Carnegie Abbey Celebrates 10 Years with Caribbean-Style Summer Party

Guests with Brian O'Neill & Peter Taselaar

When Brian O’Neill, owner of the prestigious Carnegie Abbey Club near Newport, Rhode Island, throws a party, it’s a lavish feast with many courses.

For the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Club, a 450- acre sporting estate with luxurious residences and golf, yachting, tennis and a burgeoning equestrian program, Mr. O’Neill fêted members and friends with a poolside reception featuring hand-rolled cigars, a raffle, and a steel drummer, balloons and beach balls, An honor guard of caddies with crossed golf clubs welcomed guests to the upper patio, champagne, a magnificent raw bar not seen in this hemisphere, and a bagpiper at dusk playing “Happy Birthday .”

Ally Coulter, Will Sofrin & Melanie Delman

Oh, and there was a raffle for prizes, and Bob Burke, the irrepressible owner of Pot au Feu restaurant in Providence, while brandishing a saber atop a pool building, showed just how the members of Le Club de Saveurs basically decapitate a bottle of champage with a single sword stroke. The tradition dates back to the soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Pieter Taselaar, the buyer of Mr. O’Neill’s fabulous estate Oakwood in Newport, and winner of the 2008 Rolex Big Boat Series Melges 32 sailing race, was there with his wife Nina, and he and Mr. O’Neill were in deep discussion.

Jennifer & Rick Schmaeling

The newest residents of the fabulous Tower, Herman and Judith Swarz, smiled and talked with interior designer Ally Coulter, Will Sofrin and Melanie Delman. Members Heather Savoie, Kelly Lambrese, Dr. James and Margaret Nolan, John Qua and Suzanne Shutte, and others were relaxed and happy. Mitch Pozez and Stanley Goldberg laughed with Mr. O’Neill. Party diversions included a tattoo artist (tattoo temporary, of course), an old-style photo booth where you could pose with a friend, and a firepit to enjoy the peerless sunset.

The bedecked Carnegie Abbey pool

Inside the Club's dining room, a jazz ensemble played, several food stations with glorious offerings wre well attended, and a flat screen TV broadcast a discussion between Mr. O’Neill and the Club’s original developer, Peter de Savary.

The Carnegie Abbey Club hosted the World Leadership Guest Series, bringing speakers such as George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, and H.S.H. Price Albert of Monaco to Rhode Island to speak and meet with members.

The evening ended with a D.J. and dancing in the bar, and guests received fabulous party favors. It was truly swellagant.