EDITORIAL: RI’s Family Restaurants Are Dying By the Day

EDITORIAL: RI’s Family Restaurants Are Dying By the Day

On Friday, it was long-time Newport restaurant Salvation Cafe announcing it will be closing in just weeks.

Salvation was the epitome of "cool." It was the local business that helped transform Broadway from run-down and vacant to a hot spot for restaurants and bars.

On Saturday, GoLocal’s News Editor Kate Nagle unveiled the sad story of Pawtucket institution Kip’s Restaurant closing next month after more than 60 years.

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Kip’s is that special family diner - Rhode Island through and through. Heck, back in 2009, then-Pawtucket Mayor James Doyle dedicated the intersection in honor of the restaurant for 50 years of contributions to the community.

We don’t know what is next for the space that housed Salvation Cafe, but GoLocal was told that Kip’s will be the new location of a Chase Bank branch.

Kip’s is where friends met, families ate, and first dates happened — it holds decades of memories for many. 

Instead, the intersection of Newport Avenue and Armistice Boulevard will lose an institution and add a branch of a New York bank.

Will any of us remember the deposit slips, the ability to fill out forms, and the ATM? It is hard to believe that we need another bank branch at another four-way intersection.

Sadly, Kip’s and Salvation are just two of the recent restaurant closures in the state -- a list that includes Birch, Griswold’s, Oatley’s, Greenville Inn, Spirito’s, and the list goes on and on.

Some were the victim of COVID, and others were the victim of the economy.

Gone is another piece of Rhode Island, another piece of Pawtucket. Pawtucket has already seen the stuttering of its hospital, the loss of its theater company, the departure of its baseball team, and now, "Kip’s Corner" will just be a memento in the family storage.

Hopefully, Rhode Islanders will be a little more local. Folks will eat at the local diner, bank with the local guys, and support the small retailer.

If not, the Rhode Island we loved will just be a cliche of driving directions - where the Almacs used to be, across from where the Benny's was, and just past where Kip's once stood.