Company: Gatehouse Restaurant
Location: 4 Richmond Square, Providence
Type of business: Restaurant and caterer
Owner: Henry Kates
Number of employees: 120
Annual Revenue: $4 million
Year founded: 1993
There’s no mistaking the view. In moonlight in particular, when diners occupy the tables that hug the large windows overlooking the upper part of the Providence River, coupled with candlelight and a five-star menu, there is a very special ambiance, a “romantic” atmosphere said owner Henry Kates. It is a spot that Kates said he found almost as “a first time accident” – a view of the river, historic buildings and plenty of parking — making the Gatehouse, 4 Richmond Square, among Providence’s more popular upscale restaurants.
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“When I saw the site I fell in love with it,” said Kates, 59, a former real estate developer, who was also in the insurance business, and who initially looked at the restaurant as purely an investment. “There was the convergence of unlimited parking, the river” and the former Gatehouse and gatekeeper’s cottage, built about 1870 to control the Red Bridge, a swing bridge then.
What began as an investment with two partners, became the fulfillment of a boyhood dream, one that began in his grandparents’ restaurant in South Denver, where as a teenager Kates was everything from bus boy to cashier, with the exception of chef (“I couldn’t cook”). And it was there that he was prepared “for how tough it was it’s a hard business, made up of a thousand details.”
Kates had hoped to go to Cornell University to study hospitality, but a death in the family made him change his mind and pursue business instead at the University of Colorado.
So it is not surprising that when Kates looked at his new investment in the Gatehouse, with the afternoon sun probably streaming through the windows of the historic buildings, he chose instead to become its operator as well. Soon after its opening, he was sole owner, with one of his partners leaving before the restaurant actually opened in June 1993, and the other leaving soon after.
What has evolved from Kates initial vision of a French Bistro, is an upscale restaurant, whose executive chef, Steve Marsella came to the Gatehouse, from New Orleans, where he worked for noted chef and restaurateur, Emeril Lagasse (a product of Johnson & Wales University).
It is a restaurant that Kates refers to as an “art exhibit in a sense,” with a variety of paintings hanging on its walls, from the downstairs function rooms to the two floors above, with most rooms stretching out along expanded views of the river. A deck now winds around half the building, along the river. Kates expects to use the deck for summer events.
What has also evolved is a business that is far more extensive than the Gatehouse itself – a catering business, which is rapidly growing and which Kates said is now half of the overall business. He also owns another restaurant, Cheeky Monkey, at 14 Perry Mill Wharf in Newport that caters to a more seasonal tourist crowd, and which is expanding to other locations.
The Gatehouse remains the showcase, the center of operations, but it too has evolved into much more than a restaurant. During the day, the Gatehouse, which seats 100 for dinner, becomes a function facility with seating up to 400, in rooms that can accommodate parties of 20 to 200, from individual food events to all-day business seminars.
Catering, said Kates, is the fastest growing segment of his business, and expands well beyond the Gatehouse to office parties and exclusive arrangements in places like the Lippitt House in Providence. Soon, Kates said, he expects to announce three other exclusive arrangements. He would not disclose the locations, but said they stretch from Pawtucket to Newport, with the hope of expanding further toward Foxboro in Massachusetts.
Additionally, Kates expects to expand the Cheeky Monkey, which he opened in Newport three years ago, into a chain. He characterized the restaurant as “a little more fun” than the Gatehouse, catering to a seasonal crowd, with a varied menu to encourage sharing.
“In Newport,” he said, “the market is pretty upscale, seasonal. Here our market is a little older. Dining time is a half hour longer. In Newport they come for the experience. At the Gatehouse they come for the romantic experience.”
Soon Kates will open a second Cheeky Monkey, this one with Merv Griffin in Griffin’s Blue Moon Hotel in Miami’s South Beach. Kates anticipates opening his third Cheeky Monkey in Los Angeles.
Kates’ rise is not unlike that of another local restaurateur who has now left the area, Ned Grace. For Grace it was the upscale Capital Grille and Bugaboo Creek, among other restaurants which he opened and later sold.
“Ned Grace?” said Kates. “I’ll take that anytime. He’s my hero.”
