Spent last weekend in beautiful Jamestown, RI, a place I went to every summer as a kid. We arrived Friday at lunchtime. Went to Village Hearth Bakery for lobster rolls (we had pretty good ones a few summers ago from there). They were sadly not offering them this summer. Lobster rolls from the ice cream shop down the street were just ok. But eating them back at the house, right on the water, practically underneath the Newport Bridge, with rum and mango juice drinks in hand definitely made up for the shortcomings. Dinner was a seafood pasta I made with sparkling fresh seafood from Zeek’s.
Sat lunch was KFC with Korean fixings! (In addition to the traditional KFC sides.) For our family trips, mom would pack up myriad of Korean banchan, we’d stop in Providence to grab a bucket of original recipe and sides and we’d have our feast on the rocks of Beavertail Park in Jamestown. It’s a funny and warm memory for me. B has always wanted to experience this, so we re-created it for him. We did it at the house since we all thought a meal out on the rocks would be tough with cipollini. A really fun meal - every commented that they hadn’t had KFC in decades. Even I had some and we all concurred - it was REALLY good. Sat dinner was leftovers.
Sun lunch was take-away from The Shack. It is a taco shop operating literally operating out of a shack in Dutch Harbor. Of course, the person behind that shack is Jake Rojas of Tallulah fame in Newport and Providence so the offerings are elevated. There are picnic tables and I think you could do BYOB. Fish burrito bowls and Mexican shrimp cocktail were all delicious. Very busy.
Sun dinner with friends was pizza night at Village Hearth, which I have always wanted to do, but Sun nights were not possible for me and my family. Everything is still done by the couple who own the place with help now from their daughter (I remember when they were on the younger side and childless and basically ran the place out of their home). Pizzas, margherita and a veggie special, were fantastic. Chatting with the woman running FOH, I know that it’s a stressful lifestyle. But looking at her husband manning the oven, I have a feeling running that bakery is in his blood. Anyway, we thought about all the work and love put it into making that simple meal of pizza as we shared it under the beautiful arbor, with our brought-in wine and beer.
Great way to celebrate a milestone birthday for one of us.
Your weekend sounds fabulous, digga. That is such a beautiful area. We usually tend to drive through or maybe stop and walk the beach but have never stayed there or eaten there. I’ll put it on our trip list.
I love the image of banchan and KFC at Beavertail! My son had a craving for KFC a few months back so we grabbed a bucket and all really enjoyed it. The banchan would have made it even better, though! Thanks for another great post. You’re already creating many fabulous experiences for your little cipollini.
Love the report…we go to Newport in the off season and will try anything that’s open then in Jamestown. I love clam cakes…any recs in the area for those? Also love hearing about Cipollini’s adventures. We adopted our son at age 7, so missed all those great younger days.
I absolutely LOVE the eight-grain batard they make at the Village Hearth. I call it crack bread because no one in my family can stop eating it! We spend a week down near Scarborough beach every year and stop at the village Hearth both on the way down and on the way back to stock up on that wonderful bread!
The Village Hearth appears to have expanded a bit this year, they now have a smoothie window (my daughter gave hers a big thumbs up!) and the variety of baked goods appears to be larger as well. I’ve never been able to go there for pizza unfortunately
Did a search for Village Hearth and of course @digga has already reported on it a few years back. So here’s our update from 2019.
DH and I went to Newport Jazz Festival last Saturday and went the long way through Jamestown so we can visit Village Hearth Bakery to pick up sandwiches. The bakery is not crowded just before lunch and had nice pastries on display, so we picked up a few things to try (peach scone, lemon poppy seed yogurt cake, and raspberry pop-tart) as well as two sandwiches (lox and fixing on everything bagel, and a prosciutto and pesto panini).
Happy to report that the sandwiches were excellent and made our lawn picnic while listening to jazz a great time. The bagel and baguette had really good flavor that could stand on their own, perhaps from a long fermentation? We are not big fans of the peach scones - plenty of spice but really dry, but enjoyed the super moist mini-loaf cake. I will be attempting double punch of lemon and yogurt at home for sure!
No bread on sale other than Sunday, and orders need to be called in or put in online before Friday afternoon. I was hoping to find at least a basic sourdough or baguette, but alas, no luck. I’m sure they are excellent given how good the sandwiches are.
@sunnyday Thrilled to read your take on this place (another place which I categorize as magical). Pizza nights there with rough red wine under twinkling lights is magical.
As I wrote in my post, I think being in the bread biz for as long as they’ve been, it’s got to be wearing on them. Thus, perhaps, the limited availability of bread? I think bakers hours are probably among the most grueling of all professions. Definitely a labor of love.
We came very close to heading down to Jamestown during the weekend of the folk festival just to revel in the festive atmosphere but decided against it due to potential crowds. We may head down in a couple of weeks and take the ferry over to Newport which is so much fun. Village Hearth will definitely be on the agenda.
Did you ever go for the bread? The owners sold the business a couple of years ago and the new owners have removed breads in favor of other baked goods (sandwiches, sweets, salads mostly). The eight-grain batard is but a sadly missed memory…
So here’s our update from 2019.
