

For more foodie adventures follow @providencedatenight on Instagram.

Village Hearth Bakery & Cafe

2 Watson Avenue • 423-9282 VillageHearthBakeryCafe.com

Narragansett Cafe

25 Narragansett Avenue • 423-2150 NarragansettCafeRI.com

Beech

13 Narragansett Avenue • 560-4051 BeechJT.com

Ferolbink is named for farmer Pete Peckham’s parents W hen it comes to potato farms and farmers in Rhode Island, the premise behind the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon – that everyone can connect themselves to the actor through relationships with six other people – rings true. Except in the Ocean State, it’s Six Degrees of John Peckham because most of the few potato farmers who grow spuds here can trace their lineage to him. Peckham was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1200s, and his descendants came to the Newport/Middletown area from England in the 1600s, where they became prominent landowners and prolific farmers, digging deep roots in the community.

Jason “Pete” Peckham is one such descendant. The 82-yearold has been growing potatoes since he was six and he’s never really wanted to do anything else. And who could blame him? His Ferolbink Farm in Tiverton is 300 acres along the east passage of Narragansett Bay. It’s been in the Peckham family since the 1940s and is named for his parents – his mother’s first name was Ferol and his father’s nickname was Bink. (On the subject of names, “Pete” is not Peckham’s name at all. “My sisters renamed me when I was a baby,” he explains with a laugh, saying that they didn’t like his given name Jason, so Pete stuck for life.)

Jason “Pete” Peckham in the potato field along Fogland Marsh

Peckham in front of one of the farm’s tractors

Peckham has been o ered millions for the farm time and again, both for its picturesque location among the salt marshes of Tiverton and its carbon-rich soil with water-holding capacity. But he’s always said no. “I enjoy working the fields and watching things grow,” he explains matter-of-factly.

There are seven types of potatoes: russet, red, white, yellow, blue, fingerling, and petite, and within those types there are multiple varieties. They are packed with minerals and every vitamin except A and D. With Rhode Island being the second-most “Irish” state after Massachusetts, many locals can trace roots back to ancestors who came here to escape the Irish Potato Famine in the 1850s. Potatoes are about as versatile as a food can get – that’s why the average American eats about 120 pounds of taters a year.

Peckham grows many things at Ferolbink, but potatoes are the star and the main crop is the Norwis variety – a soft, mild, yellow, all-purpose kind. Norwis potatoes were originally bred for use as Lay’s potato chips, the company Peckham grew for in the 1980s and ‘90s. He sold many tons to the Lay’s factory in Fall River, where it was referred to as their 657 potato. It’s pretty much the perfect variety for making mashed potatoes and French fries. “It’s flu y, so it absorbs the flavors of whatever you’re cooking it with,” he says.

Red potatoes at Young Family Farm

Knowing the versatility of the Norwis and the fact that potatoes were one of Rhode Island’s largest crops, back in 2009 Peckham and a few other potato farmers in Portsmouth, Little Compton, and Westport took a move out of Rhody Fresh Milk’s playbook, and began a potato cooperative, marketing Narragansett Premium Potatoes – AKA the Norwis potato. They were sold directly to independent supermarkets. Peckham also sells to local schools and hospitals but is slowing his pace in recent years. “It costs about $3,000 to farm each acre of potatoes,” he says, making it one of the most expensive crops around, with the rising costs of labor, fertilizer, and other associated costs. Plus, harvesting potatoes is tough and dirty, he says. Picking your own potatoes doesn’t say “family fun” the way, say, picking your own strawberries does.

Pete Peckham showing how potatos are dug up by hand, but they are harvested e ciently using equipment “I love growing potatoes. It’s an addiction,” says Tyler Young

Along with fresh produce and flowers, Young Family Farm has baked items for sale

Fresh Colomba and Modoc red potatoes at Young Family Farm

Peckham’s nephew and niece, Tyler and Karla Young, did, however, start their Young Family Farm in a fashion that would make Martha Stewart proud: by selling their own strawberries in the front lawn of their Little Compton home. The couple purchased the land in the 1990s and their three daughters helped with those first years’ worth of fresh fruits and vegetables, growing a single table into an actual farmstand. Down the road a bit from Ferolbink Farm and close to a cousin’s Wishing Stone Farm, the Young family farms 300 acres of land, harvesting three seasons’ worth of berries, zucchini, corn, eggplant, squash, apples, and potatoes.

The Youngs grow roughly 20 potato varieties over about 100 acres. Among those varieties, Norwis is the most prominent, just like at uncle Pete’s farm. Most of the Youngs’ Norwis potatoes are sent to a local processor that peels and cuts them for restaurant use. Reds, yellows, and whites are shipped straight from the field to a fresh packer in Boston. Unlike many locally harvested vegetables and fruits, potatoes don’t come with the romance associated with a heaping container of blueberries or craggy heirloom tomatoes; they aren’t flying off the farmstand the way other produce might. Marketing them requires more work and cost, but spuds are still the Youngs’ jam. “I love growing potatoes,” Tyler Young says. “It’s an addiction.”

SURE, Julia Child elevated the humble potato with her Gratin Dauphinois recipe and McDonald’s made French fries a staple of the American fast-food diet. But Red Dory chef/owner Aaron DeRego says potatoes are best when they are treated lightly. Here are three treatments so simple, in fact, they don’t even require actual recipes.

CLAMBAKE POTATOES

One of DeRego’s favorite activities is to cook on the beach. “We’ll get lobsters, clams, corn – all of it,” he says. “But it is the potatoes that people always rave about.” For this he uses small red whole potatoes. “Just go right down to the water and scoop up sea water. Throw the potatoes in and cook over a fire until they are very tender. Then drain them and leave them.” As they dry o a bit, the sea salt will form a salty outer crust on the potato that makes them addictive. “They are all anybody talks about,” he says with a laugh.

SMASHED FINGERLING POTATOES

“These are halfway between a roasted and boiled potato,” DeRego says. Take a pound of fingerlings and boil them in salted water until tender. Sautee a couple of cloves of chopped garlic and some rosemary in oil in a pan and carefully add the drained potatoes. “Gently crush them by pushing down on them” with a wooden spoon or fork. Let them brown well on one or both sides and top with salt and pepper. “Even served at room temperature, these are so great.”

SPANISH OMELET

Start your day the Ferolbink Farm B&B way. Take a couple of large potatoes and slice them very thin, explains DeRego. Brown them, along with some thinly sliced onion, in a little oil in a pan. Layer them together into the buttered bottom of an oven-proof pan. Whisk a half dozen eggs in a bowl and pour the eggs over the potato/onion mixture. “Add whatever you want,” DeRego says, explaining that potatoes complement many flavors well, “like cheese, chives, or whatever.” Bake it at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Invert it onto a plate or board and “cut it like a pie.” DeRego says. “It’s great for a bunch of people and you can serve it alongside a salad or fruit.” Aaron DeRego slicing another veggie in the nightshade family, the eggplant

DeRego boiling potatoes in sea water at the beach

A few years back, Pete Peckham opened a small bed and breakfast on his Tiverton property. The acres of farmland and salty breeze coming in from Narragansett Bay a short distance away create an almost Napa Valley-like atmosphere: just substitute potatoes for grapes. Peckham’s son-in-law, Aaron DeRego, now the chef/owner of the Red Dory Restaurant in Tiverton, helped Peckham use his home crop in delicious ways, turning the potatoes into meals for the guests. Sure, B&B guests may love a glass of wine from grapes grown yards away, but a scrumptious Spanish frittata made with just-picked potatoes brings a lot of happiness, too, DeRego reasoned. And it was true. “Everyone should eat a potato every single day,” Peckham says. “I do. Baked or boiled and roasted – I get them in somehow.” WATERFRONT DINING FARM FRESH MENU PRIVATE EVENTS

CATERING LIVE MUSIC AL FRESCO DINING