La Salle alumnae Ashley Mills (Class of 2004) is a relatively recent graduate of George Washington University who has returned from the Washington, D.C. area and is planning to go to law school – hopefully at either Northwestern in Chicago or at the University of Southern California – but while she waits to take the LSAT she has taken a familiar family path and is running a restaurant at the East Greenwich Golf Club.

The golf club is owned by NETECH, and they are currently under a 15 year lease with a private party. “I came back to Rhode Island in March of 2009, got off the plane and came directly to the Links Tavern (as the small bar and grille at East Greenwich Golf Club was called last spring),” said the former president of the La Salle student council.  “I know the person who holds the lease, so here I am the general manager – witnessing a massive renovation and operating a restaurant, Bistro 9, named for the nine-hole course.”

While Ashley did not earn a degree in restaurant management, she comes from a family that has significant knowledge of the food business as her father owns a coffee roasting company that supplies many restaurants in New England. Ashley began working for the family business at age fourteen, becoming the fifth generation to take on the company.  She also has been a waitress in several restaurants.

“When I arrived, it was pretty much a sandwich, pizza and other pub food café.  But that is not the vision of the lease holder” said Ashley.  “He envisioned an upscale-casual restaurant that could compete with the fine dining found in East Greenwich. The first step in getting there was to undergo a physical transformation that had just begun when I arrived and that we plan to have completed by Thanksgiving.”

Ashley said that even before the reconstruction started they had several events and parties booked.

“We have parties booked for two years out.  We hosted a wedding rehearsal dinner which blossomed into several more parties,” she said as construction workers and those coming off the golf course took up much of the dining area that is being transformed into a truly handsome bistro. “The size of the restaurant is deceptive.  We had a Lyme Disease fundraising dinner here this summer and we easily accommodated more than 90 people.”

The restaurant, Bistro 9, offers different menus – sandwiches, salads and starters for the golfing lunch crowd and an Italian cooking-dominated fare at night.  The restaurant also offers an excellent wine list and Ashley is offering La Salle Alumni and all faculty and staff a 15 percent discount with proof of ID (either school ID or the La Salle Alumni ID card).

“We have a surprisingly large number of La Salle alums who come for lunch and dinner,” she said.  “The include graduates from the 1940s right up through 2009.  And we employed a few La Salle graduates this summer from 2004 and 2007, some who are still with us.”

As for her future in law, Ashley says that while she looks forward to the LSATs, she has places she wants to go before beginning law school. 

“I studied abroad in San Jose, Costa Rica and loved it.  I have thought about moving to South America and teaching English,” she said.  “And while I enjoy what I am doing for the moment, I love change and a new challenge so at some point, I’ll move on to something else.

Asked about her years at La Salle, Ashley talked about Mr. Martin (“my class dean”) and Mr. Kavanagh and Mrs. Donohue-Lynch and Brother Lewis Nash and being in the Lasallian Youth and Harvard Model United Nations.

About her long-range plans, she said “Politics took me to D.C. and maybe someday I’ll revisit that arena.”

Ashley can be reached at bistro9.eg@gmail.com or by phone at 401-398-1875.  To see the Bistro 9 menu click here