Food, values served up daily

GOOD SERVICE: Village Haven restaurant owner Rachel C. Narodowy, standing, speaks with patrons, from left: Jack Polacek, Rebecca O'Bar and Mike O'Bar. / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
GOOD SERVICE: Village Haven restaurant owner Rachel C. Narodowy, standing, speaks with patrons, from left: Jack Polacek, Rebecca O'Bar and Mike O'Bar. / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

Rachel C. Narodowy knows restaurant customers can be finicky, so she’s built a family-style eatery over the last 38 years that lures locals with the time-tested combination of good food, affordable prices and a welcoming atmosphere.

Narodowy, 80, still works about 30 hours a week at the North Smithfield restaurant, though she’s cut back from the days when she routinely put in 50 or 60 hours.

“It’s not a job to me. I keep telling everybody that, even my grandchildren,” she said. “I say, ‘When you come to find your field, make sure it’s something you love.’ Because it’s a way of life, it’s never, ever been a burden to me.”

Growing up, she worked in her family’s restaurant, Friendly Club, known for its banquet facilities, with her dad, Milton Branchaud, and two brothers, Normand and C. Andre, until the building burned down in 1969. She was 34, and had married her husband, David, in 1957.

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In 1977, at age 42, she bought Village Haven from her brother, Normand, who had owned it for four years. At that time, she had seven children, (five boys and two girls), and most of the kids helped out. The older boys helped in the beginning, and most of the kids worked their way through college at the restaurant, she said.

Narodowy also had clear ideas about how to keep the business running. Shortly after purchasing it, she discontinued the lounge area so she could use more of the space for banquets.

Today, the first-floor banquet room seats approximately 200 people, while the upstairs restaurant, with two bars, seats 300.

Running a restaurant is not without its challenges, said Narodowy. She had to discontinue luncheon buffets during the recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s when industrial mills in the area closed their doors.

In addition to son Neil, the line chef; Gary, the beverage manager; and daughter-in-law Donna Narodowy, who is assistant banquet manager; another son, Glenn Narodowy, who also is a full-time firefighter, is responsible for making cinnamon rolls.

Through it all, Narodowy has met challenges head on, she said.

“It’s hard at times, when everyone’s working [at the same time],” she said, “but they’ve all been brought up in the business.”

Village Haven continues to be a destination for the local community, Narodowy said. People come for banquets, birthday parties, anniversaries, the family-style chicken and the cinnamon rolls, but most of all they come because they feel welcomed, she said.

“The personality of the place, the staff, brings people back,” she said. “It’s more word-of-mouth advertising than anything else.” •

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