After the army, Stewart cooks up new career

Heavenly Eats feeds hungry travelers By Pamela Chergotis Woodbury —After 21 years in the army, Ralph Stewart has found a new career high up on Route 6, where commuters can pull off for a bird’s-eye view of Woodbury and get a bite to eat. It’s his business, Heavenly Eats, a truck from which Stewart feeds hundreds of hungry travelers every spring, summer, and fall. “This guy’s the best,” said John Flynn of Middletown, who pulled in for a hot dog and soda. “Very clean, very sociable. Everything’s fresh.” The cars move by fast, and food is served up fast too. Stewart’s truck has a fryer, grill, and oven, where he makes everything from hot dogs — his customers’ favorite choice — to hamburgers, sausages, chili, sandwiches, and fried chicken. He runs a catering business out of the truck and can make dishes to order. He donates hot dogs and sodas for a monthly children’s program at his church, Union African Methodist Episcopal in Warwick, and takes care of the coffee service there every Sunday, his only day off. Stewart was born in Chester but grew up in Warwick, in a house on John Street famous for its open-door hospitality. Everyone in the neighborhood was welcome there. Stewart said he takes after his late mother, Helen, who was happiest when she was feeding people. “You weren’t leaving without eating,” he said of his childhood home, where he still lives. Stewart enjoys seeing people eat and getting to know them too, if they have the time to stop and chat awhile. Now in its third year, Heavenly Eats attracts many out-of-towners traveling long distances along with lots of local people going about their workaday lives, especially teachers, police officers, and firemen. Sometimes a customer will pull up a chair at one of the small tables and talk for hours, which is just fine with Stewart. He keeps the little overlook area clean, picking up the trash sometimes tossed from passing cars. During his time in the army Stewart was a military recruiter, a job that put his people skills to good use. He said his greatest influence is his dad, Robert Stewart of Chester, another career military man who has achieved national fame because six of his sons followed him into lifelong military service. The elder Stewart worked in the catering business for many years, and had all of his 11 children pitch in, peeling potatoes and cleaning up, so that they could learn the business. “He’d explain it all to us while he was working,” Stewart said of his father. “He was really fast. Now, he directs me.” Stewart has a grueling schedule. He works nights, supervising security at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He gets a few winks from 7 to 11 a.m., then at noon opens his stand, where he works until 6 p.m. He gets some more ZZZs from 7 to 9:30 p.m. before heading back to West Point. He just shrugs, saying he loves to work. “I get about eight hours,” he said. Heavenly Eats is located at the turnoff/overlook on U.S. Route 6, on the westbound lane a few minutes from Route 17. It is open from spring to late fall everyday except Sunday. For information about having an event catered, call Stewart at 699-8108.