Mark Bogosian | Founder, Waterside Group; Owner, Newport Creamery
1. For readers who might not be familiar with you, can you tell us a bit about your background and the businesses you’re involved in? I’m the founder of Waterside Group. We own and operate roughly 30 businesses across New England and Florida, focused on hospitality, real estate, dining and marina services. Our construction business, Longfellow Design Build, builds custom homes across New England. On the hospitality side, we own Flying Bridge in Falmouth, the Falmouth Tides, the Red Horse Inn, and several restaurants in Lincoln, N.H., including Basecamp Brewery, Snowfish Sushi and Timber Wood Fired. Rhode Island has become a bigger focus. Last year, we acquired Harbor Lights Marina & Golf Course in Warwick, a golf and marina event property that extends our waterfront work into the state. Newport Creamery expands that footprint.
2. What made purchasing Newport Creamery the right opportunity for you at this point? Two things aligned. Newport Creamery is exactly the kind of brand we look for: nearly a century old, genuinely woven into Rhode Island life, with loyalty you cannot manufacture. The Awful Awful alone has three generations of families attached to it. That’s real equity, and it’s rare. Timing mattered, too. We’d recently acquired Harbor Lights, which gave us an operational base in Rhode Island. When Newport Creamery became available, the fit was obvious. One of our strengths is taking iconic brands and adding energy and creativity while protecting what people already love. We did it with the Flying Bridge, and we’ll apply the same thinking here.
3. How do you plan to balance preserving what people love about the brand while introducing updates? Where we see room is in addition, not replacement. Today’s families eat differently than they did even 10 years ago. They’re looking for fresher, locally sourced ingredients and quality options. That could mean a great breakfast sandwich, a smash burger or new coffee drinks – items that reflect how people actually eat now, without pulling away from what Newport Creamery has always been. Guests [started] seeing renovations in May, and we’ll work through all eight locations one at a time, so no community goes without its Newport Creamery during upgrades.
4. What opportunities do you see for growth? Growth is on the table, though we’re going to earn it before we chase it. The first priority is making sure the eight current locations are operating at their best. Newport Creamery operated 33 locations at its peak, and we think there’s room to grow back toward that footprint over time. Rhode Island, in particular, is underserved when it comes to family-forward restaurants – places that do breakfast, lunch and dinner well, have a proper kids’ menu, and also serve an Awful Awful on a summer night. Beyond Rhode Island, the brand has natural reach into the rest of southern New England, but we’re not going to force geography.
5. What does it mean to you personally to take on a Rhode Island institution like Newport Creamery? A lot. I’m a father of three, and I think about our restaurants the way any parent does – is this somewhere I’d actually want to bring my own kids on a Saturday morning? That lens shapes how we operate. Newport Creamery has been that kind of place for Rhode Island families for generations, and stepping in as the next steward is a responsibility I take seriously. It’s not just another business. It’s a place where people have celebrated birthdays and brought their grandchildren after their own grandparents brought them. You feel the weight of that.
How about opening a Newport Creamery on the East Side of Providence. There used to be one in Wayland Square that had been there for years.
Perhaps a Newport Creamery could take over the space that the “little” Whole Foods occupies , currently at the corner of Waterman Street and Butler Avenue, once the market moves to the former Stop & Shop site in East Side Market place.
Other than Three Sisters at northern most end of Blackstone Boulevard, there isn’t another ice cream restaurant that I know of in the Wayland/Blackstone/Summit/Hope neighborhoods.