Old Tower Hill Road Is Where South Kingstown's Restaurant Money Went This Year

At 151 Old Tower Hill Road, valets meet cars in a lot that used to serve Zero Wampum and Feet First shoppers. Inside, past an open kitchen window, pasta gets made by hand. Rhode Island Monthly described the scene when Matunuck Atelier opened in early 2026, and it noted that the location sits on a busy road across from the Wakefield strip mall, with nothing like the pondside setting of the restaurant that made Perry Raso's name.

A few addresses up the same road, at 191 Old Tower Hill Road, the group behind Providence's Pane e Vino has bought into the Chophouse Grille site and plans an Italian restaurant called Acqua Pazza.

Most local restaurant stories this year have been about Matunuck: the fire, the tent, the rebuild on Potter Pond. Those stories matter, but the investments that will shape where South Kingstown sits down to dinner from November to March are on Old Tower Hill Road. One is already open seven days a week. The other comes from a restaurant group whose other dining rooms are in Providence, Warwick, Johnston and Dedham, Massachusetts.

The Atelier was never a stopgap

Matunuck Atelier was in the works long before the Oyster Bar burned. According to the Narragansett-South Kingstown Independent, Raso bought the property and its 11,000-square-foot building for $1.3 million in March 2022 under the name Matunuck Market LLC. That was more than three years before the fire. Rhode Island Monthly reported the same point from Raso himself: the Atelier was planned well before the fire, and most of its staff came over from Matunuck Oyster Bar.

The building was set up to work year-round. The town's building, zoning and code enforcement officer, Jamie Gorman, told the Independent the permit covered a 147-seat restaurant plus a retail food component. Zoning required 37 parking spaces, and the existing lot has 58. The paper also noted that the site would let Raso keep his business going "as the months get colder" while the original restaurant was rebuilt.

Here is what the restaurant lists for this fall:

The raw bar has a dozen Matunuck oysters for $31.95 and a plate called the Phoenix Platter, with 12 local oysters, 4 littleneck clams and 3 jumbo Gulf shrimp for $55. Next to that sit a ceviche with leche de tigre, a caviar scallop crudo, and sushi rolls such as a ginger scallion hamachi roll. The house-made pastas include seafood ravioli and lobster rigatoni, and the entrées include American Wagyu bavette, halibut and a seafood bouillabaisse. Rhode Island Monthly called it the more upscale, "Eataly-like" version of its predecessor, with pasta and bread made on site by artisan Gabi Napoli from family recipes.

The market side came later. In February, Rhode Island Monthly found the market side still under construction because the equipment hadn't arrived, and Raso said the restaurant opened first for that reason. The Atelier's own site now describes the connected Market as selling shellfish and seafood, house-made sauces, organic vegetables from Raso's farm, pantry staples and gifts. That gives Wakefield a place to buy Matunuck oysters to take home in January, on a road people drive anyway.

A Providence restaurant group picks Wakefield

The second piece is newer and has less detail so far. On August 24, Gail Ciampa reported in the Providence Journal that the DeQuattro Restaurant Group had agreed to buy The Chophouse Grille, a casual American steakhouse at 191 Old Tower Hill Road. Joe and Esther DeQuattro plan to call the new restaurant Acqua Pazza, which means "crazy water." It will serve Italian food and is a new concept for the couple.

By October 7, Rhode Island Monthly's Diner's Update said the group had "recently purchased" the location. It listed the rest of the group's restaurants: Pane e Vino on Federal Hill, two Massimo locations on Federal Hill and at Legacy Place in Dedham, Massachusetts, the Crow's Nest in Warwick, and Bar 'Lino in Johnston. Acqua Pazza will be the group's first restaurant this far south.

Neither report gives an opening date, and the Chophouse Grille's website still shows its 191 Old Tower Hill Road address, menu and private-party booking. Until the new owners announce a schedule, call ahead before planning a holiday dinner there.

Within a few addresses, Old Tower Hill Road will have an Oyster Bar spinoff with a market and a Federal Hill restaurant group's newest Italian concept, both on a commercial strip away from the beach roads.

Meanwhile, on Succotash Road

None of this means the pond is out of the picture. The original Matunuck Oyster Bar burned on May 20, 2025. A few months later, Raso opened a dining tent in the parking lot at Matunuck Marina, across the street, under state legislation that allowed the outdoor dining. In a July conversation with Ocean State Media's Ian Donnis, Raso said the idea came from his lawyer, and that the tent "really saved us."

WPRI reported in May that construction had started about a month earlier. The new building will have slightly higher first-floor ceilings for a better view of Potter Pond and will otherwise be close to the original. Raso told the station:

"The contractor said, 'now is your chance to make [the restaurant] exactly how you want it.' I was like, 'I had it exactly how I wanted it.'"

The timeline has always been a target. NBC 10 reported on May 20 that Raso hoped to finish inspections by August 31 and reopen sometime in September. By July, he told Ocean State Media, "We're hoping (for) the fall. I want it to get done quickly, of course, but I also want it to be done really well." In mid-October, the Oyster Bar's website still described the new restaurant as being built and the tent at 650 Succotash Road as a spring-and-summer operation.

The tent won't come back once the building opens. Raso told WPRI the marina lot will be needed for parking.

How the two roads divide the year

Once the Potter Pond building reopens, Raso will run two restaurants that do different jobs. The pond location brings the view, the summer crowds and the history going back to 2009. The Atelier offers valet parking, weekend brunch, a market and a 58-space lot on a commercial road. Acqua Pazza will add a third sit-down option a few doors away from an operator with five other restaurants behind it.

For anyone planning meals between now and spring, a few practical points:

1. Weeknights at the Atelier start at 4 p.m. Only on Saturdays and Sundays do the doors open at 10 a.m., for brunch.
2. Reservations for both Raso restaurants go through separate SevenRooms pages, both linked from the Oyster Bar's homepage. Make sure you book the right one.
3. The Atelier is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, so plan around those dates for holiday dinners or out-of-town guests.
4. Acqua Pazza has no announced opening date yet. Until the DeQuattro group posts one on its website, the address is still listed under the Chophouse Grille name.
5. The Oyster Bar's reopening date is still a target. Check the restaurant's site before driving out to Succotash Road.

None of these openings changes the pond's appeal. They do mean that South Kingstown's newest year-round restaurants sit on Old Tower Hill Road, across from the Wakefield strip mall.

If you're curious how a stretch like Old Tower Hill Road changes over the next year, or what it means for the homes nearby, Fran Bidell is glad to talk it through, ideally over a dozen Matunuck oysters. Let's Connect.