Everything You Need to Know about Newport’s 2nd Annual Mac and Cheese Smackdown

By: Sarah DeWolfe | Co-Editor in Chief

Last Saturday, the Newport Winter Festival hosted the 2^nd Annual Mac and Cheese Smackdown and it was everything a mac and cheese lover like myself could have wanted in an afternoon. I walked around a ballroom for two hours devouring portions of the best mac this part of Rhode Island has to offer-and I wasn’t disappointed. At the end of the day only one mac and cheese claimed my number one spot, but below I have ranked each restaurant’s dish so fellow mac enthusiasts can go forth and eat their hearts out.

(Disclaimer: due to sheer volume of mac and cheese enthusiasts at the event, at times I was physically unable to make it to the vendor to try their creation. I also am not a fan of seafood, so the lobster mac and cheese was left out of my deliberations. Sorry!)

#17. Family Ties Restaurant, 221 Main Road Tiverton, Rhode Island

Hamburger Mac and Cheese

You’ve probably heard of a mac and cheese burger, but what about hamburger mac and cheese? Family Ties brought their A-game to this smackdown-along with four different types of mac and cheese. Their hamburger mac and cheese brought together a combination of foods unmatched in the comfort food category. I mean this in the best of ways, but if I was hungover on a Sunday morning this is the mac and cheese I would want by my side. There was really nothing wrong with this dish (perhaps it was a victim to being on the back nine of my mac and cheese tour) but in a room filled with the best mac in Newport, someone had to land at the bottom of my list.

#16. Speakeasy Bar and Grille, 250 Thames Street Newport, Rhode Island

Vegetarian Walnut

This was the mac and cheese that surprised me the most. Sure, it looked like mac and cheese, but the word “vegetarian” always gets me. I am the farthest thing from vegetarian, but this mac proved to me that it can be rewarding to look at the vegetarian options on the menu. The ricotta cheese gave it the creaminess mac and cheese deserves, while the fried onions provided the necessary texture and taste to step it up from regular mac. Honestly, I didn’t even notice the walnuts. But what I did notice was the spinach. Overall, the combo of flavors and textures in this dish only added to the experience. But I guess I was looking for that classic mac taste.

#15. Family Ties Restaurant, 221 Main Road Tiverton, Rhode Island

Buffalo Mac and Cheese

Family Ties also entered their take on buffalo mac and cheese into the ring, and I’m glad they did. It ranks on the lower end of the buff macs on this list because it was buffalo mac-nothing more and nothing less. It had the delicious flavor you’d expect, but nothing made it stand out from the crowd. All in all, if you ever head over to Family Ties (which I plan on doing very soon) you can’t go wrong with this dish as your entrée.

#14. Antonio’s Pizza by the Slice, 150 Connell Highway Newport, Rhode Island

Mac and Cheese Pizza

Bless Antonio’s for swooping in with this divine creation. Pizza, but with mac and cheese ??? !!! There are barely words, but I’ll try to find some. Any nontraditional form of eating mac and cheese is okay in my book. Imagine going in for a bite of pizza, and being met with cheesy, creamy mac and cheese ON TOP OF that pizza. Need I say more? Sure, it’s a little unorthodox and you can just order a cheese pizza like a ~mortal~ or you can assert yourself as a God and order this. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

#13. Caleb and Broad, 162 Broadway Newport, Rhode Island

Smoked Mac and Cheese with Pulled Pork

My friend (whom I brought with me for emotional support) (and are you really a friend if you don’t invite them into a mac and cheese coma with you?) can attest that I started drooling when I heard the MC say pulled pork mac and cheese. At first bite, this mac had an interesting flavor that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. That’s when I realized it was the smokiness of the cheese that was tricking my taste buds. The delicious pulled pork was just the cherry on top of a fine mac and cheese from Caleb and Broad.

#12. Tipsy Toboggan Fireside Pub, 75 Ferry Street Fall River, Massachusetts

5 Cheese Mac and Cheese

When I think back to this mac delivered by Tipsy Toboggan, I think of how grateful we should be that someone decided to try multiple cheeses in this one dish. Although I don’t know all the cheeses in this mac, I don’t really care. It was the bomb.com. If the flow of the crowd wasn’t pushing me towards the next vendor I would have gone back for seconds. It was cheesy, it was creamy, and it had all the qualities mac and cheese is supposed to have. I hear when you dine there you can even add fried chicken *faints*.

#11. Gulf Stream Bar and Grille, 1 Lagoon Road Portsmouth, Rhode Island

Cajun Mac and Cheese with Fried Pork Belly

Once again, I heard someone say there’d be pork and I got excited. But this mac surpassed everything I thought I was excited about. First, it was Cajun mac and cheese. I LOVE Cajun spice. It wasn’t too overpowering either and was just loud enough where you knew it was on its own level of flavor. Then as if that wasn’t enough, they added fried pork belly on top. JUST. WOW. I would have eaten a plate of just the pork. But when I took a bite with the two together, I genuinely shed a tear. I would describe the experience as the mac and cheese slapping you in the face, and the pork belly offering you some ice after. I’m not sure if that made sense, but if you tried it you’d know.

#10. Speakeasy Bar and Grille, 250 Thames Street Newport, Rhode Island

Classic Mac and Cheese

I believe this was the first mac and cheese I tried that afternoon. It set high expectations for the competition with its classic taste on the mac I came to eat in the first place. If I was sitting at home on a cold winter day, this is what I’d want to be eating. Just to be clear I would also bring this to the beach and eat it. It was that good.

#9. Blount Fine Foods

White Cheddar Mac and Cheese

This mac tricked me, but we had a good laugh at the end. I felt a familiarity with this mac and cheese at first bite with the creaminess and shell-shaped pasta. Then the vendor said it: this is Panera mac and cheese!!! Blount Fine Foods retails this mac to our favorite artisan bread chain and lunch spot. There’s not a lot I can say about this other than I get this every time I go to Panera; gotta stay loyal. If It ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

#8. One Bellevue at the Hotel Viking, 1 Bellevue Avenue Newport, Rhode Island

Mac and Cheese with Bacon

What can I say, I’m a sucker for the classics. This mac and cheese was up front about what it brought to the smackdown, and that was a deliciously cheesy mac topped with toasted bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and bacon. Although it didn’t register on the creamy-cheese-sauce scale (everyone has one of those, right?) it won me over with its simplistic yet flavorful take.

#7. Localz, 657 Park Avenue Portsmouth, Rhode Island

Buffalo Mac and Cheese

This was the first buffalo mac of the afternoon that I had the pleasure of tasting, and it was a classic take on a fan favorite. It had this undeniably homemade flavor to it that made me feel like I was eating a Sunday night family dinner. Overall, it had charmed me into ranking it in my top buffalo mac and cheeses with it’s reliable buffalo tang and evergreen cheesy quality.

#6. Tipsy Toboggan, 75 Ferry Street Fall River, Massachusetts

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

The reason I have this mac ranked high above all the other buffalo mac and cheese dishes is because of one overlooked detail: chicken. This buffalo mac was dreamy in its own right, but its spot in heaven was secured when I found a big, tender piece of breaded buffalo chicken in the mix. This alone made such a huge difference in my opinion of this buffalo mac. Maybe it was a refreshing change from the standard buffalo macs I had been testing all afternoon, but the addition of actual chicken in the sample cups was the amount of dedication I was looking for from Tipsy Toboggan.

#5. Tavern in the Square, 115 Hillside Road Cranston, Rhode Island

4 Cheese Mac with Farm Cream and Potato Chip Crumb Topping

Again, I felt blessed to have been eating another mac with multiple cheeses, and the addition of the farm cream made a noticeable difference in the creaminess. When I say this mac and cheese was thick, I mean it was THICC. It was the kind of thick that made me full after just a few bites, but I didn’t come to a mac and cheese smackdown to play it safe. The cherry on top was replaced by-wait for it-potato chip crumble. It lent the perfect amount of crispiness to cut through the thickness of the cheese sauce.

#4. Gurney’s Newport, 1 Goat Island Newport, Rhode Island

Grilled Chicken and Roasted poblano with Cinco Queso Mac and Cheese

Gurney’s, the host with the most, brought their own unique take on the classic comfort food. There was one thing I didn’t love about their mac, and that was the topping. I’m still not actually sure if the crunchy strips they added were roasted poblanos or fried potatoes or something else, but they were a little chewy and distracting from the harmony of the rest of the mac. Despite that, the mac and cheese itself was so, so good. It almost had a homemade quality, if homemade means being a trained five-star chef. I actually felt like I had experienced a loss when the mac in the little sample cup was gone.

#3. Winner Winner, 677 Thames Street Newport, Rhode Island

Classic Mac and Cheese

I made sure to stay impartial in my deliberations because there are few things I take more seriously than mac and cheese. One of those things is fried chicken. And although Winner Winner has arguable the best fried chicken I’ve ever had in my life (and I’ve had a lot) I had to clear my mind and focus on the mac. Thankfully, they also know how to do mac and cheese, because the mac they served was delightful. There was some sort of spice added that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but it helped cut through the thickness of the cheese just enough to keep you from getting full. Not only did they give a generous topping of toasted bread crumbs, but this was the only mac of the night that had a genuine cheese pull. Like, at least a foot long. It. Was. Awesome. That’s the only surefire way to measure cheese in any of its forms, and the cheese pull at Winner Winner is the real deal.

#2. Localz, 657 Park Avenue Portsmouth, Rhode Island

Classic Mac and Cheese

This mac and cheese was one of the firsts ones I had tried, and I thought it too good to be true. Up until I tried my true #1, I was convinced that this was the one. No one else even came close to the feeling eating this mac gave me. Like, I literally was transported to my kitchen at home where I was eating a hefty bowl of truly homemade mac and cheese with a glass of milk in my pajamas, not a care in the world except when to go back for seconds. Their buffalo mac had similar qualities, but the classic and perfect execution of this mac was undeniable.

#1. Mainsail at the Newport Marriot, 25 America’s Cup Avenue Newport, Rhode Island

Smoked Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

Alright, here goes. This one came out of nowhere. Like I said, Local Z had my top spot from the beginning, but this mac from the Mainsail Restaurant blew me away. I didn’t think my vote would go to a buffalo mac in a room filled with so many variations of the classic mac, but here we are. I think the difference-maker here was that not only did it have that smoky flavor, but they had sliced prosciutto, AND multiple cheeses, AND fresh gorgonzola cheese, AND more fried prosciutto. All of these components came together to make a perfectly balanced mac that was neither too filling nor overpowering.

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

1^st Place: Mainsail Newport

2^nd Place: Tavern in the Square Cranston

Tie for 3^rd Place: Localz Kitchen & Cocktails and Antonio’s Pizza by the Slice Kitchen & Bar Newport

I would say congrats to the winners, but in a mac and cheese smackdown everybody wins. Now get out there and try these macs for yourself!