Photo: Michael Derr
The quest for amazing Southern barbecue is one which many barbecue lovers embark on at some point during their lives. While many pilgrims land at barbecue meccas like St. Louis, Memphis, or Kansas City, others find the culinary treasures they seek on roads less traveled, at unassuming, nontraditional, or hole-in-the-wall establishments.
To assuage pandemic burnout, South Kingstown’s Nicole and Peter Paliotti, along with their son Ben, 19, and daughter Sydney, 12, took a chance and purchased The Flatts of Peace Dale at 501 High Street in Wakefield.
The business of the restaurant appeared long-neglected, and the level of patronage had dwindled to disappointing lows. Upon rescuing the dying local business, the Paliottis had one goal in mind: to elevate the restaurant to excellence.
Once they assumed ownership in May 2021, the couple changed the name to Flatts Smokehouse, and immediately got to work. After a deep dive into the restaurant’s menu offerings and preparation processes, the pair determined that some of the restaurant’s items simply did not work.
After a period of testing and trials, often soliciting the opinions of patrons along the way, Flatts menu items evolved into their current forms, marked by tangible taste and quality improvements.
“We’ve put a ton of time and effort and energy into bringing it up to a really high-level dining experience for the type of food we serve,” Pete Paliotti explained.
"We have always wanted to own and operate our own small business," said Nicole Paliotti, originally of North Smithfield, who has an undergraduate degree in hospitality management. “It’s been a whirlwind. It’s been an adventure – a lot of time and effort just trying to bring it back to life.”
Paliotti noted that the restaurant had suffered before its sale and that those who had patronized the restaurant before it changed hands have been making their way back slowly by word of mouth from those who have happened in over the past two years.
The Paliottis are not loyal to any particular style of barbecue, instead offer a selection of barbecue elements.
“It’s like a hybrid,” Pete said. “We pull stuff in that we like and make it all taste delicious.”
One customer favorite, the couple shared, is their vinegar-based coleslaw. Another enduring favorite is the cornbread.
Along with elevating menu items like its beef brisket, pulled pork, ribs, and chicken, the Paliottis have also stepped up the restaurant’s drink game, offering a large selection of local draft beers and an ever-evolving cocktail and mocktail menu. Nicole Paliotti says she created a kids’ menu as well, which was not present in the restaurant’s last iteration.
Their macaroni and cheese ‘mac bowls’ offer elevated twists on the classic, like ‘Dick’s Mac n’ Meat,’ which adds pulled pork, the ‘Chili Mac Bowl,’ which adds either vegetarian or their classic hearty chili and is topped with corn chips, and the ‘Dirty Bird Bowl,’ which adds chicken, Buffalo sauce, bleu cheese crumbles and Cool Ranch Doritos.
Perfecting the mac and cheese was an arduous process, though, Nicole shared. When they first took over, they said the mac and cheese kept coming back to the kitchen.
“We’d talk to people, and the feedback wasn’t the best,” Nicole said.
So they worked on a second version, continued to canvas their guests, and finally landed on a third version that seems to be a hit with young and old alike.
The biggest change to Flatts Smokehouse since its opening — despite the massive evolution that’s taken place since 2021 — was the installment of Chef Brian Carlone, who has run kitchens from Newport to Maryland. Carlone came to Flatts in December of 2022 and has been putting his signature touches on each menu item.
Carlone has not only tweaked menu items to maximize the excellence of dishes leaving the kitchen, but he has also introduced the Paliottis to new vendors and increased the frequency of fresh food deliveries.
The restaurant touts a wide variety of vegetarian food, ranging from Buffalo cauliflower to Beyond Meat burgers to their wildly popular avocado fries.
“You can bring a vegetarian in here and they’re gonna walk out with a big smile on their face,” Peter Paliotti said.
Carlone continues to support menu development and the quality of foods served to guests.
“It is my hope to give this place new life with new owners and build a reputation in this community,” Carlone said.
Consistency is very important to Carlone, and he has been achieving this with the quality of the meats offered.
“We started injecting the meat with spices and apple juice and vinegar to enhance the flavors,” he shared.
Carlone explained he is excited to begin offering rice bowls in time for summer, which are still in development.
“One is going to be a Korean beef with kimchee and sesame rice,” he explained, “one is going to be a Santa Fe bowl with pork, avocado, and pico de gallo, and the other will be a fish with a ginger garlic rice.”
“One of the things that Brian has brought,” Pete said, “is his willingness to go that extra mile and be open to new ideas.”
Carlone shared that working with the Paliottis at Flatts Smokehouse benefits him in two ways.
“One, cooking is my passion, and two, after having met them, I just felt comfortable that we would be able to communicate and work together,” Carlone said.
And it seems the restaurant has finally begun to hit its stride.
“Our servers like it, too,” Pete said. “They come, they make fantastic money, and they can have a completely free life outside of it.”
The Paliottis, both employed full-time outside Flatts, are committed to ensure all of their staff maintain a healthy work-life balance.
They said that after a few years of running the business, they’ve found dedicated and reliable staff which has helped the couple step back from full-time hands-on operation to focus on their other work and family.
Their current staff also happens to include their 19-year-old son, Ben, who has assumed second command in the kitchen as well as handling many other tasks.
“My position is basically an all-around position,” Ben said. “Some nights I’ll come in and I’ll dishwash. Other nights, I’ll come in and I’ll help cook. And some nights I’m doing both.”
He says he helps out with supply runs, maintenance, and repairs as well.
Another hardworking member of the Paliotti family, Ben comes into the restaurant after working another job.
Having worked in restaurants since age 13, Ben admitted he was not enthused when he first heard his family was buying the restaurant.
“I had only ever worked in restaurants growing up, so I really didn’t want anything to do with a restaurant,” he explained.
As the restaurant and menu evolved, and praise began to roll in about the menu items, Ben began to change his mind.
“If I were just working at a random restaurant that was winning an award or something, I really wouldn’t think about it too much,” he said, “But I guess the fact that my family owns it, I take more pride in it. It’s more important now.”
The shared ownership and convivial atmosphere appeared to spread to Flatts’ current staff, allowing the whole family a more stress-free experience.
“My parents have definitely not had to worry about it as much because I took some work off their hands. And we have a good staff — a good, reliable staff,” he said.
One thing Ben noted he’s learned since taking on leadership at Flatts is pivoting and continuing to move forward when something goes wrong.
“When something goes wrong or there’s an inconvenience, I just kind of set everything to the side and just work on resolving it rather than being bitter, fussing, or adding more confusion.”
The lessons Ben has learned will serve him well in pursuing his dream of becoming a business owner when he is older.
Flatts bartender Holly Brunelli, who started at Flatts under previous ownership, echoes similar sentiments about the nature of her workdays.
“It’s a fun, happy atmosphere and environment to work,” she said.
Brunelli runs her own business, a travel agency, and bartends at Flatts once a week. She says her favorite menu items are the Roasted Brussels and Spinach Grain Salad and the Bleu Cow burger.
Of Carlone, the new chef, Brunelli said, “He’s excellent. He’s doing a great job. I think he’s fitting in perfectly.”
Flatts has folded nicely into the Peace Dale community by joining the Southern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce right away and being a good steward of their neighborhood.
Both Paliottis explained that they close the restaurant at 10 p.m. — sometimes earlier — so as not to disturb their neighbors.
The restaurant has been offering a trivia night hosted by DJ Trivia on Wednesday evenings, which draws repeat customers, and they have been inviting local musicians in to perform on Friday or Saturday nights.
On Tuesday nights, Flatts offers $3 tacos and $6 margaritas.
They also hold fundraisers.
The Paliottis hosted an evening for a beloved local beverage distributor who was diagnosed with cancer and recently catered an event for the South Kingstown and Narragansett Police Departments coordinated by the chaplain of both orders, St. Thomas More Church’s Fr. Marcel Taillon.
“Everybody loved it,” Taillon said.
Taillon also noted that he brought six seminarians visiting from North Dakota to Flatts and, “they said it was the best food of their trip.”
Though working together at a family business can sometimes be a challenge, Ben shared, “It’s honestly been very smooth.”
The Paliottis hope to scale the business appropriately, and while Nicole is content keeping the place “a local gem,” Pete says he would not rule out an expansion sometime down the road.