Old Tower Hill Road in Wakefield, RI: Dining and Proposed Zoning Changes

At 151 Old Tower Hill Road, in a strip mall, Perry Raso's newest restaurant serves seafood ravioli with scallops and Jonah crab in a limoncello cream sauce. Forty addresses up the road, a group that runs restaurants on Federal Hill has agreed to buy the Chophouse Grille and turn it into an Italian restaurant. The road is still lined with gas stations, a Dunkin' and parking lots in front of the stores. The rules that decide what can be built there are up for a South Kingstown Town Council vote on Oct. 12.

So Old Tower Hill Road is changing from two directions this fall. Restaurant owners are already treating it as a dinner destination. The proposed code would decide whether the buildings follow.

Dinner on the road started changing in January

Matunuck Atelier opened in late January 2026. The Providence Journal reported it had opened "this week" on Jan. 29, and Rhode Island Monthly said it had opened "just three weeks ago" in a Feb. 13 feature. If a summer roundup told you it was new this season, it was off by about five months.

Atelier is a dinner-only restaurant. The restaurant's location page lists hours of 4 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 4 to 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It closes on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The September menu says all pastas are made in-house. It includes lobster rigatoni, littleneck clams with spaghetti, cacio e pepe tonnarelli, wild boar bolognese and truffle fettuccine, plus a raw bar and crudo.

The restaurant it's related to is still under construction. Matunuck Oyster Bar was badly damaged in a May 2025 fire. Since then, Raso has served guests from a temporary tent at 650 Succotash Road. In May, he told WJAR he hoped to finish inspections by Aug. 31 and reopen sometime in September. In July, he told Ocean State Media, "We're hoping (for) the fall." As of Oct. 2, the Matunuck Oyster Bar website still says the new building "is being built." I haven't found an announced reopening date.

The second change is at 191 Old Tower Hill Road. On Aug. 24, the Providence Journal reported that the DeQuattro Restaurant Group, run by Joe and Esther DeQuattro, had agreed to buy the Chophouse Grille. The new restaurant will be called Acqua Pazza, which means "crazy water," and it will serve Italian food. According to Rhode Island Monthly's Oct. 1 dining update, the group already runs Pane e Vino and Massimo on Federal Hill, a second Massimo at Legacy Place in Dedham, Massachusetts, the Crow's Nest in Warwick and Bar 'Lino in Johnston. Wakefield would be its first South County location.

No opening date has been announced. The Sept. 28 Town Council agenda didn't include a license action for Acqua Pazza. When we checked, the town's meeting portal hadn't posted an agenda for the council's next meeting. The Chophouse's own website still lists its regular weekly hours.

The everyday road around them

Between those two addresses, much of the road's daily life has been there for years. Wakefield Books sits at 160 Old Tower Hill Road. It's a locally owned independent bookstore that opened a few months after Waldenbooks closed, in the former Waldenbooks space.

The same Sept. 28 council agenda listed victualling license renewals for the Mobil at 72 Old Tower Hill Road and the Dunkin' at 231 Old Tower Hill Road. Those are routine annual renewals. It matters here because gas stations and drive-thrus are two of the uses the proposed code would treat differently.

The road's commercial anchor is Wakefield Mall. Under the proposal, the mall sits in the densest commercial area.

What the form-based code would change

Most zoning regulates what a building is used for. A form-based code also sets rules for how a building looks and how it meets the street. The Planning Board recommended approval on Sept. 8. Its summary describes new buildings and entrances moving toward the street, sidewalks and pedestrian connections, parking beside or behind buildings, and public spaces. The housing types it allows include duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, courtyard buildings, accessory units, small apartment buildings, and apartments above shops.

The code would create five districts. Their names in the Sept. 14 draft are listed below.

The code covers the Old Tower Hill Road corridor and surrounding streets toward Dale Carlia Corner, Kingstown Road and Main Street. You can read the full text and regulating map on the town's Old Tower Hill Road Form-Based Code page.

If you live or work along the road, this part matters most. At the Sept. 28 hearing, Planning Director James Rabbitt said existing lawful buildings that don't change are not affected. Repairs, maintenance, interior and exterior renovations, and expansions within the code's limits wouldn't trigger compliance. The code applies to new construction and substantial additions. That means the Atelier strip mall, the Chophouse building and the bookstore can stay as they are under the new code. The street would change one new project at a time.

This idea is older than most of the restaurants on the road. Rabbitt said the effort dates to 2006 or 2007. The town hired consultants in 2023, the first draft came out in July 2025, and the first public hearing was held on Sept. 14.

What's still open before Oct. 12

The council continued the hearing on Sept. 28 by voice vote without voting on the code. Council President Rory H. McEntee said the council didn't plan to vote with one member absent and intends to vote on Oct. 12, when all five members can attend. Several questions were left for staff:

• Residential streets. McEntee asked whether FB1, FB1.5 and FB2 could be removed so the code applied only to commercial properties. Council Member Deborah Bergner said removing them would leave those neighborhoods without guardrails. She also said changing the town's existing zoning instead could take six months to a year.
• Building size. Rabbitt showed a sample duplex with a footprint of about 1,600 square feet, roughly 40 by 40 feet. He showed a sample triplex sized to almost the same footprint, about 42 feet wide, with fewer bedrooms. He recommended applying these limits in FB1, FB1.5 and FB2. Duplexes are already allowed by right today. They go straight to a building permit, and the town has no say over their form.
• Gas stations. Gas stations, auto service stations, dealerships and mini storage would not be allowed in FB3 and FB4. Bergner asked where people would buy gas if the area's three stations sold. Rabbitt said the council could allow small stations no larger than today's.
• Drive-thrus. Existing drive-thrus would continue as nonconforming uses. New banks and similar businesses couldn't add unlimited drive-up lanes.
• A use table. Bergner asked staff for a table showing which uses are allowed in each district. Rabbitt said the full comparison is a 12-page spreadsheet.

Public comment covered a wide range. A resident asked for the neighborhood to be removed from the plan, saying the map shown at the meeting didn't match the online regulations. A speaker said half of the neighbors hadn't received a certified letter. Rabbitt said a little over 400 letters were sent. A representative of Wakefield Mall said no one had contacted him and that he wouldn't develop under the plan as written. A former state Department of Environmental Management water official asked for stricter stormwater infiltration rules. One resident who chairs a town committee spoke in support.

At the earlier hearing, the South County Star quoted mall owner Geoffrey Levy. He warned that added process could make developers "go through hoops and add time" until "they walk away from projects." Resident Veronika Kot said she values her neighborhood as "quaint" and "sleepy," and would "like to keep it that way." Both concerns are about the same thing: how the road changes, and how quickly.

Oct. 17 shows what a street open to foot traffic looks like

Five days after the vote, Wakefield gets a preview of a street built for walking. The Sept. 28 council agenda included a resolution to grant a temporary mass gathering permit for Oktoberfest at Birch & Bay, 323 Main Street, on Saturday, Oct. 17. The permit runs from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and includes closing Main Street between Robinson Street and Kenyon Avenue, subject to state Department of Transportation approval. The organizer's Eventbrite listing for the 11th Annual Wakefield Octoberfest lists noon to 11 p.m. on the Sunset Stage. Other events that weekend and into November:

1. Oct. 17, 10 a.m. Will Henry book signing at Wakefield Books, 160 Old Tower Hill Road.
2. Oct. 17, noon to 6 p.m. Arts & Eats at Sons of Liberty, 1425 Kingstown Road.
3. Nov. 7, 10 a.m. Local-author book signing at Wakefield Books.
4. Nov. 12, 5 p.m. Wakefield Books' Grown-Up Book Fair at Whalers Brewing Company, 1174 Kingstown Road.

The bookstore's two events reach both ends of the area the code covers, from Old Tower Hill Road to Kingstown Road.

I'm watching the Oct. 12 vote and the Acqua Pazza timeline closely from here in Wakefield, and I'm happy to talk through what either one means for your street or your plans. More local notes are on my South Kingstown page, and you can reach me through Patricia Berg. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.