1899, LLC, Awarded Concessions Contract for 2024 Summer Season at Easton's Beach

NEWPORT, R.I., April 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- 1899, LLC (now doing business as The Heritage Restaurant Group) is pleased to announce that at tonight's Newport City Council meeting, 1899 was awarded the concessions contract for the 2024 summer season at Easton's Beach.  1899 is a robust, multifaceted restaurant and hospitality company currently overseeing and supporting three brick-and-mortar restaurants in the City of Newport, a fleet of mobile food trucks and mobile food carts, and a state-of-the-art mobile food kitchen.

Since beginning operations in 2017, 1899 has grown exponentially with an average of 65 year-round employees, which swells to more than 200 employees during the summer season.  All of 1899's employees, both seasonal and year-round, live in the greater Newport County area.

"When it was made public over two years ago that the City of Newport was looking for solutions to the structural issues of the Easton's Beach pavilions, 1899 and its partners reached out to the City to offer assistance in raising private funds to repair, remediate and save the existing structures.  However, after further city-mandated feasibility studies, the City concluded that a majority of the beach structures and amenities would need to be demolished and replaced, including those providing concessions.  Like the rest of the Newport community, we knew what an impact the loss of these buildings and amenities would have on the City's residents and summer visitors.  We pivoted to looking to bring to bear all of 1899's resources to provide a bid that not only offered a variety of concession options to beachgoers, but also shared a greater portion of the revenue generated by the mobile food truck fleet with the City than other bidders.  In addition, 1899 will provide additional benches, tables and other accommodations to visitors at no cost to the City. 

This is not solely a business venture, but a reflection of our Company's core values, to invest in our local Aquidneck Island community.  Newport is where we and our employees live year-round, where our children and grandchildren live and attend school, and its future health and well-being are paramount to our success.  As we have done in the past and will continue to do, we look for any opportunity to take part in public-private partnerships, like we have done with the City of Newport, and many local charities, including, but not limited to, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, the Edward King House Senior Center, the Boys and Girls Club of Newport County, Newport Out, Friends of Newport Skatepark, Newport Hospital, and Bike Newport."  Said an 1899 representative.

The diverse 1899 hospitality platform is agile in its abilities, servicing public and private events of all types and sizes and working with a myriad of organizations including the Town of Middletown, Rhode Island, the State of Rhode Island Division of Parks and Recreation, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Newport Festivals Foundation, 12 Metre Yacht Club Newport Station, Salve Regina University, the Newport Art Museum, St. Michael's Country Day School, Newport Hospital, Gold Medal Bakery and The Ocean Race.

In 2023, 1899 served as the concessioner and caterer of The Newport Stopover of The Ocean Race, one of the State's most important events.  Through this endeavor, 1899 gained unmatched experience and expertise in operating sustainably and now employs these environmentally sensitive standards across its restaurant, catering and mobile food truck divisions.  In addition to The Ocean Race, in 2023 1899 organized a total of 729 stops for the mobile food trucks and catering kitchen at events in Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Jamestown, North Kingstown, East Greenwich, Bristol, Providence and East Providence, Rhode Island, Fall River, Massachusetts and Woodstock, Connecticut, to name a few.

As residents of Newport, 1899 its partners and employees recognize that Easton's Beach and the Cliff Walk are two of the City's most prized assets and showpieces.  In order to maintain and elevate the visitor's Newport experience, 1899 is committed to building a broad range of food offerings and creating a culinary destination at Easton's Beach.  To achieve this, it is 1899's sincere desire to work with other local food truck vendors to augment the food offerings to include sweet and savory items not on 1899 menus, provided that these operators maintain and comply with the standards required and expected by the City of Newport.     

SOURCE Heritage Restaurant Group