An AWFUL AWFUL Mistake — Garden City’s Shift Could Break the Heart of Cranston

by Nancy Thomas, publisher

NBC 10/WPRO’s Gene Valicenti reported on Monday morning on “X” that the cornerstone of Garden City Center, Newport Creamery, positioned across from the Gazebo, would not be allowed to renew its lease. For 63 years the restaurant/ice cream destination began families’ orientation to Garden City as soon as their children could be put in a stroller and head out for the location.

Perfect for taking a fussy little one to – perfect for young teens to get their first social mix-ups in over coffee cabinets on a Friday night. Always a safe and secure spot, often with young and older people serving together as wait staff, and a place to see and be seen. Those of us with grown children remember having a quick grilled cheese with squirmy kids, and get a box or cone of ice cream and walk across the street to the gazebo for little ones to run around until they were tired enough to go home to bed. A successful field trip leaving memories soon to be replicated.

Now, all that will be changing?  Will all that be lost? The memory-making cornerstone of a development that is growing too fast – and over the last few months, feeling its growing pains, as well. Will visiting an Apple store leave memories? Or whatever might go in this location? Regardless of the increasingly upscale shops being wedged into this boutique shopping center that has established itself as the “heart of Cranston”, the area of Newport Creamery – and the gazebo – has always been the heart of local families.

Here’s Gene’s post:

Changing times

In the last few months there have been robberies, pilfering, a knifing, and the latest, a shooting, albeit 5 shots that managed to miss a point-blank located victim. Say it isn’t so!  Efforts to get a written comment about actions taken from WS Development have met with “call me” – not what we do when we want to be “on the record”. Can we hear you now?

Garden City Center’s management company has to show it is doing something – other than maintaining a successful status quo. So every few months there is a new announcement or feature. Now, it’s Newport Creamery. Perhaps one blow too many. What will go where Newport Creamery used to be?  And will Newport Creamery leave the Center entirely?  We know that Applebee’s is coming back to Cranston – but NOT to their location that burned to the ground and has been left pretty much as it stood. (Rumors are Chris Steak House. No excitement there). Will Newport Creamery pack up its cones and move down the line – and around the corner to where Applebee’s used to be? That’s a thought! Nice outdoor area, plentiful parking, walkable for all the families in the residences behind it. Hmm. The closest Newport Creamery is at the Smithfield Mall – not likely to get visitors from Cranston.

Janice Matthews, vice president of Jan Companies, owner of Newport Creamery, said that she’s “very disappointed” and was told that “no new tenant has been signed” when asked if an Apple store is taking the restaurant’s spot. On their website it says, “At Newport Creamery, we believe food should be as fun as the dining experience. We offer a comfortable, family-friendly atmosphere and tasty traditions like our Big Beef Burgers, our very own locally made ice cream, and the classic Awful Awful. Generations have come to love our Good Mood Food, exceptional value and attentive customer service. We are the place where families, friends and memories meet. Newport Creamery is where we make the tasty traditions and you make the memories.”

What does WS Development say?

No response to our messages left, with deadline, for comment.

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From the Garden City Alliance:

The Garden City Alliance is an advocacy group organized when traffic and parking became a concern for the residences of homes in the nearby area. The group has been active in being watchdog to inappropriate development in the area in which they live, or security issues growing in concern. They responded to the news with this statement:

“The news that Newport Creamery in the Garden City Center (GCC) will be losing its lease in eighteen months is shocking! For the past sixty years Newport Creamery has been the location where so many memories have been made. Families have gathered to celebrate birthdays; friends have stopped in for sundaes and good conversation; breakfast on a Sunday morning an all-around go-to restaurant for many in the neighborhood as well as surrounding communities. Even out-of-towners have enjoyed the classic Rhode Island treats, the Coffee Cabinet and the Awful Awful. In addition, the Newport Creamery has attracted a substantial amount of business during the weekly concerts held at the center.

Our expectation is that the owners of GCC, WS Development, will reconsider their decision to terminate the lease and offer another option to the owners of Newport Creamery, such as relocating this legendary establishment within the Center.”

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Next Door, Facebook, Social Media, etc. had a lot to say!

The active “Next Door” group had a few thoughts:

* I say start a Keep Newport Creamery in Garden City Protest,  this is greed… WS Development needs to hear from us.. Newport Creamery adds charm and is nostalgic in this area.. Keep it RI!!!!

* [I] was one of the first employees as a high school student. Was there on duty as Hurricane Carol blew into RI. Fantastic place to work.

* In strict and uncaring capitalistic terms, there’s no way that Newport Creamery could make as much profit as an Apple Store.

* … Rhode Island is not a big enough market for Apple Stores within 7 miles / 15 minutes of each other. This will be much to the chagrin of tens of thousands of college student in the Providence area, most of whom do not have cars. As far as I know, there is only one bus that goes to Garden City.

* It is a shame, [now], that almost everything in Garden City is a national chain.

* This is awful-awful news!

* Apple will bring more scum to the area

* No!!! So sad!

* The LAST thing Garden City needs is an Apple store….

* This is a shame! Newport Creamery is an institution

* I hate to see Newport Creamery go..So many memories of my children going there after their jr high dances.

* Apple should go where Bobs Store was on Oaklawn. Newport Creamery belongs in Garden City!

* Unbelievable!! This is the main stop when shopping, concerts, awful awful during heat wave, and visiting Santa. Great loss for Garden City folks

* Booooo, this is awful! It’s such a great place to go to. Truly NE icon

* Why don’t they rebuilt the burnt Applebees restaurant location in Garden City for Newport Creamery to move into. Then both can still be in Garden City.

* The owners and management of GCC are totally clueless. Whatever business takes over the creamery location will it generate more revenue? Maybe yes? Maybe no. One thing is abundantly clear. GCC management and owners don’t care about the city or the customers they serve. I’m glad Newport Creamery is looking at other retail locations in Cranston. There are plenty.

* (new rumor) – rumored that Ruth Chris Steakhouse going in Applebees location.

* (and another!) – NC isn’t the clientele they want. They are bringing in Ruth’s Chris in Applebees old spot. Looks like they want to be more upscale.

* GC asked Carters to leave so they got their KARMA!

* This is AWFUL!

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DROPPING A DIME… COSTCO, APPLE, ???

Every once in awhile in Cranston you have heard “Costco” mentioned – almost like a word that gets whispered in a quiet room and everyone says, “huh?”  But – no Costco. We’re not big enough, we can’t accommodate another liquor store – with no environmental watch-dog stomach for a gas station, two features most required to locate a COSTCO. And there’s that band of Cranstonians who love to pitch their negativity, bored with the Budlong Pool – bored with no-campaign time. So, that’s on hold, for now, with officials nearly exhausted by its rumors.

We have a Mayor who is term limited and feeling the weight of a nasty band of attackers who haven’t let up for his entire term. Fights with an often compromised City Council have only changed, over time. Even winning by wide margins last time was not enough to discourage the Mayoral attacks. Keep in mind Mayor Hopkins is the highest held Republican in Rhode Island, and the state’s only Republican Mayor. The nay-sayers have gone on to organize around national “No Kings” and other anti-Trump causes as ways to spend their time.

The Mayor’s office had no comment, saying they had not heard of this before the “Gene Tweet”.

What grows an APPLE?

So, now, it’s “Apple” – not in “…bees” – but in The Apple Store. Moving from the sick and dying Providence Place Mall? Everyone would like to see that move to other, safer, friendly environs. No longer is the parking lot safe, or mall store selection palatable for a day’s trip. Being Rhode Island’s ONLY Apple Store, Massachusetts has 10, one in the Apple Legacy Place, Dedham Mall – a mall also managed by WS Development. Hmm…

More particulars on an Apple Store:

We asked one source, given all this information, what would be most likely, and they said, “So if you’re asking what feels most likely? Apple Store moves in, WS gives them a flagship-level design, and it becomes a regional draw”.

Newport Creamery’s footprint (~9,000 sq ft) is in the sweet spot for a standard Apple retail location.

Standard full-service Apple Stores located in regional malls or lifestyle centers usually occupy between 8,000 and 12,000 square feet (such as the one in Dedham’s Legacy Place. Larger flagship stores in urban locations can exceed 15,000 to 20,000 sq. ft. But!  Where do the cars go? And will people overwhelm a nearly maxxed out Center? And will they stay to dine and shop? Is the mix of stores there attractive to the perceptions of who an Apple shopper is?

Don’t Trade Awful Awfuls for iPhones: Why Garden City Needs to Keep Newport Creamery

In the ever-polished, ever-profitable march of retail progress, it’s easy to forget what truly makes a place feel like home. Garden City Center in Cranston has evolved from a local shopping plaza into a chic, walkable, family destination, but not every part of its charm comes from luxury boutiques or big-brand tenants.

One of its quietest anchors and most beloved is Newport Creamery, a place that has served generations of Rhode Islanders not just food, but memories. It’s where kids learn to order their first “Awful Awful,” where grandparents share a booth with grandkids, where post-baseball-game sundaes and back-to-school burgers have become part of the Cranston rhythm.

Now, rumors swirl: the Creamery may be on its way out, with a gleaming Apple Store possibly taking its place.

Let’s be clear, we all love our tech. And yes, we support The Apple Store moving out of a failing Providence Place Mall. But do we really need Apple in Garden City Center? Maybe in Cranston, in a place large enough to accommodate parking and people. Does Garden City really need Apple?  Do we need more shopper-development? Are stores in trouble? Does WS Development just not know what to do next?

What we don’t have are many places like Newport Creamery, casual, affordable, Rhode Island to its core – and Garden City Center at the heart of Cranston. A wrong choice and a long term lease can change the success in a moment. Can you say, LA Fitness?

If Garden City pushes out the Creamery, it doesn’t just lose a tenant. It loses a touchstone. A place with local DNA. A place where you can slow down, not speed up. Where the pace might be a little slow, the sound quieter, but the ice cream is still made with care.

For developers, the decision may look like a spreadsheet, higher rent, glossier brand, more foot traffic. But for the people who grew up walking those Garden City sidewalks, it”s something deeper: a trade of identity for uniformity.

There’s still time to do the right thing. Changes aren’t proposed until 2027.

Keep the Creamery. Keep the memories. Keep Rhode Island in Garden City.

With help from Garden City”s development people, this video gives a history over 70 years… for the young’uns who want to know how it got its start. Kind of like Main Street, America – and wouldn’t we all like to see it stay? There’s a lot more at stake than ice cream and laptops.