Matunuck Atelier Opens Restaurant While Awaiting Market

The second location offers many Matunuck Oyster Bar menu favorites as well as a greater emphasis on ceviche, crudo and sushi and fresh, made-on-site pasta.

9 hours ago

Jamie Coelho,

634126503 10110856032281136 8456267281402483320 N

The restaurant side of Matunuck Atelier is now open for business. Photo by Jamie Coelho.

Matunuck Atelier is the elegant and sophisticated little sister to Matunuck Oyster Bar. Perry Raso’s second restaurant opened just three weeks ago at 151 Tower Hill Rd. in South Kingstown. Its location – situated on a busy road across from the Wakefield strip mall – is no comparison to the idyllic pondside stretch where the original Matunuck Oyster Bar restaurant was located before it was destroyed by a fire in May 2025, but it is convenient and boasts an expansive and similar menu.

Guests pull into the parking lot in front of the restaurant where valets await to whisk cars away. There’s no need to circle the lot in search of a spot, simply head inside the restaurant in time for reservations. Matunuck Atelier is in phase one of development. The restaurant is now open, but the second phase hopes to include a food market, where guests can purchase Matunuck Atelier’s freshmade pastas, bread, oysters, seafood, sandwiches and more.

The market side is still under construction with equipment, tables, chairs and piles of bags of flour from Italy that await their fate of becoming handmade pasta and the restaurant’s irresistible rosemary focaccia. “The original plan was, this is going to be the market, but because the equipment for the market didn’t come in on time, we just started the restaurant first,” Raso says. “The idea is to be able to see the product being made over there.”

634174929 10110856032425846 2230858876563064330 N

Perry Raso shows off what will hopefully become the market side of Matunuck Atelier once equipment arrives.

At the back of the restaurant is a vast open window into the kitchen where guests can watch the pastas and breads being made by artisan Gabi Napoli, using her family’s time-honored recipes. “And then in the market we’ll have cheese, pasta, ravioli, fish, shellfish. And then on the end, sandwiches that you might see in Europe, like baguettes with mozzarella and prosciutto,” Raso says. “And then there will be pinchos. Those little small bites like you find in Spain. So that’s kind of inspired by San Sebastian-style eating, where you just go and get some kind of unique seafood bite.”

634110327 10110856096292856 3148573045570920596 N

Oysters at Matunuck Atelier.

While Matunuck Atelier doesn’t have the same views as Potter Pond, it extends the footprint of the popular Rhode Island seafood restaurant while it awaits approval for plans to rebuild near the original setting. Matunuck Atelier was planned well before the fire took place, according to Raso. It is the more upscale and “Eataly-like” version of its predecessor. Most of the staff members employed at Matunuck Atelier were retained from Matunuck Oyster Bar.

While many of the raw bar and seafood menu items carry over from the original Matunuck Oyster Bar, there’s also a greater emphasis on ceviche, crudo and sushi, as well as impressive steaks like an American Wagyu bavette, a Prime Tomahawk steak and a Wagyu burger for those who veer more carnivorous.

There’s more focus on fresh pasta that is made on site, including gnocchi, fettuccini and ravioli stuffed with seafood like lobster or scallops and Jonah crab. The key to the pasta is the flour that’s used to make it. Raso and team chose Filippo Drago’s Castelvetrano flour, which is a blend of ancient stone-ground grains, made without any part of the grain kernel being removed. “We went through dozens and dozens of flours to find out what makes the best bread, what makes the best pasta. And we found that this Sicilian pasta grain maker [Fillippo] Drago,” Raso says. “He grew ancient grains in the westernmost part of Sicily, and he’s actually known for really getting farmers to grow three different grains to prevent them from becoming extinct.”

634596245 10110856095863716 7229600898126057090 N

The lobster croissant sandwich with lemon-tarragon dressing and crispy onion strings with the Golden Hour mocktail with pineapple, tamarind, lime, spiced ginger, sparkling water and a tajin rim.

Matunuck Oyster Bar still plans to reopen under a tent this spring at the same spot, 650 Succotash Rd. in Matunuck, thanks to last year’s implementation of a new state law that allows restaurants impacted by disasters to continue their operations with fewer restrictions. “We are incredibly grateful to our municipal and state leaders for their partnership in helping us execute this plan,” reads a note on the Matunuck Oyster Bar website. “This outdoor dining space will allow us to welcome guests back this summer, as well as keeping many of our valued team members employed. We look forward to seeing you back in the spring under the Matunuck Oyster Bar tent, at 650 Succotash Road, East Matunuck.”