Posts tagged ‘style’
An Afternoon with Bettie Bearden Pardee, Author of Living Newport: Houses, People, Style
This summer, I was honored to receive an advance copy of Bettie Bearden Pardee’s Living Newport: Houses, People, Style, the third release from the accomplished hostess, community leader and former contributing editor to Bon Appetit.
I eagerly paged through the chapters, which “showcases both the heirs of the old guard who contribute a contemporary 
continuity to traditional Newport and the ‘new’ Newport social set, all of whom bring a vibrant energy to their life here year-round.” More simply, the pages are like peering through the windows of some of Newport’s most legendary homes including Oakwood, Clingstone, The Ledges and arguably the most famed, Hammersmith Farm, known as the “summer White House” during the Kennedy administration. (Considering the number of journalists I have worked with who have unsuccessfully hoped to cover, feature or visit Hammersmith during their stay in Newport, I know what a coup it for Living Newport to feature the home.)
Just last month, following the official release of Living Newport, I was delighted to be invited by Bettie to join her at her Bellevue Avenue home, “Parterre,” for tea and conversation. Amiable and elegant, the author and former host/creative producer of the PBS series The Presidential Palate: Entertaining at the White House, shares an indisputable enthusiasm for the City-by-the-Sea. Knowing readers have a keen curiosity in how private Newport entertains, decorates, celebrates, gardens and dresses, Bettie showcases 17 properties in Living Newport alongside lively personal anecdotes. As one might expect, the book is aesthetically beautiful and exceptionally intriguing—a perfect Christmas or holiday gift. Suffice to say I came to Bettie’s for a casual interview and left with a new friend!
Living Newport: Houses, People, Style, with 224 pages and 188 four-color photographs, is available for $65.00 at Preservation society of Newport County shops ( located at The Breakers, Marble House, The Elms and on Bannister’s Wharf in downtown Newport) and online at NewportStyle.net
Take a peek inside the book with the images below or by CLICKING HERE.
Follow Bettie on her blog by CLICKING HERE.
Hammersmith Farm
Hammersmith Farm
An Enticing Day on Narragansett Bay
Oakwood
The Ledges
It’s a “Mad” Mad World…
If you haven’t been keeping up with the Newport Winter Festival, grown ups may want to make note of tonight’s Samuel Adams Beer Dinner at The Mooring (reservations required, 401-846-2260) and the 11th Annual Martini Contest at Newport Grand.
Funny how a drink holds a certain panache, a signature swagger. The Cosmo clearly has the fictional Carrie Bradshaw and her gaggle of galpals to tank for making the ubiquitous pink potion the official cocktail of Girls Night Out, and while the martini has never really gone out of style, we have Mad 
Men’s Don and Betty Draper to thank for it’s soaring popularity. (Frankly, Betty is being blamed, in the best of ways, for a lot of trends recently, including full, flirty skirts paired with belted waists, and coifed, flipped ‘dos. Wanna get the Portsmouth’s own Cynthia Bogart of TheDailyBasics.com got the fashion scoop from Janie Bryant, the costume designer behind Mad Men. CLICK HERE to read the story).
I must confess, I have Christie’s to thank for reuniting me with the legendary libation. Five dollar martinis seven days a week? It’s no wonder I finally broke down. Their gateway martini was the bevy of fresh and fruity concoctions, but one evening the bartender convinced me to try a standard, shaken not stirred, Beefeater gin martini with a twist, and it was lovely.
They continue to make a great martini, and I adore a Fifth Element gin martini, and espresso renditions from Asterisk, the Clarke Cooke House and the Brick Alley Pub. But we’ll have to wait to tonight to see who Newport thinks does it best…
Mad Men photo courtesy AMC, Sex and the City photo courtesy HBO
