By Paul Grimaldi
Journal staff writer

Newport Restaurant Group is expanding again, adding an East Greenwich location it will operate under the Hemenway's moniker -- the name of the popular Providence seafood restaurant it bought about a year ago.

The restaurant on the East Greenwich waterfront, which will go by Hemenway's Dockside Dining, is the ninth eatery in the Newport company's fold. The new location is in the Water Street spot of the former Table 28 space and is expected to open in mid-June.

The restaurant will have 175 seats and will lease boat slips for use by patrons motoring up Greenwich Cove.

The restaurant group is a division of Newport Harbor Corporation, which was started before World War II and began concentrating on the hospitality business in 1995.

It owns and operates a number of other Rhode Island restaurants, including Castle Hill Inn & Resort, The Mooring Restaurant and 22 Bowens Wine Bar & Grill, all in Newport, as well as the Waterman Grille, in Providence; Trio, in Narragansett; the Boat House, in Tiverton; the Newport Yachting Center and Blackstone Caterers.

Newport Harbor bought Hemenway's Seafood Grill & Oyster Bar, the popular restaurant overlooking the Providence River, in April 2009, from Darden Restaurants Inc., of Orlando, Fla.

Entrepreneur Edward P. "Ned" Grace III, a one-time Rhode Islander, founded Hemenway's. Grace also started the Bugaboo Creek and Capital Grille restaurant chains and owned other restaurants in the Providence area before selling his operation in 1996 to LongHorn Steaks Inc. for $57 million.

LongHorn renamed itself Rare Hospitality International Inc. after the purchase, operating the Bugaboo, Capital Grille and LongHorn chains and other restaurants from its base in Atlanta. Darden acquired Rare in October 2007.