Salvation Cafe

01/01/2022

Happy New Year y’all!

12/31/2021

I Have been having a recurring dream of this last night. It’s a musical that I speak / sing / dance thru part Rent, part Tik Tik Boom with a sprinkle of West Side Story definitely directed by Lin Manuel Miranda. I’m Armed tonight with sparkly outfit, large tiara, confetti cannons (sorry Irsy) & waterproof mascara 🧡

12/31/2021

Our previous manager Kyle came in tonight to say goodbye with his wife and adorable baby. They met at Salvation like a lot of people did. Sometimes I think about all of the Salvation babies out there whose parents relationship started right here. Holler if you are a Salvation baby or Salvation couple.

12/30/2021

Jess Kriss brought her sparkle and shine to Salvation for a decade. She started the great FOH migration from Puerini’s to Salvation- I myself was fired from there…twice.
JK was kind, authentic and hella fun to be around. Co-workers and customers alike loved her. She had a knack for turning lemons into lemonade which we desperately needed most nights.
We had a facsimile of shelter that we called The Pagoda, it was basically a deck with plastic sheeting for a ”roof”. It was home to possums, squirrels, mold, mildew and customers. One monsoon Saturday night we really needed the extra seating but not only was it leaky but it had cloth banquettes so even if you weren’t getting dripped on you were sitting In a puddle. Jess was undaunted, she took a pile of garbage bags from the kitchen and dazzled customers into wearing them if they sat on the pagoda. It was suddenly the hottest seat in the house and also hysterical
To walk thru and watch everyone paying to sit and eat in their very own Salvation garbage bag.
So many hearts broke when we lost her to cancer. She was the best friend & colleague that you could ask for and a fantastic mother. Gosh I wish she could be here for our last night. 💜

12/29/2021

Yagi Noodles to the rescue! Love this place and these people

Yagi Noodles in Newport, Rhode Island, serves ramen, steamed buns, squash blossom rangoons and more Japanese-fusion dishes.

12/29/2021

It takes a village-my late parents were proud 5th warders. When
my mother and her girlfriends came to the restaurant it was a joy to behold -these women who were there for eachother thru it all, the good, the bad and the ugly and too often tragedy.
On busy summer weekends I would often get a call from my mom asking for a table. She wouldn’t make it easy for my hostess mind-eschewing details. It went more like this-“ Susan-we are coming in tonight after church (time of reservation).I think there will be 3-8 of us (number in party) and we want to sit in the window (specific table request if available)”.
I always held table 5 for them which is, in hostess Tetris a 8-10 top. It was also a place where I could turn down the speakers and was a cozy snug where my mother and her friends could cackle, maybe sing some showtunes or sotto voce (they thought) gossip.
I scoured my archive to find a pic of these women but couldn’t find one. Here is a pic instead of myself and Peggy O’Brien, a mutual friend of myself and my mom. 💜

12/28/2021

The Uniform / Apron debates! Back in olden days the servers all kinda wore whatever they wanted, overalls, ironic housedresses, punk rock band t-shirts etc.
As the restaurant got bigger I felt like we needed something for customers to better Identify who the heck they were supposed to ask for a glass of water so we added aprons. Kristen Dupuis was the John Paul Gaultier of the Salvation runway. She made us animal prints, stripes, ones with cool Pom poms, rickrack or other pillow notions- fantastic colors & details- great right?
Cut to 4:17, when everyone finally arrived for their 4pm shift and it was on. “No I planned on the zebra tonight, the leopard is too brown”, “well Peter is working tonight so he gets the stripes but I can’t wear checks with my flannel!”
Meanwhile me standing at the door alone greeting customers and desperate for help.
So I tried another tack, I would pay Kristen to make you your own personal, custom apron that you could take home, maybe even wash once a season? Cut to 4:18- does anyone have an extra apron in their car? I think I left mine on the dance floor of Pink and they don’t open til 8pm.
It’s the simple things that I spent too much energy on. Imposing a uniform was such a sell out move, like asking your bridesmaids to not only wear the chartreuse tulle dress that you picked out but to have to pay for it too.
Some nights I would threaten uniforms and make up the worst sounding one to get my point across to shut up, grab an apron and start taking orders. Oh really guys? Ok starting next week the uniform is bike shorts with padding, wool turtlenecks & saddle shoes with soccer socks.
This didn’t help at all, they would all just want to start playing the game with me. “Ooooh! How about gauchos & matching vests? Or those tuxedo t-shirts that look Like your wearing a tuxedo but it’s just a screen print!”
A few years back I gingerly broached the subject again. ”Guys it’s getting really hard for customers to know who works here so without going too overboard and while trying to remain gender neutral starting next week I want you to all wear gingham-Any color-could be shorts, shirt, cute dress, apron etc. just we need something to identify us easier when it’s super busy and we are all
Flying around.
I need a novel to explain all the different ways they found to get around that-it lasted about 72 hours and the final straw was when I said to one gal, after exhaustively being the gingham police on top Of everything else “Hey, where’s your gingham?”
She showed me her earrings that were about a 1/2” round plastic black & white gingham disc.
I hit the Sauvignon Blanc hard that night.

Located in Newport, Rhode Island, Salvation Café offers an innovative menu with craft beers on tap and exotic tiki-inspired cocktails. Salvation Café has private event space for celebrations such as bridal showers, baby showers, rehearsal dinners and post-wedding brunches.

12/27/2021

Some people aren’t cut out for the restaurant biz. My friend, Kraig Jordan tried his hand at brunch cook for a shift or two - pretty sure we made him cry. Luckily he is an amazing musician and media dude so he quickly moved on to his first real job at Cox cable. His task was to paste commercials into the content. Hence acquiring the greatest job title ever “Cox- Insertions”. He made our lovely commercial for when we first built the new tiki bar.

12/27/2021

We apologize to the folks who ordered food yesterday only to
Find out that we were closed (and we will refund asap) but here’s why. My work husband got married! Todd Coonan, master of IT, kitchen, fresh cocktails with sassy names, craft beer, stepping in to tend bar or host when needed, builder of booths & tables, sharer of ci******es and so much more tied the knot with his real wife while their son Wesley looked on being as adorable as ever.
I promised Todd after a long, wild night last week that I wouldn’t keep telling him how much I love and appreciate him and how proud I am to see the man that he’s become so I definitely won’t say that but will say Congrats and wish you all the health, success and happiness that you deserve ❤️💜

Located in Newport, Rhode Island, Salvation Café offers an innovative menu with craft beers on tap and exotic tiki-inspired cocktails. Salvation Café has private event space for celebrations such as bridal showers, baby showers, rehearsal dinners and post-wedding brunches.

12/27/2021

Never work brunch! Slim Jim Jessica Gorman Christine Reed Patrick Sullivan