Provincetown, the "Outer Cape," and Wellfleet Too

[weinoo]

Sal's Place is bicoastal.

 

A Scrappy Pop-Up Restaurant Shuttles From Coast to Coast

 

Sal’s Place, an under-the-radar spot under a tent in Los Angeles, started on Cape Cod and moves back there every summer.

 

Quote

 

The story of Sal’s Place is a story of rough East Coast winters, of the continuing mystique of the pop-up restaurant and of a spirited proprietor, Siobhan Carew, who three years ago led a band of waiters and cooks across the country to create a winter outpost for her restaurant of the same name in Provincetown, Mass.

On the Atlantic Coast, Sal’s Place sits on a beach at the tip of Cape Cod. Housed in a former boatbuilding wharf that hangs over the water on stilts, it is not made for winter. And Ms. Carew, 60, who had moved full-time to Provincetown after closing her restaurants in Boston during the pandemic, decided that she wasn’t, either.

 

 

Edited April 17 by weinoo (log)

[weinoo]

Another little tidbit about Provincetown's drinking and dining scene...there will be a new cocktail bar on Commercial Street. Real cocktails, when you need one.

 

It will be in this little red building:

 

 

We made plans to visit at the very end of the season.  The bar will theoretically be open year-round.

[liamsaunt]

We are heading out there for our first visit of 2025 starting next Friday and I will of course report on any new dining developments we encounter.

 

On a dining-adjacent note, the local papers have been advertising the A24 open casting call for the movie adaptation of Kitchen Confidential, which is going to star Dominic Sessa as Anthony Bourdain. The casting call is for men of all ages with kitchen experience, no acting experience required, and filming starts in Provincetown next month. 

[liamsaunt]

We arrived back to the Cape last evening. It was raining and cold, so comfort food was in order.  We headed to the Wicked Oyster. Menu

 

 

Cocktails.  I had a non-alcoholic aperol spritz and husband had a Gibson

 

 

Had to get oysters of course

 

 

And then we each got a bowl of clam stew. This was so fantastic. It had butter beans instead of potatoes, big pieces of bacon, and perfectly cooked clams over a piece of sourdough toast.

 

 

No dessert.

 

Today we tried to go for a beach walk. Ha! Ha! It was freezing, and really windy. Here are some intrepid windsurfers doing their thing

 

 

We were determined to get some walking in, but veered away from the beach in favor of some woodsy trails to try and escape the wind.  First, we did the Fort Hill hike, which takes you up high enough that you can view the ocean without being wind blasted, and then goes down to connect with a trail through a red maple swamp. It’s a very easy hike, about 2 miles or so.

 

 

After our walk, we went to PB Boulangerie to pick up some bread for the house. We also got this dessert, new for this year. It’s a pistachio panna cotta with raspberry jam and whipped cream

 

 

Unfortunately it was a “one-biter.” The panna cotta didn’t have much flavor.  The jam, which you cannot see in the picture I took, was nice though. 
 

After our snack we headed back out to hike another easy trail, the Atlantic white cedar swamp trail. There are some very cool scenes on this hike. It’s about 1.5 miles, and easy except for the end, which is through soft sand and so a little more strenuous.

 

 

This squirrel enjoying a pine cone reminded us that it was time for dinner

 

 

We drove into town to go to Mac’s Shack, but there were a bunch of fire trucks at the restaurant, so we diverted to Winslow’s Tavern. Menu

 

 

We normally eat out on the patio, but it was freezing, so inside it was

 

 

Drinks-Negroni for husband, club soda for me

 

 

We shared an order of the curry Riesling mussels.  They were very plump and tender

 

I got the cod with braised lettuce, peas, and onions

 

 

And husband got the strozzapreti pasta with mushrooms and ricotta salata

 

 

We decided to split a salt caramel tart to make up for the disappointing dessert earlier in the day. There will have to be more walking tomorrow! Luckily the weather looks like it’s going to be nicer than today was 

 

 

 

[Shelby]

11 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

It had butter beans instead of potatoes

What a great idea!

[Okanagancook]

I love thatidea too.

That dish looked really good!

[liamsaunt]

11 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

I love thatidea too.

That dish looked really good!

 
I am going to try and replicate it at home. I really liked the butter beans in it.

 

Yesterday was more walking, this time at the Audubon Nature Sanctuary in Wellfleet.  We hit all the trails

 

 

Painted turtles 

 

 

Scenic views

 

 

 

 

 

Then back to the house for a slice of vegetable quiche from PB Boulangerie…kind of bland

 

 

and a shared raspberry tart.  
 

 

We went to a beach near the house at low tide to walk on the tidal flats 

 

 

it was cold and there were lots of laughing gulls 

 

 

Dinner was at Mac’s shack. A mocktail of muddled jalepenos, lime, cucumber and mint, and a spicy margarita for husband 

 

 

oysters 

 

 

clam fritters with garlic-parsley sauce. The flavors were good but the fritter interior was a tad gummy 

 

 

Husband tried a special of stuffed squid with a lobster mousse and crisped potato wedges. I thought it looked dry, but he said it was decent. The seafood portion was more like an appetizer than an entree though. There was only one piece of squid. 

 

 

I had this year’s scallop dish, which came with a curried corn bisque, toasted pine nuts, raisins, and capers.  
 

 

Full moon with osprey nest

 

[liamsaunt]

Monday I went for a walk down to the beach near the house. It was quite cold and windy. I had the beach to myself.

 

 

Stopped back into PB Boulangerie to buy some bread. I saw these cute chocolate sardines. If they came in dark chocolate I would have bought some 

 

 

After husband finished working, we went back to the beach to watch the very end of the sunset and then go to dinner. We quickly realized after driving around that almost everything was closed for dinner on Mondays. It was also too late to go to the fish market, as they were closed too. Luckily, Van Rensselaer’s was open, so we stopped in there, more from default than desire. Oysters

 

 

A special of curried mussels

 

 

Husband got a seafood pasta with clams, shrimp, swordfish and lobster

 

 

I had pasta with shrimp

 

 

We were too full for dessert.

 

Yesterday, after husband finished working, we drove to Provincetown to walk on the beach at low tide and have dinner. The right whales have been spotted from the beach here recently, and I was hoping to catch a glimpse, but no luck.

 

Provincetown was empty. That should last for about two more weeks, and then the summer crowds will arrive. I noticed a few new shops and what looks like a few new restaurants, but everything was closed, and signage was not up yet on the restaurant spaces. We went to Ciro and Sals since they are open year round 

 

 

Negroni for husband, berry mocktail for me 

 

 

We kept up our mussels theme and shared some mussels marinara 

 

 

I had seafood fra diavolo with more mussels, shrimp, and scallops 

 

And husband had spicy calamari puttanesca

 

 

We shared a dessert of bread pudding with salted caramel sauce. It would have been better if it was warmer. The rest of the dinner was delicious though.

 

 

We swung back to the beach after dinner just in time to catch the very tail end of the sunset. 
 

 

Odd things happen at the beach sometimes.  There was a man at the beach who looked just like my Dad, who passed away six months ago. He was even wearing his clothes, down to his favorite pair of shoes. He was all alone just watching the sun set. I took his picture and sent it to my siblings, who were equally stunned by the uncanny resemblance. I hope the man enjoyed the sunset as much as my dad would have. 

[liamsaunt]

Yesterday we did a lot of the trails. We drove to Chatham to hike in the Monomoy Wildlife Refuge. About two years ago a large portion of the preserve near the visitor center got washed out during a storm, and there’s only parking for about a dozen cars now.  Because of the erosion, you have to park in one of the few spots and then walk into a private neighborhood, past many “private” signs, for about 1/2 mile, to reach the trailhead.  We knew there was no chance we would be able to get anywhere near it once the summer crowds arrive.  A quick stop at Lighthouse beach before Monomoy

 

 

Monomoy is really stunning. It’s mostly a soft sand trek, which I find tiresome, but  I am glad we did it. 
 

 

 

We went back to Eastham to do the Salt Pond trail

 

 

And Nauset Light beach. This is the lighthouse pictured on the bags of Cape Cod potato chips, if you have eaten those.

 

A very large driftwood sculpture on the beach. We saw lots of seals, but no sharks or whales.

 

 

For dinner, we went to the Pearl in Wellfleet. Cranberry margarita, and cranberry juice with mint and seltzer water

 

 

Steamed littlenecks (not what we ordered, but oh well) 

 

 

Shrimp tacos

 

 

Sunset over Wellfleet harbor

 

[liamsaunt]

For our final day, we did some more hiking in Provincetown yesterday and then ended up in Truro for the opening night of Blackfish. I really like this restaurant, but sometimes the food feels too heavy in the heat of the summer, so I was glad to try it on this cooler evening.  Husband’s negroni

 

 

Fried oysters

 

 

Steamed littlenecks with fennel, saffron, Calabrian chiles, and fregola sarda. 

 

 

We both got the tuna bolognese. This is the most popular dish at the restaurant. The server brought it out with a flourish and said we had ordered the first two of the season. The portion was smaller than in prior years, which I really appreciated. It’s usually way too much food. 

 

 

We shared a strawberry rhubarb crostata with basil whipped cream 

 

 

And then headed to the beach for the final sunset of this visit

 

 

 

We’ll be back in a couple of weeks for some more beach walks and oysters.

Edited yesterday at 02:31 PM by liamsaunt (log)

[rotuts]

@liamsaunt

 

nice looking meal.

 

what is melting on top of the T.B.?

 

ricotta ?  butter ?

[KennethT]

Thanks for taking us along!  What is the dipping liquid for the fried oysters?

[rotuts]

@liamsaunt

 

thank you for the beautiful pics

 

and of course the zmenu's

[TdeV]

Sigh. Lovely.