Newport Creamery
The Newport Creamery is a restaurant chain which is a division of the Jan Companies. It originated in 1928 as a wholesale milk business in Newport, Rhode Island. The Creamery survived the Great Depression emerging as a retail operation owned by one of its original partners, Samuel M. Rector.
In 1949, the Newport Creamery's ice cream and food-manufacturing plant was opened along with a second restaurant in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Over the next decades, several restaurants were opened throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The Jan Companies purchased Newport Creamery in 2001 after the Creamery's previous owners declared bankruptcy and closed several locations. With 14 current locations, the Jan Companies own and operate 12 Rhode Island locations, and 2 in Massachusetts.
While best known for their ice cream, Newport Creamery restaurants also offer a variety of lunch and dinner items, such as burgers, sandwiches, seafood, and ice cream-based beverages, including the infamous "Awful Awful." While an Awful Awful is simply a thick milkshake, it is the Oreo Awful Awful which is its claim to fame.