The Red Parrot348 Thames St.Newport847.3800
Time was when not everyone was welcome in Newport. There was no highway and no RIPTA service, so the hoi polloi couldn't get there - only those in the know. It was in Newport that the Four Hundred moved with their grand entourages to their elegant and obscenely expensive "cottages" every summer, and a young politician named John F. Kennedy wed his bride at the church halfway up the hill. Jay Gatsby's official mailing address may have been West Egg, but real-life Gatsbys would have had their mail forwarded to Rhode Island while the season was in full swing.
These days Vanderbilts and Astors are just as likely to spend their summers working as on the lawn, and when they go away prefer St.-Tropez or the Hamptons to more northerly corners. Tourists far outnumber residents in the mansions on Bellevue Avenue and no one dons tennis whites to go there, either. True, the city has lost none of its clapboard charm or marble majesty from the influx, but those wishing to picture themselves in earlier, gentler times may just get run over by a rented Hummer on America's Cup Avenue in front of the Panera Bread Co.
Enter the Red Parrot. Besides its embarrassingly large portions of pasta, mammoth salads and stuffed sandwiches, the bar and restaurant two minutes from the harbor's edge has a drinks menu the likes of which a high-society butler might have presented guests with back in the day. Bewitching combinations of liqueurs lend themselves to cocktails like the Swedish Fish and A Pirate's Fantasy - the kind real men may not want to order aloud, but find themselves quaffing on the sly anyway. The no-holds-barred approach to mixology - who would have ever thought to combine several flavors of Pucker in one glass? - produces beverages that sound unorthodox but always taste delicious, and are presented alongside meals with no fanfare. It's the kind of bar Nick Carraway would not have been ashamed to be seen in, with or without Daisy. A place this great is for everyone - not just for those with fancy last names.
