The stretch of Narragansett Avenue between the ferry landing and Southwest Avenue has quietly become the busiest three blocks in Newport County. Not busy with tourists, though there are plenty. Busy with turnover. In the last eighteen months, the village has absorbed more new dining than it did in the previous decade, and the address that took the longest to open is the one that explains how the rest of the block finally moved.
If you already live on Conanicut Island, most of this will be familiar in outline. What follows is the detail, the dates, and the two logistical items worth putting on the calendar before September.
The 14 Narragansett file
For roughly six years, 14 Narragansett Ave sat between identities. Jamestown Fish closed at the end of 2018. A receivership auction followed in 2020. New owners tried and failed to get traction. A bookstore-wine bar opened, then didn't survive its first winter. A deal to bring a Tuscan restaurant collapsed in spring 2025, when a neighbor enforced deed restrictions from 2003 that cap service hours and prohibit amplified music. By last fall, most longtime residents had quietly filed the address under "promising but stuck."
That was the story until December. Crudo Oyster Bar & Coastal Italian Kitchen opened on December 17, 2025. The trio behind it, Tony Lanni, Jeff Merlino, and Anthony Quetta, already run Merlino's Pizzeria in Cranston and the original Crudo in Smithfield, so this is their third concept, not their first.
A brief chronology for the file:
- 2018 — Jamestown Fish closes.
- 2020 — Receivership auction; MTM Jamestown Fish LLC, led by Paul Mihailides of the Preserve Sporting Club in Richmond, purchases the site for $1.3 million.
- June 2021 — Sold again to Jamestown residents Seth Goldenberg and Elizabeth Newton for $1.6 million; two months later they open Curiosity & Co., a bookstore combined with a wine bar, which closes in December.
- Spring 2025 — Tuscan-restaurant deal collapses on the 2003 deed restrictions.
- December 17, 2025 — Crudo opens.
Two things are worth pulling out of that timeline. First, the price arc. The building traded up from $1.3M to $1.6M inside eighteen months, and a subsequent buyer paid $1.7M in October 2024 before that plan also fell through. Small-lot commercial in the village is not a value play; it is a patience play, which is a very different underwriting exercise. Second, the deed restrictions at 14 Narragansett are not folklore. They are enforceable, they were enforced within the last eighteen months, and they will shape whatever concept ever lives at that address. Amplified music is off the table. Late-night service is off the table. Crudo runs dinner-only, Monday through Saturday, and that is not a stylistic choice.
What's still moving at 22
Two doors east, 22 Narragansett Ave is the address still in motion. Mindy Zhang, who has owned Mindy's Restaurant and Sushi Bar in Portsmouth since 2021, appeared before the Jamestown Zoning Board of Review in late April 2026 for a liquor license approval for Mindy Galley, her planned Asian fusion restaurant at the former J22 Tap & Table.
The historical footnote is more interesting than the permitting delay. Zhang originally targeted February for the opening; permitting delays pushed that timeline. If Mindy Galley opens this summer, it will be Jamestown's first dedicated Asian restaurant since Peking Garden closed in 2016 when the Bomes Theatre was renovated, a nine-year gap. A village of six thousand people going nine years without a category of cuisine is not a market signal about demand. It is a market signal about how hard it is to get anything approved and staffed on the island.
The rest of the block, holding steady
The other two anchors on the avenue have been quieter, which in Jamestown is a compliment.
| Address | Restaurant | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Narragansett Ave | Crudo Oyster Bar & Coastal Italian Kitchen | Opened Dec 17, 2025; dinner only, closed Sundays |
| 22 Narragansett Ave | Mindy Galley (pending) | Zoning approval April 2026; opening timeline slipped |
| 23B Narragansett Ave | Angel's Kitchen | Reopened last fall after eight months closed |
| 53 Narragansett Ave | Our Table Jamestown | Seasonal menu; Chefs Marc Alexander and Marla Romash |
Angel's Kitchen at 23B Narragansett Ave came back online last fall after roughly eight months closed. It runs as a home-style American restaurant, open seven days a week from noon to 11 p.m., with draft beers, familiar entrees, and a no-pretense atmosphere. It covers the daytime and early evening hours that Crudo's dinner-only format leaves open. The two rooms are functionally complementary, not competitive, which is the pattern the block needed.
Our Table Jamestown, two blocks north at 53 Narragansett Ave, continues with Chefs Marc Alexander handling the savory side and Marla Romash on pastry, operating a seasonal menu that follows local produce. It has built a consistent following without much noise.
Off the avenue, on the calendar
The village blocks are the compressed change. The rest of the summer calendar is the texture.
Jamestown Arts Center, Secret Studios. Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 2026, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., a two-day, island-wide art tour where participating artists invite visitors into their studios across Jamestown. If you have out-of-town guests coming and want an itinerary that doesn't route through Newport, this is the weekend to hold.
Jamestown Philomenian Library, Climate Conversations. A 30-photograph exhibition documenting coastal change along Rhode Island's shoreline, organized by a North Kingstown group and on display through the spring. For anyone with a shoreline lot or an eye on one, the exhibit is a useful ninety minutes.
Watson Farm, North Road. Watson Farm is still operating this season, including its walking trails across 265 acres. The 230-year-old working barn that served as the farm's public face since it opened to visitors in 1979 was destroyed in a fire on April 23, a genuine loss described by Historic New England site manager Jane Hennedy as "a significant piece of agricultural history." The trails and pastures remain open. The visual center of the property does not.
Two things to plan around
Late summer on the island always has one or two logistical items that reroute your week. This year there are two.
The bridge. The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority began replacing joints on the Jamestown-Verrazzano Bridge this spring, with westbound traffic reduced to a single lane during the work. If your commute is westbound in the afternoon, the queue is real. If you are timing a contractor or a grocery delivery from the mainland, build in the delay.
The Rhode Race. The Jamestown Rhode Races run Saturday, September 26, 2026, kicking off at 7:00 a.m. with a cap of just 425 runners. The race starts in Fort Getty, winds past Mackerel Cove, heads straight across the island before the decline into Jamestown Village, then follows the east side of the island. It cuts through a beautiful neighborhood before coming up the west side of the island where you will enjoy views of windmills, estuaries and farms before finishing back at Fort Getty. Parking is at Fort Getty, and there may be delay in getting in and out due to car and pedestrian traffic as well as getting onto the island. Plan errands for Sunday.
Reading the pattern
Pull the pieces together and the shape is clear. 14 Narragansett is a compressed history of how Jamestown absorbs new things: slowly, on the town's terms, with sustained friction, and then, once something actually fits, completely. The past 18 months on Narragansett Avenue have brought more new dining to the village than the previous decade combined.
That pattern matters beyond the restaurant block. It is the same pattern that governs how a permit moves through zoning, how a renovation gets scheduled around the ferry and the bridge, and how a resale on this island differs from a resale in Newport or North Kingstown. Change lands in Jamestown after it has been argued with. Once it lands, it tends to stay.
If you own a home here, or you own one of the small commercial parcels on or near the avenue, that friction is your asset. It is why the block turned over slowly, and it is why the businesses that eventually opened are the ones that intend to stay open. If you are thinking about a project on the island, whether that is a kitchen renovation, a rental conversion, or a small commercial fit-out, plan for the schedule the village actually keeps rather than the one a contractor from the mainland might quote you.
That is where our team is useful. Smith & Oak Realty works the Providence metro and the coastal Rhode Island markets end to end, from acquisition through renovation and leasing, and Jamestown is one of the places where knowing the local permitting cadence and the deed history on a specific building is worth more than a broad market read. If you have a question about a property on the island, or you want to talk through a renovation timeline that has to work around bridge closures and a ferry schedule, schedule a consultation and we will give you a straight answer.
