Owners Jeff Merlino, from left, Anthony Quetta and Tony Lanni inspect the construction work being done at 14 Narragansett Ave. The building, which most recently housed Curiosity and Co. and before that Jamestown Fish, will be returning to its restaurant roots when they open Crudo Oyster Bar and Coastal Italian Kitchen. PHOTO BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN
A trio of restaurateurs is looking to make it three-for three.
Tony Lanni, Jeff Merlino and Anthony Quetta are hoping to open their newest restaurant at 14 Narragansett Ave. in early September.
The three longtime friends already own Merlino’s Pizzeria in Cranston, which opened in 2023, and Crudo Oyster Bar and Coastal Italian Kitchen, which debuted in March 2024 in Smithfield.
The Jamestown restaurant will be at the site of the former Curiosity and Co., which prior to that was Jamestown Fish for most of the 2010s.
It will bear the same name as the Smithfield site and operate similar hours, serving brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 3 p.m. to close daily.
“We’re looking to mirror the menu and the concepts,” Lanni said. “There might be little differences since there is that beautiful pizza oven by the outside bar, so we hope to utilize that.”
The restaurant is known for its raw bar, which offers locally sourced items, and seafood from local fishermen and fisheries, mostly from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine, and the Italian cuisine of its owners’ heritage.
The three men’s plan is to have the outside portion of the restaurant open sometime in September while the inside is being completed.
Besides the raw bar, other dinner specialties include the eponymous crudo (thinly sliced raw seafood, dressed with olive oil, citrus juice, salt and herbs), its bone-in veal parmesan, pasta Bolognese, Crudo burger (with fried brie, bacon, pepper jam, roasted garlic aioli and arugula) and Merlino’s homemade desserts.
“We try and do a spin on the classics and use quality ingredients,” Merlino said.
‘They’re unique — this flavor with that flavor you’d never think to do — but the way he puts it together is five-star,” Quetta added. “The artistic part really comes through.”
For brunch, some of its more popular dishes include lemon ricotta pancakes with fresh blueberries, apricot jam and mascarpone, shrimp and polenta and spaghetti cacio e pepe.
The men still need to have a liquor license approved and the building still needs to have its construction finished and then the inside furnished. Until then, the trio will open the outside portion.
“The kitchen is already set up and ready to go, and we’re hoping to have the outside bar and the outside area ready to go so if we can get everything situated by Sept. 1, we’d like to open up the outside area,” Lanni said.
They will use a canopy and heaters to help utilize that area for the first two months while finishing the inside, he added.
While the initial plan is to be open daily, they still need to figure out staffing and “see how it grows,” Lanni said.
“The bad part is we’re not going to be there for the full summer season, but the good part is it won’t be as busy so we’re not going to be overwhelmed and we can work into where we need to be,” he added.
Once everything is completed, they hope to have about 150 seats spread among the outside, dining rooms on both floors and a private function room in back of the second floor that also will have a private patio.
The men said they are excited to be coming to Jamestown since “it’s a growing area and with our concept, we think it’s a perfect fit being down near the water,” Lanni said.
Merlino agrees their restaurant concept is a good fit since “here we can smell the coast,” but also said there was a personal connection they felt to town.
“Jamestown has been a special place to me my whole life being from Rhode Island since it’s a place I’ve always come to to get away with our kids,” Merlino said. “I think this is where we were meant to be.”
This is the second attempt at getting a restaurant at this site since a Johnston-based LLC purchased the 2,800-square-foot building on the 5,000-square-foot lot for $1.7 million in October. That company is led by Michael A. Grieco Jr., the CEO of Grieco Automotive Group, which owns 16 dealerships in five states, including four in Rhode Island.
He also happens to own the building Smithfield Crudo is in, which is how the three men learned about the Jamestown site’s availability.
That opening occurred after restaurateur Anthony Tarro’s attempt to have a third location for his Siena brand was scuttled when a neighbor refused to allow changes to the deed restrictions on the property. Those include not being able to serve food or drinks past 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays or 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, as well as restrictions on outside table size and the playing of amplified music.
Tarro backed out and created the opening for Lanni, Merlino and Quetta, who aren’t bothered by the limitations since the hours are almost identical to their Smithfield location.
“We did our research, and we don’t see that being a factor at all,” Lanni said. “I wouldn’t want to be open later than that.”
They also aren’t concerned about opening toward the end of the tourist season as their goal is more oriented toward building relationships with local residents and serving them during the offseason.
“Our passion is going to be servicing the locals,” Lanni said.
“It’s actually the culmination of our idea,” Quetta said. “I think this place is where we’re going to be distinguished.”
The site has had several fits and starts since Jamestown Fish closed at the end of 2018 after seven years. It was listed for sale for $1.6 million in June 2019, but no deal could be reached, forcing its sale at a receivership auction in October 2020.
MTM Jamestown Fish LLC. purchased the site for $1.3 million at the auction. The company was led by Paul Mihailides, chairman of the Preserve Sporting Club and Residences in Richmond, a 3,500-acre four-season sporting destination.
It was then sold again in June 2021 to Jamestown residents Seth Goldenberg and his wife, Elizabeth Newton, for $1.6 million. Two months later, they opened Curiosity & Co., a bookstore combined with a wine bar, which closed in December.
Dining and Cooking