By late October, Newport's Washington Square has usually settled into its shoulder-season quiet — the last sailboats hauled out, the summer crowds thinned to weekenders, the restaurants easing into a slower rhythm. On Sunday, Oct. 25, Stoneacre Brasserie intends to interrupt all of that. Newport OUT, the city's LGBTQ+ events and travel platform, is bringing TRANSylvania to the brasserie: a Halloween drag brunch with an all-trans cast, a two-course prix fixe menu, and a standing invitation to arrive in costume.
Seating runs in staggered waves at 10:30, 10:45 and 11 a.m., with the event itself listed on Newport OUT's calendar as running from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Standard reservations are $60; a "Splash Zone" reservation at $65 adds priority seating. Both include the two-course brunch, the performances and access to $10 drag brunch drink specials. Booking runs through Stoneacre Brasserie on Resy, and parties of six or more are asked to call the restaurant directly at 401-619-7810 to arrange seating and tickets. Newport OUT's event page is explicit about the mechanics: reserve for your full group size, a card holds the table, payment is due the day of, and group changes need 24 hours' notice to avoid a no-show charge. The tone of the listing is equally explicit. "THE DOLLS ARE TAKING OVER STONEACRE," it reads. "Stay for a bite? Newport Out is hosting a deliciously twisted Halloween drag brunch with a few spooky surprises." Costumes, it adds, are always encouraged — "leave your inhibitions at the door."
What makes TRANSylvania notable is not simply that it is a Halloween drag brunch, a format now common enough in New England that most cities of any size host several each October. It is the casting. An all-trans cast is a deliberate curatorial choice rather than a default, and it lands differently in a state whose drag scene has spent the past several years becoming one of the more visible and self-aware in the region. That kind of lineage — performers who were audience members at Providence shows a few years ago now headlining a Halloween brunch in Newport — is part of what the bill represents.
TRANSylvania also fits a pattern Newport OUT has been building deliberately. The organization describes itself as Newport County's LGBTQ+ events and travel platform, creating experiences for residents and visitors through themed events, drag brunches and community gatherings. Over the past year those brunches have become a recurring franchise at Stoneacre, each with its own conceit and its own cast. In July, Newport OUT staged the "'Murica Drag Brunch" at the same address, timed to the country's 250th anniversary and built around what organizers described as Dolly Parton glamour, trailer-park chic and unapologetic camp, hosted by Boston-based entertainer Gigi Glam with Rhode Island performers Kennedy Plaza, Lucy Diamonds and Shania Taint. In September came a White Party Drag Brunch with a strict all-white dress code and a Miami-heat theme, again hosted by Gigi Glam alongside Kennedy Plaza and Shania Taint, with a new queen, Adriana, joining the Newport OUT roster. Earlier in the fall, Newport OUT also ran a "Magical HERstory Tour" — a cannabis-and-cocktails bus tour of Newport hosted by Ninny Nothin and Kennedy Plaza that started with infused drinks at the Brenton Hotel and rolled from Thames Street to Ocean Drive. Ninny Nothin's presence on the TRANSylvania bill, then, is a return engagement of sorts.
The venue is a character in the story too. Stoneacre Brasserie occupies 28 Washington Square, at the heart of Newport's colonial-era downtown. The brasserie's own self-description is of a classic neighborhood restaurant, elevated: a seasonal menu sourced from local farmers, butchers and fishermen, prepared with what it calls an approachable but decidedly French twist, and a wine list leaning on boutique French producers. It is, in other words, an unlikely-feeling host for a Halloween drag show — which is precisely the appeal. The room's European-cafe polish against a spooky, costume-clad crowd is the joke, and the point.
There is a broader context worth naming. Newport has long marketed itself as a wedding and tourism destination with a genteel, Gilded Age sheen, and Aquidneck Island's LGBTQ+ community has spent the better part of a decade building its own institutions alongside that image — Newport Pride has been creating what it calls a safe space on the island since 2017, and Newport OUT has positioned itself specifically at the intersection of local community and LGBTQ+ travel, pitching Newport County as a welcoming haven for travelers under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. Drag brunches are a shrewd vehicle for that mission: ticketed, repeatable, easy to slot into a weekend visit, and social enough that a table of strangers becomes a room. The themed format — White Party, 'Murica, now TRANSylvania — gives each installment a reason to exist beyond "drag brunch again," and gives returning guests something new to dress for.
For TRANSylvania, that means Halloween costumes in a French brasserie at 10:30 on a Sunday morning, a two-course brunch, ten-dollar drink specials, and a cast that Newport OUT has assembled specifically because every performer on it is trans. The organization promises a few spooky surprises it has not specified. Reservations are live on Resy, and given that Newport OUT's previous brunches have sold out, the practical advice is the obvious one: book early, book for your whole party, and if you are coming in costume, come early enough to be seen.