Bristol’s new flavors: There’s a fresh energy in this culinary community, still deeply rooted in its history

Chef Alicia Saldana originally looked at Providence when she was considering opening a Peruvian restaurant in addition to her Boston eatery, Pollos a la Brasa Beto’s, but Joe Karam, chef/owner of Opa Restaurant on Providence’s Federal Hill, encouraged her to expand her search.

“He told me to check out Warren, Bristol or Newport to open a new restaurant,” and when she visited Bristol, she liked it, Saldana said, citing the town’s history and charming waterfront as big draws. She also saw an opportunity to introduce the town to her native Peruvian dishes.

“We were the first one to open a Peruvian cuisine restaurant, a different cuisine than they normally have here in Bristol… It’s something new for the community, [and] for some people, something they never tried.”

Qhali Kitchen — “Qhali” means “healthy” in Quechua, the most widely spoken Indigenous language in Peru — opened nearly a year ago at 34 Gooding Ave., and has been growing a customer base. Authentic Peruvian dishes, including Jalea de Mariscos, a traditional seafood dish made with deep-fried fish and shrimp, served with fried cassava and red onion salad, has made a great impression. “We like to make sure that we are trying to do that the best, the best that we can do.”

Others have discovered Qhali Kitchen recently as a food vendor at the Bristol 4th of July Concert Series. “There are many people that we are meeting, and they heard about us, but they never had the opportunity to go and visit us,” said Saldana.

A former industrial compound at 500 Wood St., Unity Park has become a bona fide food and drink destination since the redeveloped complex a few blocks from Bristol Harbor opened in 2022. Home to Brick Pizza Co., Pivotal Brewing Company, Borealis Coffee, Fieldstone Kombucha, and the fast-casual plant-based eatery Basil & Bunny, it’s the kind of adaptive reuse that longtime local restaurateur Jeff Hirsh applauds.

“They did it in a very fine way, and it’s attracted new businesses, jobs, and it’s taken a blighted area and really made it into something,” said Hirsh, who is also the founder and co-chair of Explore Bristol, the town’s tourism organization. “Bristol is very big on the past and history, and architecture… and what they did at Unity Park really is very impressive.”

A widely known fixture in the community, Jeff Hirsh has owned The Lobster Pot at 119 Hope St. for nearly four decades, continuing its storied legacy — it opened in 1929. Embracing a rising-tide-floats-all-boats philosophy, Hirsh said the town’s booming dining scene these days is part of the bigger picture of Bristol’s evolution.

“There’s sort of a big influx of a lot of things in Bristol right now. There are a lot of people who have moved to Bristol, either full time or part time, from the Boston area, Connecticut, New York, [and] New Jersey. Bristol’s become a very attractive place for those people,” he said, pointing to the town’s location, historic nature, improved waterfront, and “true downtown feel.” Hirsh added that accordingly, the culinary scene has expanded, and while he strongly enjoys and supports new restaurants, he’s also proud to be one of Bristol’s longtime stalwarts.

“People like to go and try the new places, but they like your standards,” he said. “A lot of our customers go out for dinner a couple times a week, and they come to The Lobster Pot one night, and then they go somewhere else and do something different another night, but I think that’s very important in the restaurant world, that we have standbys.”

This summer, Peter Carvelli is proudly marking the two-year anniversary of opening his upscale plant-based restaurant, Foglia. The chef/owner is a Bristol resident and Foglia is one of nearly a dozen new eateries to sprout up in the past few years alone.

Foglia cast a national spotlight on Bristol’s culinary talent earlier this year when it was named a James Beard Award semi-finalist, and the restaurant’s 31 State St. address has been home to other noted restaurants that left their mark in Bristol and beyond, including Persimmon, which moved to Providence in 2016, Statesman Tavern, and Hotpoint American Bistro. “I was thrilled to find a spot on State Street, right in the heart of downtown,” Carvelli said, “and this spot has a lot of history. It’s really cool.”

For chef Eli Dunn, who opened Folklore Provisions just weeks ago, returning to Bristol has been a full circle moment, albeit an unplanned one. He was the head chef at The Beehive Cafe on Franklin Street for five years, then went on to open his own restaurant, Eli’s Kitchen, in Warren in 2014, which closed in late 2020. When he and his wife/business partner Rachel Lopes-Almeida were ready to open a Portuguese-inspired daytime cafe, they were considering towns across the East Bay and beyond, until someone reached out to Dunn on social media to suggest the space that was once home to Angelina’s coffee cafe at 301 Hope St.

“At first I didn’t picture it because it really needed a lot of work, but Rachel is the visionary when it comes to the design,” Dunn said. The couple spent six months renovating and today, they can’t imagine being anywhere else. “God, we love it, the community here, especially [because] we’re on lower Hope Street, and the locals call it ‘LoHo,’ which is hilarious. They come in and they’re like, ‘Welcome to LoHo! We’re so happy you’re here!’ I mean, everybody is so nice. It’s been a really wonderful experience.”

Dunn, a two-time champion on the Food Network show “Chopped,” fell in love with the food of his wife’s family’s ancestral home on São Miguel Island in the Azores — cuisine that reached far beyond his experience of typical Portuguese fare found in the United States. Folklore’s menu is crafted around these foods. “It’s really just the blending of our two cultures,” said Dunn.

He shares a camaraderie with many chefs in town, and has nothing but praise for the restaurants in Bristol that continue to be the pillars of its dining landscape. “S.S. Dion, they’re l killing it. That place is slammed all the time, and DeWolf [Tavern] is still killing it, and Thames Waterside,” Dunn said, also acknowledging the Bristol Sunset Cafe, open since 2002, which he calls “one of the best breakfast places in Rhode Island.”

Fabio Lopes bought Bristol Sunset Cafe from his godparents when he was 23 years old and more recently, secured a liquor license for the restaurant at 499 Hope St. He’s planning to launch dinner service in the fall along with chef Benjamin Cantone, but has been testing the waters by hosting a series of wine dinners at the restaurant. He’s confident dinner will offer an exciting opportunity for the breakfast and lunch customers who have come here over the past two decades. “It’s a community. People know each other here. Somebody gets up to leave, and it could take them 10, 15 minutes to walk out because they might know the last three tables on the way out to the door.”

One of the most high-anticipated openings in town comes from Groundswell Guild, the company behind the wildly popular Groundswell Cafe & Bakery and Groundswell Garden & Home at Tiverton Four Corners. The Franklin, opening later this summer, bills itself as “a unique concept space that transforms from high-end patisserie by day to a candlelit bar and restaurant by night.”

Owner David Fierabend originally purchased the building at 195 Franklin St. as a commissary bakery for production. “Bristol is quite close to Tiverton, so it checked a box, plus we love the vibe/feel of the area,” he said,” but because this space had a liquor license, we decided to go into a dinner business.”

Since the beginning of the year, Fierabend has hosted a series of pop-up dinners at Groundswell to test the market, and they sold out in days. “So we felt folks were enjoying what we are producing as a concept,” he said.

The Franklin will offer early morning take-out service with espresso drinks “and bakers bringing racks of fresh baked croissants and bread from the ovens to the floor, so more rustic than high end in nature” Fierabend explained. Afternoon into evening, the space will embrace a French-inspired sophisticated brasserie feel, with reservations required for both the dining room and bar.

Said Fierabend, “There’s always room for quality restaurants to join any scene. That said, we’ll be comfortable and aesthetically pleasing, offering fresh dishes that nod to the Paris bistro scene.”

The Franklin will be around the corner from the Common Pub & Grille, a neighborhood stalwart that hasn’t changed much — at least aesthetically — in nearly five decades, arguably part of its allure. In 2015, Bristolian Courtney Poissant bought the pub at 421 Wood St. that her uncle Anthony opened, keeping the business a family affair. “My grandmother was actually the cook in the kitchen. I remember going there after school for years until my dad would get out of work,” Poissant said. It wasn’t Poissant’s original plan; she went to nursing school and became a CNA, but her longtime part-time job at the pub propelled her to ownership.

“When I first started [as the owner], it had a little bit of a rough reputation. It was a little bit more of a dive bar, like a full biker bar,” said Poissant, who expanded the menu to broaden the pub’s appeal to families and the community. In addition to typical pub fare, Poissant has added some healthy alternatives. She also volunteers her time with Bristol Health Equity Zone, leading free monthly cooking lessons for free in the community to teach people how to cook healthy dishes.

“Don’t get me wrong; we’re not a fancy restaurant by any means, but I feel that we’re a lot of where the locals go. We have a very eclectic crowd that comes in, from elderly people in their 90s to young teenage kids that just come in to grab some popcorn chicken or some funky egg rolls.”

Poissant’s had a front-row seat to Bristol’s evolving dining scene. Unity Park is directly across the street, and she sees that as a positive. “The development across the street has just blossomed everything and made everything grow, and made Wood Street a wonderful place,” she said.

But it’s only at longtime spots like the Common Pub where you’ll find people like bartender Terry Perry, who knows many decades-long customers by name. “She babysat for me. She changed my diapers,” laughs Poissant. “She’s been working here for 35 years.”