Mother Pizzeria | Italian Restaurant in Newport, RI

Kyle grew up in North Kingstown, RI. His family is from Newport so he spent a lot of time there growing up. His first job was at a local restaurant called Junction Pizzeria working under Chef Walter Slater. While there, Kyle decided to attend Johnson & Wales University and eventually took over as the Head Cook at Junction Pizzeria. Looking for a new challenge he joined the Newport Restaurant group as a cook before moving to Boston to work with O’Donnell at The Salty Pig. After working as a sous chef for a year he was promoted to Executive Chef at The Salty Pig’s sister restaurant, Coda making delicious comfort food. After Coda he moved back to Newport and once again worked for the Newport Restaurant Group, this time as a chef where he helped run The Mooring, 22 Bowens, Smokehouse, and eventually landed at Trio in Narragansett as Executive Chef.  He came on board as the opening Chef at Giusto in 2020 where he stayed until becoming the Chef and Partner of Mother Pizzeria. When Kyle isn’t working and enjoying pizza, he loves to golf and has even built his own computer!

Lauren grew up on Long Island and was fortunate enough to spend summers in Newport with family. Lauren moved to NYC to pursue a degree in photography from FIT along with a minor in shopping. She is a 21 year NYC veteran with a career spanning multiple industries. Her professional life started as a commercial photography producer creating shoots for editorial and advertising clients such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and Nike as well as moonlighting as a nightclub bartender. This led her to fall in love with the hospitality industry and ultimately with a culinary degree in Business & Mgmt from the Institute of Culinary Education.  

Lauren opened and operated a popular Italian wine bar in the West Village called Zampa focusing on small production wines and seasonal dishes. She also went on to expand the business into full service catering and events. After the restaurant fell to an unreasonable rent hike, Lauren stepped away from the business and pursued a career in marketing and advertising. She became a partner in a Brooklyn-based, women-led brand strategy agency Wolf & Wilhelmine as the director of operations for 5 years. This role took her to Asia, Europe and all over the United States helping brands evolve their businesses and marketing strategies. 

With a desire to spend more time in Newport and be back in hospitality, Lauren took an opportunity at Forty 1 North as their events director. From there she met Kevin and Kyle and joined Giusto as part of the opening management team and became the GM in August of 2021. The shared vision Lauren, Kevin and Kyle have for genuine hospitality, superior ingredients and community led purpose led to their partnership (a love for pizza helped too). While her love of fashion has never faltered, her passion for Champagne has almost surpassed it. Ask her to saber a bottle (and eat a white pie) for you sometime! 

Born and raised in Rhode Island, Kevin got his feet wet in hospitality at a young age working in a variety of mom and pop spots throughout high school, gaining experience from dishwasher to pizza cook. It wasn’t until he graduated that he truly stepped into the restaurant industry. Under the mentorship of Chef Walter Slater at Junction Pizzeria in Wickford, Kevin truly fell in love with cooking and the undeniable adrenaline of the kitchen.

While there, Kevin was inspired to enroll in the Johnson & Wales Continuing Education program which afforded him the chance to intern in Italy, an exciting opportunity to connect with his heritage and explore the country’s cuisine. After four months, he returned home to Rhode Island and worked alongside Chef Aaron Edwards at Trattoria del Corso in East Greenwich. Here, Kevin’s love for Italian food blossomed, but after a year he was pulled back to Italy. For two and a half years, Kevin fully immersed himself in Italian cooking and culture working under Chef Lorenzo Polegri at Ristorante Zeppelin in Orvieto, Umbria. Kevin left Italy to work at the Relais & Chateau property, Castle HIll Inn in Newport and then to NYC to work at the Michelin-Starred Del Posto under Chef Mark Ladner. After NYC, Kevin moved to Paris and opened L’Office as Executive Chef where he garnered rave reviews and recognition both locally and internationally for the bistro’s melding of French and Italian cuisine. L’Office earned a Bib Gourmand award in the Michelin Guide, Best New Bistro in Paris by Le Guide Lebey and was featured in American publications such as Bon Appetit and Eater. 

In 2012, Kevin moved back to the States and was the Executive Chef of The Salty Pig in Boston where he developed its pasta and house made charcuterie programs. Three years later he opened his first restaurant called SRV with co-chef and partner Michael Lombardi in the South End of Boston. The Venetian-style Bacaro and wine bar was an immediate success, earning a 4-star review from Boston magazine and a James Beard Award nomination.

Kevin now lives in Rhode Island with his wife, Sarah, and their son Ray. They own Giusto and Kevin is a co-owner of Mother Pizzeria with partners Lauren Schaefer and Kyle Stamps. He serves on the Board of Directors for the RI Hospitality Education Foundation and is a core instructor at Boston University in the Culinary Arts Program founded by Chefs Jacques Pepin and Julia Childs. When Kevin isn’t working, he is usually eating pepperoni pizza and a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. 

Emely grew up in New York, and her passion for baking began in grade school. Making treats for her classes and seeing the happiness it brought pushed her to continue. At 16, she began working in a Conti’s Bakery in the Bronx. There, she worked alongside many people who taught her what it takes to be a baker. She learned how to create fondant characters and cake decorations, inspiring her to branch out in the pastry world. In 2018, she moved to Providence, RI, to study Baking and Pastry at Johnson and Wales University. At JWU, she was exposed to many styles of pastry making, including classic French patisserie, ice cream, and chocolatier-ing, but bread-making ignited her passion. From wheat germs to gluten windows, she found everything exciting and new and dedicated to honing her craft.

She started working at Café Water Street in Warren, RI. There, she made fresh crèpes and coffee to order, as well as small baked goods like scones and muffins. Eventually, opportunity struck, and she began working as the Assistant Pastry Chef at Giusto in Newport in 2021. Being a newbie in the restaurant industry was difficult at first, but with persistence and the right mentors, she thrived. Making fresh focaccia every day for two years, she knew she was ready to do more, and so did her mentors. She had learned so much about the restaurant business and excelled quickly, and one thing led to another. Now she is the Head Baker at Mother, and she LOVES it! Working at Mother allows her to make fresh baguettes and sourdough daily, spin new and original ice creams, and create new recipes for everyone to try! 

In her free time, Emely loves to watch Broadway musicals, play video games with her boyfriend, and cuddle her cats. Her favorite way to enjoy pizza is with pepperoni and a side of ranch, or a honey drizzle

Rene is Haitian American from Long Island, New York. As a child, he loved being a helping hand in the kitchen with his family. He considered himself a strange kid growing up because he would always be watching the Food Network for pure enjoyment while his friends were watching typical kids shows. This made it easy to decide what he wanted to be in the future, a chef. He took the leap of faith and enrolled at Johnson & Wales University for a degree in Culinary Arts where his eagerness to learn was sparked even more. It wasn’t easy leaving his family to follow his passion in the kitchen but he has really made them proud. 

At school, he got his first job on campus at a restaurant called Red Sauce. He spent four years there making great pizza and pasta. Rene did an internship at Basta in 2016 who are Vera Pizza Napoletana certified. At Basta he experienced what true Italian Neapolitan pizza was all about from the chopping of the wood to the stretching of the dough. After graduation he took a job at the fast paced Cheesecake Factory working as a line cook for 2 years. It was here that Rene learned how to move in a restaurant kitchen and worked all of the stations including pasta where he excelled. He then took an opportunity to work at Giusto as the pasta cook. This is where the magic truly started to happen and he felt himself start to blossom. 

Rene has a great palette and really enjoys being creative. Anytime he was in charge of making staff meal for the team at Giusto, he looked at it like a game of Chopped which made everyone very happy. After 2 years working alongside Kyle and Kevin in the kitchen, he was promoted to be the opening sous chef at Mother Pizzeria where he continues to make people happy with his delicious food. Rene’s favorite pizza is a clam pie so if you see one on our menu, you should order it because he probably created it!

Born and raised in Wakefield, Rhode Island, Cailin first caught the restaurant bug when she was 4 years old and her parents opened a French-style bistro named Caylily’s in Wakefield. She spent most of her time after preschool sitting in the kitchen admiring her dad as he prepped for the night ahead. During service she would follow her mom around like a shadow while she ran the dining room with ease. As Cailin grew up she gravitated towards the Front of House first starting out at the Bistro by the Sea in Matunuck and moving on to work at Matunuck Oyster Bar as a Server and Floor Manager. She then moved to work at Giusto where the inclusive family atmosphere ignited the desire to help open Mother with that team.

Cailin has a Business degree and uses that, and her lifelong restaurant experience to help grow the culture at Mother, and elevate our guest’s experience. 

Born in Boston, Nate has spent most of his life in either Quincy or Dorchester, MA. After graduating from Northeastern in 2007 with a degree he had no interest in using, he took his first restaurant job at the age of 22 and for better or for worse quickly caught the hospitality bug. At the Beehive in Boston’s South End, Nate worked his way from food runner to bar manager and eventually to beverage director for the restaurant group. He has since worked in, opened, and designed beverage programs for everything from fine dining restaurants to tiki bars to neighborhood dives. Upon moving to Newport in 2020 after a spontaneous February visit convinced him to finally leave Boston, Nate was thrilled to find a group of people as like-minded and hospitality-focused as the team he met at Giusto. He is equally thrilled with the opportunity to build something new at Mother Pizzeria. In his free time, Nate is constantly in search of the perfect South Shore-style bar pizza.