Narragansett council renews Boone Street Market liquor license with new outdoor curfew after months of neighborhood complaints

The Narragansett Town Council on Oct. 20 approved the renewal of Boone Street Market’s Class B victualing alcohol license after a lengthy public hearing in which neighbors gave detailed accounts of repeated late‑night noise, parking problems and safety concerns.

Neighbors said the restaurant’s summer crowds regularly produce high noise levels late at night and that existing monitoring and enforcement have not restored residents’ quality of life. The council approved the license renewal with conditions requiring that outdoor amplified sound, including music and televisions, end at 10 p.m.; outdoor live music (already restricted by prior condition) remains limited to 9 p.m.; the south/outdoor patio must stop business at 11:30 p.m. and the business must close outdoor windows at that time; the establishment may remain open for indoor service until 1 a.m.

The vote followed more than three hours of sworn testimony from residents who live adjacent to Boone Street Market and from the owner and her consultants. Mark Crook, identified himself as a neighborhood representative, said the late‑night crowds had made parts of the neighborhood “unlivable.” “This is not a situation that is an inconvenience. This is far more than an inconvenience,” Crook told the council during the public hearing.

Residents presented noise logs and videos they gathered over the past year. One resident said citizen and police decibel measurements documented readings between roughly 62 and 71 decibels after 10 p.m., above the town’s residential guideline cited by residents. Police Chief Kyle Rekas reported that the police department had recorded noise readings and handled calls at the location; he told the council the department has taken readings that were both below and above the town threshold and that the department had not issued a citation to the business for noise at the time of his remarks.

Boone Street Market representatives said they have taken multiple steps to address problems, including hiring paid police details, increasing security, changing pickup and employee parking plans and engaging engineering and acoustical consultants. Seth Lemoine, a professional engineer working with the restaurant’s team, described plans for a louvered pergola and movable sound curtain panels intended “to help contain the noise within the property.” Lemoine said the project had required additional survey, structural calculations and zoning relief and that those steps had lengthened the timeline.

Owner Lindsay Holmes told the council the restaurant has hired acoustic consultants and a structural firm to design a combination pergola and sound curtain that she says is intended to reduce sound. “We have been making tons of little changes,” Holmes said, listing paid police detail, an employee shuttle and parking arrangements as examples. She also said she paid for two paid officers on busy nights.

Council discussion emphasized both the business’s popularity and residents’ repeated complaints. Council members said they expected the agreed restrictions to be revisited if the engineering work is completed and shown to reduce noise. The motion to approve the Boone Street Market renewal, as amended with the new restrictions, was moved and seconded on the council floor and carried with one councilor announcing opposition during roll call; the council did not record a roll‑call of individual yes/no votes in the public record beyond those statements.

The council also asked staff to continue to pursue a townwide update to the noise ordinance to make enforcement clearer and more effective for situations like this one. Town Manager Jim Tierney and the police chief said they planned to return to the council with draft ordinance language in coming weeks.

The council did not approve or endorse any specific engineering design in the hearing; Holmes and the restaurant team said they would continue local permitting and zoning steps for the pergola and sound curtain and that they would return to the council and the public with results and, if needed, further operational changes.

If the new restrictions fail to reduce neighborhood impacts, council members said the renewal could be revisited in a future hearing.