Guess who came to dinner?

Good day dear readers. I'm Gail Ciampa, Journal food and dining editor.

It's been a big week for restaurant news in Rhode Island. But none is sweeter than hearing that native son and celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse returned home to Southern New England on a mission in his role as a restaurateur.

Emeril's Portuguese childhood in Fall River included cooking with his mother, whom he called her Miss Hilda, and working in a Portuguese bakery. It led him to a culinary education at Johnson & Wales University University. He chose food over music as he had a New England Conservatory of Music scholarship offer as well.

After graduation, he headed to Cape Cod where he became executive chef at Dunfey's Hyannis Resort in 1979. His skills were recognized nationally and in 1982, Emeril became chef at Commander's Palace in New Orleans. Who did he succeed? Only the famous chef Paul Prudhomme.

The South became his home base with New Orleans his center. He opened his first restaurant Emeril's there in 1990. Over the past 33 years, he has opened more than 20 restaurants across the United States. Of course, he also starred on cooking shows, wrote a ton of cookbooks and even had his own sitcom, "Emeril" on NBC in 2001. He also won a James Beard award.

His Emeril Group currently operates four restaurants in New Orleans, two in Las Vegas, one in Miramar Beach, Florida, and three on cruise ships. They reflect an assortment of concepts from seafood to steak house, Cajun to Asian.

It is only now, Emeril is preparing to open a casual Portuguese restaurant in downtown New Orleans. He came home to New England research the food of his youth and see what works in restaurants today.

His first stop was O Dinis, run by Natalia Paiva-Neves in East Providence. Natalia talks about all the food she made for Emeril and his team of chefs and operation managers. Click here to read my story.

There's no better spot to get a taste of the Azores and Portugal than O Dinis. He returned on Monday night to have a lineup of classic Portuguese sandwiches.

Over the weekend, he also went to Sagres restaurant in Fall River and the city's Portugalia, the fabulous market everyone should visit.

Back in 2003, I went to one of Emeril's newly opened restaurants in Orlando, Florida when I was on vacation with my family. It was in the Royal Pacific Resort. The hotel was a tropical re-creation of a spot in the South Pacific, circa World War II, with period touches like an amphibious plane, sitting abandoned in a lagoon. Hotels, and restaurants, are theatre in resort areas.

Emeril's restaurant was just as dramatic and themed to the hotel. Named Tchoup Chop, the dramatic design featured an indoor pool as a dining room centerpiece. The menu was a big change for Emeril. It broke with his popular Cajun themes, instead featuring Asian and Polynesian cuisine.

It was bigger than life, from the lily pads floating in the middle of the restaurant to the lush plants to fishing nets hung over tables. The chef called it a fusion of "atmosphere, food and service."

It got its name from Tchoupitoulas Street, home to Lagasse's original restaurant in New Orleans, and the simple culinary term, "chop."

From Chinese food take-out boxes with prawn chips replacing bread baskets to blazing orange, blue and purple colors all around, the place screamed hot tropics. Drinks included the Pago Pago, a frozen mojito.

That visit to Tchoup Chop made me ask when New England might be treated to an Emeril restaurant. The answer was no, plans for a Northeast expansion were not on the table.

Family ties

Emeril's 21 year old son E.J. who also went to JWU, will work with him on the new Portuguese restaurant to be named 34 Restaurant & Bar.

The number in the name reflects that father and son are the 3rd and 4th Emeril Lagasses. The celebrity chef's father was Emeril Jr. It should open late summer or fall in New Orleans. Roadtrip?

Brewstillery

Did you notice all the construction going on in Newport on six acres to build a bigger better Newport Brewing & Distilling at 293 JT Connell Highway? It's been underway for more than four years. Now they are ready to unveil the results.

Newport Brewing has a new 200-seat taproom, an outdoor beer garden for 150 and furnished event spaces that can be configured in different ways. Some come with that bridge view. An inside event can fit 200. They are installing an outdoor tent that can accommodate 800 people. There will also be a storage container as a permanent bar.

There's so much more to read here about this new destination in the North End of Newport.

May Breakfast season

Rhode Island's May Breakfasts start in April and several are this weekend.

What's on the menu? At Oak Lawn Community Baptist Church, it's the same as it was for the first one, said Julie Ellison. They serve scrambled eggs, ham, clam cakes, cornbread, coffee, juice and apple pie. Yes, there are clam cakes, deep fried for the breakfast. The crowd loves them, even at 7 a.m.

Jonnycakes made with grain from local grist mills used to be on many menus. This year only two (Chepachet Union Church and First Baptist Church of East Greenwich) will serve the iconic Rhode Island food.

Here's my story.

Sale pending

The Brick Alley Pub is under agreement, being sold by the Plumb family to Heritage Restaurant Group.

Here are the details.

That's all for now dear readers. Seize the spring days. See you back here next week.