The plaza on County Road, across from Barrington Town Hall, has one storefront that won't be serving anything this holiday season. The former Newport Creamery served its last Awful Awfuls on the final weekend of January 2026. Its successor at 296 County Road needs the interior rebuilt from scratch before anyone orders a shake there again.
On Maple Avenue, a 1920s yellow house now serves espresso from its ground floor, and an ice cream shop operates a few addresses away on the same street. Barrington is heading into the holidays without a creamery on County Road. The two Maple Avenue shops don't replace it one for one. Between them, though, they cover the hours a family stop used to fill, from a 7:30 a.m. coffee to a 9 p.m. cone.
January 25, and the Months Since
NBC 10 reported on January 24, 2026, that Newport Creamery's parent company had confirmed the Barrington location would close that Sunday. The company had looked for another site in town before deciding to close. It was the second closure in a row: the Garden City Center location in Cranston had shut less than a month earlier. Barrington workers were offered jobs at the Fall River and Seekonk restaurants, which are now the nearest places carrying the old name.
The space didn't stay unclaimed for long. The Blount family bought the former location and plans to reopen it as Barrington Creamery. Rhode Island Monthly's October 15 dining roundup repeated the town's own description: "a community restaurant opening in 2027 at 296 County Road." If the target holds, the corner will have been dark for about thirteen months. That covers one full summer, one back-to-school season and this winter's holidays.
A Menu Being Written in the Comments
Todd Blount grew up in Barrington. Twenty years ago he wanted to open a clam shack, and that became Blount Clam Shack on Water Street in Warren. He told EastBayRI that Barrington Creamery will be family-first. The menu will include hot dogs on grilled buns, a cheeseburger served between a grilled cheese, buy-one-get-one shakes on Mondays, soups from Blount Fine Foods, some lighter options, and a lower-priced single-item menu for kids.
The unusual part is how the place is being designed. The restaurant's Facebook page has more than 1,000 followers and has become a working brainstorm. A request for logo ideas drew 320 responses within hours. Blount ran those suggestions through AI and posted the finalists for a vote. As EastBayRI reported, a later post asked about the menu directly:
"What are your Creamery long time lunch or dinner favorites? (This is not what you want to see new; that will be later…) What was your standard order?"
That question shows the strategy. The menu starts from what people remember ordering, and new ideas come after. Blount described the kind of town he grew up in, when kids rode their bikes everywhere, including to the old Ben & Franklin store next to Almac's. He wants local kids to have a restaurant with prices they can afford. Ideas still in development include free cones for youth sports teams that win championships and a possible birthday item. He also plans to hire locally, as Blount Clam Shack does.
He isn't rushing it. "We're not in a hurry. We're looking to do it right," he told EastBayRI. He's aiming for a soft opening in February 2027 and to be "really cranking by the spring." In August, NBC 10 described the same timeline as early 2027.
74 Maple Avenue, Morning to Mid-Afternoon
While County Road waits, Maple Avenue has added something new. Aldeia Coffeehouse is a Portuguese-inspired café run by Maggie Mulvena Pearson, who co-founded the meal delivery company Feast & Fettle. The Boston Globe covered it in July. Pearson spotted a small ground-floor space for rent in a yellow house on Maple Avenue and called about it the same day.
The house was built in 1922, and the café takes up about 700 square feet of it. Pearson refinished the century-old floors and spent a year collecting antique Portuguese plates. The scale shows in how the café gets its food. There's almost no room for a kitchen, so the pastries come from partners. Knead supplies the laminated pastries, the cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting, and a caramelized onion savory danish. The pastel de nata comes from Flake Bakery in Brookline. Pearson told the Globe these were the closest she had found to the tarts in Lisbon or Porto. The Globe also described her carrying in a dairy delivery from Wright's Farm.
Gail Ciampa's Providence Journal piece from September 30 recommends starting with a meia de leite, equal parts espresso and steamed milk. For something savory, she suggests the Chouriço & Cheese Bolo Sandwich. The current fall menu on Aldeia's own site includes a Pumpkin Maple Ave Latte named for the street, plus a Cinnamon Honey Matcha and a Spiced Apple Cider Aerocano. Malassadas and pumpkin muffins sit next to the custard tarts. The shelves also carry European pantry goods and ceramics.
Aldeia is open Wednesday through Monday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed Tuesdays.
61 Maple Avenue, Noon to Nine
On the same street, The Ice Cream Garage at 61 Maple Avenue posts hours of Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 9 p.m., on its site. Those hours aren't labeled as a winter schedule, so check before a December visit.
Put the two posted schedules side by side and Maple Avenue covers most of the day:
- Monday: Aldeia only, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Tuesday: The Ice Cream Garage only, noon to 9 p.m.
- Wednesday through Sunday: Coffee from 7:30 a.m., ice cream from noon, with both open from noon to 4 p.m. and ice cream until 9 p.m.
The noon-to-4 overlap is when one street can do it all, with a bolo sandwich at lunch and a cone afterward. On Mondays it's coffee only. On Tuesdays it's ice cream only.
The house itself fits the town's pattern too. A 1922 residential building with its original floors restored now has a small business on the ground floor and still looks like part of the street. That kind of reuse lets an older house earn its keep without losing its character, which counts in a town where much of the housing is older.
County Road Still Has a Pastry Case
The plaza across from Town Hall is quiet, but County Road still has a bakery. Madrid European Bakery & Patisserie at 230 County Road opened on December 9, 2024. That was later than the owners' original goal of summer 2024, as EastBayRI reported at the time. A May 2025 visit by Hey Rhody highlighted the Pastel Vasco, the San Marcos cake, mini eclairs, strawberry tarts, butter croissants, café mocha and matcha latte.
Madrid is the only one of these three open seven days a week. Its posted hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. That makes it the reliable choice on the days Maple Avenue only offers half of what it usually does.
Between Now and the Soft Opening
Here is how the next few months line up for the County Road corner:
- December 5, 2026: The town calendar lists the Tree Lighting Celebration at Barrington Town Hall, across the road from the dark Creamery storefront. The listing doesn't give a time yet.
- This winter: Interior rebuild at 296 County Road, with more menu and design questions likely on the Barrington Creamery Facebook page. Blount said he plans to keep asking the public for input.
- February 2027: Blount's target for a soft opening.
- Spring 2027: When he expects the restaurant to be running at full speed.
Until then, Aldeia's Pumpkin Maple Ave Latte is available every day except Tuesday, and the Barrington Creamery Facebook page is still asking for people's standard orders.
If you own an older Barrington house and wonder what its next chapter could look like, Lisa Ardente would be glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
