Drive down Post Road through Dunn's Corner this month and you will see fresh paint on a building that has worn at least three names since anyone in town started paying attention. It was the Sea Goose. Then it became the Thirsty Beaver. As of early this year, it is Tavern 265, opened by longtime Westerly restaurateur Jay Beausoleil alongside two Westerly natives, Brandon Van Horn and Zack Schroth, both Westerly High School graduates who cut their teeth working under Beausoleil at the Haversham.
If you have lived in Washington County long enough to remember all three names on that building, you already know something that a first-time visitor to Westerly would not: this address does not sit empty for long, and it does not stay the same concept for long either. That is not bad luck. It is a pattern, and once you see it, it explains a lot about how restaurants behave in this corner of Rhode Island right now.
Three Zones, Three Different Economics
The mistake is treating every new restaurant sign in Washington County as the same kind of story. They are not. Walk or drive through the county this fall and you can sort almost everything into three distinct zones, each running on its own logic.
Downtown Westerly is the anchor-driven zone. Padraic Fazio, who also runs the seasonal Ten Sandwiches in Watch Hill, opened Bird in Hand in the heart of downtown as the area was mid-revival, a stretch that has included the United Theatre's multimillion-dollar restoration and visible improvements along Main Street. Fazio grew up in Westerly, left for Connecticut and then Boston, and came back specifically because he watched the downtown "come around a lot" after years of vacant storefronts. The downtown fall calendar includes NRBQ at the United on September 18, Suzanne Vega bringing her Flying with Angels tour to the Black Box Auditorium, and the Knickerbocker All Stars playing a blues and soul night on the Knick's dance floor.
Dunn's Corner and the Post Road strip run on a different logic entirely. This is where locally owned bar concepts open and change hands, sometimes involving people who worked for a previous operator. Beausoleil managed the Haversham for more than a decade before partnering with Van Horn and Schroth on Tavern 265. The three of them installed a European chestnut bar and are aiming for a straightforward tavern menu: burgers, steaks, seafood, a Portuguese clam appetizer. It is a neighborhood bar built by neighborhood people in a building that has hosted neighborhood bars before. It is one recurring pattern in Dunn's Corner.
Westerly Crossings, out on the retail corridor, has a different restaurant mix. Chipotle and Five Guys are both taking over the former Petsense space there, according to Carpionato Group, which said as of February 2026 that both chains were on track to open by summer. This is a national-chain expansion rather than a locally owned venture. These arrivals add two national fast-casual restaurants to Westerly Crossings, separate from the locally owned businesses discussed elsewhere.
| Zone | What's There | Who's Behind It | What It Signals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown Westerly | Bird in Hand, near the United Theatre | Padraic Fazio, a Westerly native | Restaurants near the theater |
| Dunn's Corner / Post Road | Tavern 265, at the former Thirsty Beaver site | Jay Beausoleil, Brandon Van Horn, Zack Schroth | A locally owned bar concept at a former bar site |
| Westerly Crossings | Chipotle and Five Guys, former Petsense space | Carpionato Group | Two national-chain arrivals at the retail corridor |
A Longtime Restaurant Changes Ownership
Not every restaurant story in Washington County this year is about something new opening. Another story is about a longtime restaurant changing ownership while continuing to operate.
Mews Tavern, the Wakefield institution founded in 1947 as a small fisherman's bar and grown over nearly 80 years into a three bar, 69 tap beer selection landmark on Main Street, went under contract to Heritage Restaurant Group in February and the deal closed in May. Heritage is a Newport based hospitality company that has built its whole model around buying up beloved regional restaurants rather than launching new concepts, and its spokesperson Matt Lyons described Heritage's purpose this way.
"Helping ensure The Mews' future is exactly why Heritage was formed."
— Heritage spokesperson Matt Lyons, as quoted by WPRI
The quote expresses Heritage's stated purpose. The nearly 80-year-old restaurant has a loyal following and a full building of infrastructure. Mews will stay at 456 Main Street. General manager George McAuliffe is staying on. The beer list, the pizza program, the annual Gear 'N' Beer Road Race are all staying too, according to Heritage. The ownership structure changed when the deal closed.
Tavern 265 is a single tavern on Post Road run by three local partners. Mews Tavern is a multi-room, three-bar restaurant with 79 years of history and a buffet program; it has joined a group whose portfolio includes 23 restaurants. These examples show different scales and ownership arrangements.
What This Means If You Live Here
If you eat out in Washington County with any regularity, the practical takeaway is not "more restaurants are coming." It is that where a restaurant sits offers context about its ownership and the kinds of concepts found there.
A new sign in Dunn's Corner marks another restaurant concept in a building that has housed Sea Goose, Thirsty Beaver, and Tavern 265.
Downtown openings can be considered alongside the fall calendar, from NRBQ to the Knickerbocker All Stars to a Halloween celebration on High Street with trick or treating and a costume parade on October 31.
A chain arrival at Westerly Crossings adds another dining option to the retail corridor; it is distinct from downtown and Dunn's Corner.
And when a decades-old institution like Mews Tavern changes hands, it is another example of ownership changing while a long-running restaurant remains part of the local dining scene. If you have watched that Post Road building go by three names, you already have a better read on Westerly's restaurant economy than most quick summaries give you credit for. You can find the same texture in Renee's guide to Washington County, covering the towns across the county that shape this pattern day to day.
None of this is a reason to worry about the county's dining scene. If anything, three different kinds of investment happening in three different zones at the same time is a sign of a place people want to keep showing up to, whether that is for a burger at Tavern 265, a night at the United, or a plate of wings at Mews that tastes exactly like it did before the sale went through.
If you are watching Washington County's neighborhoods for reasons that go beyond dinner plans, from Westerly to Wakefield and the shoreline towns between them, Renee McCammon knows this ground block by block. Let's Connect whenever you're ready to talk about what's next.
