Our Team

A passionate aficionado of both wine and fine service, Michael first came to Newport from New York City in 2018 as General Manager of Newport Restaurant Group’s 22 Bowen’s Wine Bar and Grille, and moved over to Castle Hill in November 2022 to lead the Inn’s dining and beverage team. While in NYC, Michael served as General Manager of The Red Cat, the pioneering Chelsea restaurant, and held Beverage Director and Head Sommelier positions at several of the city’s finest establishments. A trumpeter with a degree in jazz performance and composition, he has had to hang up his horn temporarily so as not to disturb his neighbors and his children.

Setting the table was a passion Harrison first discovered at a young age, when his unbridled excitement for unloading the family china cabinet on Thanksgiving Day warmed the entire household.  A California native, Harrison and his family moved to Aquidneck Island nearly a quarter century ago. A career in restaurants was first realized in Newport and developed in Manhattan, The Bay Area, and New Orleans. Harrison returned home in 2021 and was inspired by the passion of the Castle Hill team. When he’s not at the Inn orchestrating Aurelia’s service, you will find Harrison golfing or sailing with his family.

Spencer Chaffey embraced the wine trade early in life. His wine epiphany arrived when a friend introduced him to a bottle of 1996 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Echezeaux at the age of 20, setting him on a life-long course, first as a buyer, cellar hand, and lab analyst in California. While there, he attained his Certified Sommelier pin under the Court of Master Sommeliers and was named ‘Best New Sommelier’ in 2016 by Wine and Spirits Magazine. Spencer joined Single Thread Farm in 2017 and became Head Sommelier, assisting in attaining two Michelin stars within 11 months of opening. He helped the team earn their third star a year later, Forbes 5-Star Award and the Wine Spectator Grand Award in 2021, before moving east to Castle Hill. Wine obsession aside, Spencer is an experienced painter, amateur botanist, and is owned by two cats.

Leita was born with a green thumb and grew up on her father’s Rose Hill Farm in Wakefield, RI. An environmental science graduate and herbalist, she has grown and nurtured Castle Hill’s culinary gardens since the spring of 2017. The Inn now boasts both a kitchen garden, from which much of Aurelia’s produce is cultivated, and a healing garden, with its many herbs and edible flowering plants that find their way onto Aurelia’s menu. With a bounty grown each year from seed in the Inn’s greenhouse, Leita aims to provide Aurelia’s culinary team with delicious, sustainable, hyper-local ingredients. When she’s not in our gardens, you can find Leita chasing and riding a Narragansett Bay surf break, or chasing after her daughter.