When fall hits, locals who parked themselves downtown for harbor front dining and cocktails for months feel the slap of a cold breeze in their faces and hightail it up the hill and north for a more urban, less windblown hang.
If the wharves are the extent of your Newport food and beverage mindset, now is the perfect time to check out Lower Broadway. Dotted with funky thrift and head shops, a tattoo parlor, and a string of bars and dining options, the strip is edgy but relaxed and teeming with locals.
At the center of this section of the street is Tavern on Broadway. I confess that I had not found a sense of place here and so rarely patronized it, but then I discovered the secret. If you feel like a stranger among regulars at Tavern, remember the rules about island weather. Wait a minute.
“Every customer is a potential regular,” said GM John Keating, sliding a couple of frosty mugs of suds to the college football fans having lunch at the bar.
Sporting equal parts charming Irish brogue and crusty-on-the-outside attitude, at first, you might not detect Keating’s self-deprecating softy-on-the-inside. Hang on, it emerges, subtly, wittily, if you’re paying attention. Guy’s actually a hilarious ball-buster whose brogue-y bluster belies the stand-up guy he is.