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Photo: Abby Fox BY ABBY FOX
Lots of East Greenwich businesses won “Best of” Rhode Island awards at last Thursday’s annual party, but Fat Belly’s stood out in the three prizes it took home: best neighborhood bar, best burger and best pub.
Fat Belly’s has been on Main Street East Greenwich since February, with the first Fat Belly’s established in Warwick in 2006, but the team behind it – owner Scott Parker and his former students, chef Chris Miele and manager Sal Buscemi, have worked together much longer.
“The secret is that everything is fresh,” said Parker, who first got pub ambitions when he was studying food in Sweden in 1994, and then later in the late 90s, when he opened Patrick’s Pub below the Canfield House in Newport, where he was chef.
The Cowesett resident and father of three said he was dreaming up a restaurant that’s a “neighborhood place, where everyone knows the name and everyone wants to go to.”
And since “my wife and I like drinking beer and eating burgers,” he said, building a brand around a pub, but with food made by someone with a background in fine-dining, seemed like the perfect business plan.
“People don’t come here just to drink,” he said; “They come here because they like the food. We have high standards and we’re consistent. The burgers are fresh, and we make our own dressing.”
The beer-and-burger business is doing so well, Parker said, that he wants to open another Fat Belly’s in South County and to branch out to other “Fat” restaurants – such as a fresh, home-made bagel restaurant planned for an opening in East Greenwich this fall, to be called Fat Bagels. “That’s going to be huge,” he said. “That’s going to be an absolute home run, what East Greenwich has been dying for.”
Most customers are more than familiar by now with the Fat Belly’s brand, as symbolized by Parker’s trademark image on the mirror behind the bar: a laughing, rotund man, holding a beer, who, Parker said, is reflective not only of his personality but of what he wants people to feel like when they enter the pub. “I wanted this guy to be a jolly guy,” he said, pointing to image, “a guy everyone knows, always has something positive to say,” and to epitomize a restaurant that’s “a place where people can laugh and joke, eat good food, drink good beer, and be jolly.” Since Parker appears to be one of the few local businessmen who doesn’t complain about parking on Main Street, he sincerely seems to live up to his symbol.
The staff was hard pressed to pick the quintessential Fat Belly’s meal, but said the Big Poppy burger, bacon cheddar cheese fries, and the Caesar salad were some of the most requested ticket items.
Fat Belly’s can be reached at 884-3434 or 241 Main Street. Open every day, with live music Thursday through Sunday.
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