Theme Thursday - Lunch

I decided to get some pictures of two of Newport's time-honored lunching traditions.

Handy Lunch on at Thames and Pope Streets has been around for a long, long time. I moved to Newport in May of 1974 and Handy Lunch was here. The oldtimers on Lower Thames St. tell me Handy Lunch was around as long as they can remember, and some of those folks are well into their 80s. It used to be the place for breakfast and lunch for the fishermen and lobstermen working on the nearby docks (Brown & Howard Wharf and Parascondolas's are just up Thames St.). But it didn't become Gary's Handy Lunch until Gary Hooks came to Newport in 1977 in Ted Turner's wake; Gary was one of the many Southerners who came up here with TT when he skippered Courageous in the America's Cup trials of that year. Gary decided to stay (most of that crowd did), and he bought Handy Lunch and totally redid it and changed it's image from a typical working-man's greasy spoon to a tourist destination that still survived on a local clientele. He redid the interior to look like a classic '50s diner but kept the menu at typical diner fare - burgers, fries, eggs and bacon, etc. Still cheap, still popular, and still going strong.

The sign may say Blue Rocks Market, but most of us still call this Sig's Deli. Back in the late 1920s Sig and Tilley Margolis opened up in the heart of the old Fifth Ward, Newport's traditional Irish neighborhood. They made a good business out of being a Jewish deli in a Catholic neighborhood, especially on Sundays, when all the Christian businesses were closed. Maurice and Brenda Margolis took over the business in the '60s but kept the name Sig's. By that time Sig's Deli had become the mainstay of lunchtime Newport. In the Summer, if you were heading for Gooseberry or Hazard Beaches on Ocean Drive, or if you were heading out to Brenton Point for a picnic, you stopped at Sig's to get your picnic fare. Lots of area businesses used Sig's for holiday office party goodies. It even served as a grocery store, carrying a lot of everyday food necessities for those Fifth Warders who didn't feel like going "all the way up the hill" to Bellevue Ave. to the A&P or Almacs to do grocery shopping. But most of all, Sig's sandwiches and cold cuts selection were the pride of the city. I still haven't eaten a Reuben as good as the ones I got at Sig's.

After the turn of the current century Maurice and Brenda were looking to retire, but nobody in the family wanted to take it on, so they ended up selling the business a couple of years ago to Ingrid Martin, who owned Blue Rocks Catering, located in Middletown behind Easton's Beach. Ingrid and her crew did some work on the place and reopened, still keeping the Sig's name, but last November they finally changed the name to Blue Rocks. So far the reception has been mixed. Reports say the food is still good, and they've stayed with deli fare and are keeping the prices about the same. But for a lot of Newporters the change has signaled the end of an era, and the place just isn't the same.

Video time! I couldn't do a post on lunch without including the greatest skit in television comedy history - Monty Python's "Spam":

This next one isn't about the meal itself, but rather it's by the singer Lydia Lunch. Lydia came out of the late '70s American punk movement out of New York City, which also gave us Blondie, Television, The New York Dolls, and others, and which pretty much grew out of Andy Warhol's projects, the main inspiration of the movement being The Velvet Underground and, oddly enough, Laurie Anderson. Lydia's music started out very much Punk, but slowly morphed into out-and-out avant garde. This piece, "Touch My Evil", is an example of the latter.

And last but not least, nobody my age can ever forget the Campbell's Soup "Soup and Sandwich" commercial. Admit it; every time you hear Ol' Blue Eyes start to sing "Love and Marriage" you hear the words as "Soup and sandwich, soup and sandwich..." Whoever their ad agency was back then were sheer genius. Enjoy

Photos & text © 2010 by A. Roy Hilbinger