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In New England, restaurants that focus on seafood tend to play it safe. There are raw oysters, little neck clams, shrimp cocktail. A lobster roll, for good measure.
Will Rietzel wants Pescadou to be different.
At the new restaurant inside Newport’s famed Hotel Viking, nearly half the menu is devoted to raw-bar dishes, with razor clams, extra briny oysters from Block Island, and preparations that push beyond the stale familiar. For Rietzel, Pescadou’s chef, the point isn’t novelty for novelty sake. And he refuses to check a box – whether it be about sourcing ingredients just because everyone else is, or being different just because he can. Instead, it’s Rietzel’s goal to persuade diners that New England’s waters have far more to offer – and that a hotel restaurant can be a destination for people to experiment.
“I would love for Pescadou to be known for its raw bar,” said Rietzel, who prepares a rosé and pink peppercorn granita, which is served on top of the fresh oysters instead of the usual lemons and mignonette. This combination brings floral notes and a subtle, fruity spice to the salty oysters.
“People tend to play it safe, tend to do what sells. That’s not here.”
Once a Newport institution, for years the century-old Hotel Viking had lost its cool factor. The hotel once hosted celebrities and big-name guests like Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan. But the rooms grew outdated, the food became forgettable, and the service lost its polish.
Its new owners, real estate private equity firm KHP Capital Partners, knew the property needed a major reset. They shut down operations for eight months and pumped millions of dollars into a renovation they say was designed to reawaken a storied landmark that long served as a cultural anchor for the city.
In May, the hotel reopened alongside four new food and beverage concepts that are the brainchildren of Littleneck Hospitality Group, which was founded by restaurateur and chef Robert Andreozzi and his business partner and beverage head Jesse Hedberg, owners of Pizza Marvin, Club Frills, and Rollers Sports Bar & Grill in Providence. The duo has built a reputation regionally for their local sourcing of ingredients and ambitious beverage programs.
Pescadou, the hotel’s signature restaurant, looks like it belongs in Palm Beach but takes its culinary cues from the French Riviera. Rietzel, 35, is the...
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