In 1946 George and Nina Sunderland paid $10,000 for a magnificent Victorian home on eight acres of waterfront property in Tiverton, Rhode Island. The 1870s-era house, sited high up on a knoll above Nannaquaket Pond, offered pleasant views of lush woods and a quaint little cove—just perfect for the new restaurant they had in mind.
Two years later, in 1948, they opened Sunderland’s, which for nearly 40 years would reign as Tiverton’s top special-occasion restaurant. In the beginning, Mrs. Sunderland ran the kitchen; Mr. Sunderland tended bar. For $1.50 you could get a fried-clam dinner, complete with New England clam chowder, salad, homemade ice-cream cake, and coffee, and for $3.50 you could get broiled live lobster with the same accompaniments. Cocktails were 55 cents.
“We had regular customers who would all talk to each other,” Nancy Manchester, who for many years was the restaurant’s hostess, recalled in 1996. “You could look around the dining rooms and the same people would be sitting at the same tables every Sunday.”
In 1987 the Sunderlands sold the restaurant that bore their name, and over the next decade it would be sold, resold, and fall into foreclosure proceedings. At one point there were plans to renovate the restaurant and reopen it as the Nannaquaket Inn, but they fell through, and the property went on the auction block in 1994. In May 1996 it became the Here & Now Tea Room, but later that year Judith Galloway bought the property for $175,000 and made it the new home for her gift and antiques shop, Past & Presents Place, which had been located a few miles to the south.
By then George and Nina Sunderland had passed away, but a reporter for the local newspaper tracked down Martha MacNaught, their only child. “About everybody in town worked there, or ate there, or both,” she recalled in an interview. “So I’m glad to see the building being taken care of. That was my home.”
In just a few years, however, the property that once was home to Sunderland’s was again back on the market. It sat vacant until 2017, when Stephen and Sandra Porridge bought it for $300,000 and converted the historic building into the Gathering Place Church.
Tiverton’s two other fine-dining venues—the Stone Bridge Inn and the Coachmen Restaurant—have also disappeared.
Here’s the recipe for the Indian Pudding that was served at Sunderland’s.
Indian Pudding
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Loading...Ingredients
- Butter, for the baking dish
- 4 cups whole milk
- 3 tablespoons Rhode Island cornmeal (see note)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2/3 cup (1 5-ounce can) evaporated milk
- Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for garnish
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 2-quart baking dish.
In a large double boiler, scald the milk (i.e., heat until small bubbles form).
In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, and salt. Gradually stir in the molasses, scalded milk, and evaporated milk.
Pour mixture into prepared pan, then place in a larger baking dish or roasting pan. Transfer to oven and carefully pour water into the larger dish until it comes about halfway up the sides of the smaller baking dish. Bake until pudding is set, but still jiggles slightly in the center, about 1 hour. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Serves 6-8
Notes
Two sources for Rhode Island stone-ground cornmeal are Kenyon's Grist Mill, in West Kingston, and Gray's Grist Mill in Westport, Massachusetts. Only that particular strain, a locally grown, hard, amber-colored flint corn, can be called Rhode Island corn. (A law passed in 1940 sets a $100 fine for mislabeling corn.) Rhode Island white cap has a high oil content and a nutty flavor. Experts say it is the only true strain of native corn surviving in New England. It was the most common corn crop in the state through World War I, and continued to be popular through the 1940s, Pieri said. .
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