More than a century ago, Island Park in Portsmouth was best known for its amusement park with a waterfront roller coaster, carousel, and dance hall, until the infamous Great Hurricane of 1938 destroyed it all. Today, Park Avenue remains the social center of the inlet neighborhood perched on the northernmost tip of Aquidneck Island. Peppered with restaurants and bars, a coffee cafe, clam shack, marina, and more, this coastal enclave at the foot of the Sakonnet River Bridge and less than a mile from the Mount Hope Bridge has welcomed back the Blue Anchor Grill, a once-popular spot that opened (and then closed) during the pandemic.
Back with a new staff, new chef, new menu, and refreshed point of view, the Blue Anchor Grill opened at the beginning of June. It’s part of the homegrown Island Park Hospitality Group, a conglomerate that also includes Tremblay’s Bar & Grill – an Island Park stalwart for more than 75 years – and Sunset Cove, a coffeehouse-meets-café with cocktails just around the corner on Bluebill Cove. “It’s been really, really good; a lot of compliments on the food, the staff, the atmosphere,” says General Manager Mike Cavalieri about the reopening.
The infrastructure hasn’t changed since Blue Anchor’s original opening, which is a good thing as the space offered a large bar, casual fireside seating for cocktails and light bites, and an expansive patio (dubbed the beer garden) out back in addition to the large restaurant. But it did have a décor glow-up, leaning into its sense of place with a subtle natural nod throughout.
Cavalieri said one thing he’s particularly excited about is the menu, which previously skewed Caribbean but now is new American with Portuguese influence, as evidenced by the slow-cooked blade meat sliders, chourico flatbread, a baked cod dish made with spicy red sauce, sliced tomato and onion served over rice; pork alentejana (known as Portuguese surf and turf), pork and littlenecks in garlic-infused sauce served over fried potatoes; and for dessert, Portuguese bread pudding. The restaurant also leans into its waterfront locale, serving Island Park crab dip, Sicilian-style calamari, clams casino, and local littlenecks in your choice of red or white sauce over spaghetti. Then there’s the classics: a charcuterie board, spinach and artichoke dip, chicken skewers, prosciutto and fig flatbread, steak frites, a 10-ounce burger, and hearty chicken parm that’ll likely have you asking for a to-go container when you see it.
It’s clear Blue Anchor Grill has shaped the dining experience here to be social – drinks includes Instagrammable concoctions like a sharable pina colada bowl, a “Tipsy Anchor” margarita flight with four potent renditions of the drink, pitchers of sangria or mimosas, and catch-this-on-camera drinks like the “Island Fog:” a blend of coconut and rum topped tableside with an oversized bubble that when popped, emits wafts of
coconut-scented “fog.” There are also seasonal drinks, like the Strawberry Fields martini that uses strawberries from Quonset View Farm, just a few miles down-island. The restaurant also created a mocktail menu and offers non-alcoholic beers. “That’s what’s trending right now. So we definitely want to fit the mocktails in,” adds Cavalieri.
While Blue Anchor is no secret around Portsmouth, Cavalieri’s been pleasantly surprised by the extended community the restaurant is reaching. “When we first opened, my guess was we were primarily going to get a lot of Island Park people, but it’s been the opposite,” he says. “It’s been a lot of Fall River, a lot of people from Tiverton, some big groups from Bristol, and also a lot of out-of-towners. I don’t know how they heard about us up there so fast!” 506 Park Avenue, Portsmouth; 401-293-5007
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here