The Dish
DINING REVIEW
Audette Classic French cuisine is on the table at a polished restaurant connected to the storied Bouchard Inn in Newport.
MY LOVE FOR FRENCH FOOD is unwavering. Though nearly any cuisine can cuisine Jasmine Watson with the
ABOVE: Beef tartare; chef de
Grand Marnier souffle. OPPOSITE stretch itself from colloquial to elevated, nothing seems to have a spectrum dining room; the unconventional
PAGE FROM TOP: The Audette
quite as wide as traditional French. Caesar salad; escargots served with the Gentian Spark cocktail.
From the comforting flavors of a roast chicken and a wine-laced bourguignon to the dizzying heights of a croquembouche or a layered terrine, it’ s a formidable blueprint for the adaptability of a dinner table. But French cuisine is also deeply, inherently romantic. Maybe it’ s the wine or the staunch and steady flow of butter that suggests, in every bite, that the quickest route to ecstasy is through a well-crafted meal.
In an increasingly casual and swiftly shifting world, however, it’ s a challenge to lure diners into a formal dinner that might take the whole night to reach its crescendo. But the TSK and Mission team( known more formally as The Mission Group)— who have focused largely on steak and burgers in Newport for the better part of a decade— felt certain they could bridge the distance between traditional European cooking and the modern American diner. The restaurant group is run by Anna Burnley, her chef-husband, Tyler, chef Chad Hoffer and his wife, Carmen Ratoi, who has worked for eighteen years at what was Bouchard, then Chanterelle, and now— under Mission ownership— is Audette.
Much of the staff and the dining room remains intact at the seventy-person restaurant attached to Bouchard Inn. The room is neutral— white and beige walls and white leather chairs— save for the modern, eight-person bar that sits just past the doorway in a sleek, midcentury aesthetic.( That vibe extends to the throwback soundtrack that includes a Spanish version of“ These Boots Were Made for Walkin.’”)
146 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I AUGUST 2025