In Rhode Island’s hospitality sector, few people are as polarizing as Nicholas Schorsch.
Over the last five years, his company Heritage Group has gobbled up a long list of iconic establishments such as The Red Parrot and The Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant in Newport, Olneyville New York Systems Inc. and The Old Canteen in Providence, Flo’s Clam Shack in Middletown and Mews Tavern in South Kingstown.
In all, the buying spree has included 24 restaurants, two inns, and a mix of catering services, food trucks and retail operations.
Seemingly overnight, Heritage and Schorsch – its co-founder and CEO – have become a powerhouse in Rhode Island’s small but acclaimed culinary sphere.
Indeed, Heritage’s payroll will grow to more than 1,100 employees in the summer tourism season, and the privately held company says it expects to bring in $155 million in revenue by year’s end, up from just $2 million in 2023.
Of course, such rapid moves have also raised questions among observers, patrons and competitors, questions about who’s next on Schorsch’s shopping list, about whether his consolidation of assets is healthy for Rhode Island’s gastronomic ecosystem, and about what he might have planned as an endgame.
Perhaps adding to the suspicions is Schorsch’s background as a New York City-based real estate dealmaker who created his wealth, in large part, by packaging commercial properties into investment vehicles for others.
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ACCEPTING CHANGE:
Rick Simone, president of Federal Hill Commerce Association, says the Heritage Group’s presence on the Hill in the form of Wally’s Wieners is a good thing.
PBN PHOTO/
MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
Rick Simone, president of the Federal Hill Commerce Association, was leery in early 2025 when Schorsch’s company snapped up The Old Canteen, a fixture for decades on Federal Hill’s vaunted restaurant row, and converted it into Wally’s Wieners, a fast-casual restaurant and bar.
Now Simone sees Heritage’s presence as a plus.
“People were yelling, ‘You’re losing The Canteen,” he said. “The truth was, we were losing it one way or another. It was up for sale for three years.”
Schorsch, 65, insists he’s not looking to build a hospitality monopoly.
Instead, he says, he is either preserving or enhancing places that, without his intervention, would be history rather than a dinner choice. He also says he wanted to reverse what he saw as “apathy” in the state’s restaurant culture.
“The market had gotten ‘good,’ ” Schorsch said. “And feeling like good is good enough. … Well, it’s not.
“We are not adding capacity,” he said. “We are not anybody’s competitor. All ships rise in a rising tide. If the quality of the food … is elevated, it helps all the restaurants.”
ORIGIN STORY
Where did this guy come from and how did he end up here?
Schorsch was born and raised in Philadelphia, and after attending but not finishing college, he worked in his family’s metals fabrication business, then ran his own company, Thermal Reduction Corp., for more than a decade. He sold it in 1994 and made millions in the process.
Then came other business ventures. In 1998, Schorsch gained notoriety by engineering a $22 million deal to purchase more than 100 vacant bank branches left behind after a merger of First Union Bank and Philadelphia-based Corestates Financial Corp. Within a year, he had leased or sold 95% of the properties, earning himself the nickname “The Bankers’ Landlord.”
Schorsch entered the REIT business – real estate investment trusts – in 2002, forming companies to own large numbers of commercial properties and allowing individual investors to buy shares. First, there was a publicly traded REIT that grew to a $2 billion market capitalization (he was forced out of the company when it sputtered in 2006), and later, there was the formation of American Realty Capital, a company behind a large network of “nontraded” REITs that raised huge pools of money from retail investors.
Schorsch was flying high until an accounting scandal in 2014 led to his resignation from the company – which had been renamed AR Capital – and prison time for its chief financial officer. The company and Schorsch eventually agreed to pay $60 million to settle fraud charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
But he still had plenty of wealth.
The same year he resigned from AR Capital, Schorsch launched the Audrain Automobile Museum Inc. on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, a few doors down from the International Tennis Hall of Fame Inc. The museum was built around Schorsch’s personal car collection and his passion for automobiles.
It was one of numerous steps establishing himself in the Newport scene.
Schorsch had been coming to the City by the Sea on family vacations since he was a child, but in 2012, he and his wife, Shelley, made their Newport connection more permanent. They bought a mansion on Cliff Avenue called Hopedene, a 15-bedroom Georgian Revival built along the Cliff Walk in 1902. They still own the gated estate, which includes a carriage house and helicopter pad.
Then in 2017, Schorsch made his first foray into the Rhode Island hospitality sector, purchasing La Forge Casino Restaurant, next door to the Tennis Hall of Fame, and said to be one of the oldest continuously operated restaurants in the city.
Now more of a Newporter than a Manhattanite, Schorsch speaks dotingly of his five children and 10 grandchildren, all of whom live in the Ocean State.
“I am not just some New Yorker coming here. All of my children have Rhode Island driver’s licenses and own homes here,” he said. “This is not about creating a cloistered environment. This is about improving the state.”
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AN IMPRESSIVE SPREAD
The hospitality portfolio of the Heritage Group includes many iconic establishments around Rhode Island, with most concentrated on Aquidneck Island.[/caption]
BUY, BUY, BUY
The acquisitions have come fast and furious in recent years as Schorsch focused initially on what he calls the “Providence to Newport corridor,” with particular attention paid to waterfront properties.
“Some don’t fit our model,” he said. “My first question when considering an acquisition is ‘Do they have something special?’ ”
In some instances, he says he paid above market for places he felt were worthy of a strong investment, relying on a team of analysts who pore through the books because often “people are trying to hide the fact they are failing.”
He declines to reveal purchase prices but allows that the cost of the buying spree over the last 12 to 18 months stands at more than $130 million.
And now that restaurant owners know there’s a willing buyer with capital to deploy, the phones at Heritage have been ringing. Schorsch says his staff fields calls from a half-dozen owners a week who are looking to cash out. Others reach out, too.
“We get calls from chefs. Even food critics asking us to save a certain restaurant,” he said.
A landlord once approached him, trying to sell him a building that had one of his competitors as a tenant. Schorsch passed.
“How would that look?” he said. “If I owned a building that another restaurant was in and did not own the restaurant. And they didn’t make it. Who do you think would get the blame?”
Nearly all the transactions have involved both the restaurant operations and the real estate, which Schorsch says is crucial to long-term success.
“One needs the other,” he said.
At this point, his Rhode Island business holdings are contained in several layers of entities. Transactions have involved Heritage Hospitality Group and Heritage Restaurant Group, which are part of a rebranding called the Heritage Group, but the state’s corporate database shows they fall under the legal entity 1899 LLC.
In turn, a 2023 application for a liquor license transfer in Newport showed that 1899 LLC was jointly owned by Thames Capital Ventures LLC and Aquidneck Holdings LLC, both of which listed Schorsch as a sole member.
His past – and his insistence that real estate be part of his deals – has led to speculation that his longer-term goal is to fold all his holdings into an REIT, allowing outside investors to get a piece of the action.
Schorsch dismissed notions that he is creating a “black box,” but he didn’t completely rule out the formation of an investment trust.
“It’s all our money and our risk,” he said. “If we were to sell them into a trust, it would be a public entity and then everyone would own it. So, does it matter? It may not be family-run, but all the people are like family.”
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SELLER MINDSET: Scott Kirmil decided to sell The Quencher bar on Long Wharf in Newport to the Heritage Group in December. The management and staff remained in place. “Heritage understands what makes The Quencher tick. It’s the people,” Kirmil said.
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MIXED FEELINGS
Newport Restaurant Group CEO Mick Lamond isn’t concerned.
He says he doesn’t see Heritage as a threat at this point, even though both companies own a concentration of restaurants in Newport and several in Providence.
First of all, Lamond says, Schorsch is buying existing restaurants, not opening new ones and saturating the market with more seats.
There’s also the difference in corporate structure. Unlike Heritage, which is controlled by one person and has grown through a quick succession of acquisitions, Newport Restaurant Group is employee-owned and has grown steadily over the years to operate 17 restaurants and the Castle Hill Inn. The company generates annual revenue of more than $47 million.
“Sure, there is public sentiment, positive and negative. But I look at it from a business standpoint,” Lamond said. “They are competitors. But I also believe the more quality restaurants we have, the better for the state and better for our market. We are never afraid of good competition.”
Simone, of the Federal Hill Commerce Association, recalls the furor unleashed when Heritage’s takeover of the Old Canteen was made public.
At first, Simone couldn’t get a callback to discuss the plans.
“Our tradition is that the association acts as a resource and tool for you. And to work with the community so there are no objections,” he said.
So, Simone did his own research, showing up at several Newport restaurants recently purchased by Heritage to talk to the owners, management and staff.
“People were surprised that I did this. I wanted to know what we were up against and what Federal Hill could be facing,” he said. “And whether the things I was hearing on social media were true.”
Word got back to Schorsch, and the communication began, including a face-to-face meeting.
“It was consistent and was constant,” Simone said. “They laid out their plans in full.”
The move off the island was a “learning curve” for Schorsch, Simone said, “about how to enter anything outside of Newport.”
Simone was won over and now dismisses critics. A month after opening in 2025, Wally’s Wieners won the “best meatball on the Hill” contest at the annual St. Joseph’s Day festival, he notes.
And the new restaurant concept is drawing in a new demographic.
“I go there on Providence College nights, and it’s full of PC fans,” Simone said. “People like to gripe that the Hill is changing. Well, it is.”
Locals should welcome companies such as Heritage with open arms, considering how risky restaurants can be as business ventures, Simone says.
Generational transition, labor shortages and inflation are all challenges.
“[For longtime owners], you worry that you’re not going to get the value of your investment for this legacy and the path you’ve created,” Simone said. “That can be devastating.”
Farouk Rajab, CEO and president of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, doesn’t sound uneasy about Shorsch’s growing presence, either.
“We welcome the Heritage Group’s investment and recognize the value in providing legacy owners the opportunity to exit and retire on their own terms,” he said in a statement. “We wish them continued success and encourage further investment in hospitality education and incumbent worker training across the state.”
DOUBLING UP?
Schorsch’s reach is moving beyond restaurants.
Heritage Group acquired Glorious Affairs Catering in Middletown in November and combined it with Schorsch’s event planning arm, Audrain Hospitality, to form a new catering division called Heritage Hospitality.
He’s also purchased several wholesale seafood markets on Aquidneck Island, providing products to Heritage-owned restaurants and offering them to other restaurants.
“There is some pricing value to that,” he said. “But if we own distribution, we can access products not just for prices but for better quality.”
Meanwhile, in 2024, Newport awarded Heritage the contract to provide concession food at Easton’s Beach, ahead of two other bidders.
Heritage agreed to pay the city $72,000 plus 10% of the taxable gross sales in excess of $750,000. The company missed the $750,000 sales mark in 2024 and 2025.
“That is what I was afraid of, and that is what happened,” said City Councilman David Carlin III, the lone vote against awarding the contract to Heritage in 2024. “It was not a good deal for the city.”
The previous vendor, a presence at the beach for more than 20 years known for giving summer jobs to local youths, “charged a fair price, and put out a good product,” he said.
Carlin says he respects Schorsch and his management team, given that they employ hundreds of people, many of whom live in Newport. But he also worries that Heritage will eventually become a behemoth that will wield too much power.
Still, Carlin senses a growing public apathy as the acquisitions pile up.
“When the first couple of purchases happened, everyone was asking, ‘Is this really happening?’ ” he said. “By the time the fifth and sixth [happened], it becomes a normal occurrence.
“From a hospitality and city tourism standpoint, they are good citizens,” he said. “But having one [group of businesses] controlled by the same person, what does that do for the city? In many ways, we are being outmatched.”
Schorsch has heard those complaints and says that local outfits such as Newport Restaurant Group haven’t experienced the same blowback Heritage has.
“Nobody said a word because they did it a long time ago and they are locals,” he said.
Now, Schorsch is eying nearby Massachusetts and Cape Cod, and looking to purchase vacation rentals, inns and markets.
The business opportunities are greater in Rhode Island and the coast of Massachusetts than in other locations in the Northeast, such as Long Island and the New Jersey shore, he says.
Schorsch foresees acquiring six to 10 locations a year, doubling Heritage’s size in four years.
It’s clear that any backlash hasn’t persuaded him to slow the plan to buy more properties.
“Whether you buy one restaurant or three, people are worried because these are their places,” he said. “I have no problem with people being skeptical. Because it gives us an opportunity to prove ourselves.”
