Provincetown, the "Outer Cape," and Wellfleet Too

liamsaunt · July 4, 2018

It's a complicated situation. Wellfleet is very much not a city. It's a town of 4,000 year-round residents. I don't know what their summer totals are. A lot of the town is National Park land. The road that the Beachcomber is on (Ocean Drive) is fronted on the beach side by private homes and the Beachcomber, and the back side, for quite a ways back, is National Park land. The dunes on this road are subject to severe erosion during winter storms. Most property owners have already paid to move their homes back as close to the road as you can go. Some homes have fallen down the dune during bad winter storms. The Beachcomber is located in a former Coast Guard lifesaving station, and is far back enough that it is not in danger of falling down the dune.

So, what the town wants, and the National Park has apparently agreed to, is a land swap. The NP would take over the beaches and the dunes, and the road. Homeowners would be moved back into the National Park land (at their expense...I think). The road would be closed to vehicular traffic, and access to the beaches via dunes would end naturally which would aid in the preservation of this natural area. You need 100% buy in for a land swap and the Beachcomber is opposing it. And that's the coconut telegraph, as I have been told, anyway 🙂

liamsaunt · August 15, 2018

Giant picture alert! I spent last weekend in Wellfleet. I was too busy to post while there but wanted to add our latest dining exploits to this thread. Friday we ended up at the Bookstore as they had the shortest wait at 30 minutes (most Wellfleet places don't take reservations)

Littlenecks

Oysters

Cheese plate

clam roll (disappointing)

fish sandwich (VERY disappointing)

lobster roll

salmon salad

steak tips

Saturday morning a few of us had breakfast at the Lighthouse

Omelet

Egg sandwich

Blueberry pancakes

Friday night we went to an early dinner at Winslows Tavern. Oysters

Scallop seveche (yes it is in a clam shell not sure why!)

tomato salad

fig salad

yellowfin tuna

tuna confit pasta

Mussel pasta

Halibut

Corn ravioli

Triple chocolate mousse

Salted caramel tart

Key lime tart

Saturday we went to Mac's Shack

Tuna poke

Spicy tuna mango martini

various sushi

sashimi

Big Mac

We will be back for 12 days starting next weekend, but are staying in a beachfront house so might be doing more home cooking than dining out.

Edited August 15, 2018 by liamsaunt (log)

chileheadmike · August 16, 2018

It all look delirious to me. Including the clam roll.

Very nice photography. Thanks for sharing.

MetsFan5 · August 16, 2018

I’d kill for those steamers right now!

suzilightning · August 18, 2018

I'd really love to see what you get at the local fish guys and any farmer's markets to cook at home mixed up with any time you can get out for a meal. Having grown up in a tourist area I KNOW how miserable that is....kinda like going out on holidays for the rest of the world but it is every day.

liamsaunt · August 21, 2018

On 8/18/2018 at 12:10 PM, suzilightning said:

I'd really love to see what you get at the local fish guys and any farmer's markets to cook at home mixed up with any time you can get out for a meal. Having grown up in a tourist area I KNOW how miserable that is....kinda like going out on holidays for the rest of the world but it is every day.

I'll do my best to share, but I'm not sure that there is wifi at the house we are renting. It's in a holding within the National Park and most of the Park has no coverage. I'll post some stuff from my phone when we are in town. If I am wrong about the connectivity, I'll post daily. I actually hope I am wrong because my niece and nephew will be mad if they are cut off from the "real world" for a week :-)

liamsaunt · August 26, 2018

Hello from Wellfleet. The house does not have wifi but I do have a cell signal on my network so can use my phone as a hotspot. I have not been taking photos everywhere we have eaten so far because we have been doing a lot of repeats, but here are a few breakfasts. My nephew is heading back to college today and so I have been letting him choose where to eat, and he loves breakfast. We were in Eastham for a few days before moving to the house last night. Fairway cheddar-scallion waffle with over easy eggs

cranberry pancakes

The other day we tried a new place, Brine. Brine benedict

Huevos rancheros

Belgian waffle with fruit

and a sunset

suzilightning · August 26, 2018

woo-hooo!!!!!! gotta try to do those cranberry pancakes. Thank you so much for the info

liamsaunt · August 27, 2018

Yesterday was my nephew's last day with us before returning to college. He wanted to go to Winslow's Tavern again, so of course we agreed. We started with oysters

and some tuna crudo with tobiko roe

Pear apple salad

lobster and prosciutto panino

burger

crab cake

summer pasta with burrata

key lime pie

triple chocolate mousse

sunset

and a late night dinner of scallop rolls made with scallops I picked up at the local fish market, so sweet and fresh

liamsaunt · August 30, 2018

More foods. My husband and I had my niece for the evening and she chose Mac's Shack. Hamachi Aguachile

Big mac (repeat)

Lazy lobster

Seared cod with strawberry basil nuoc cham and sweet potato puree

And that was a lot of lobster, and since he could not eat it all, it came home and came a lobster BLT later

We went to Provincetown yesterday to buy some board games, and my niece asked for Macs again so we proceeded to Mac's Fish House for sushi.

Salmon sake crunch

Cape Cod sushi (made with lobster)

the other sushi

Tonight we dined at Blackfish in Truro

Oysters

Scallops

Striped bass

Squid with squid ink pasta

tuna bolognese

short ribs

panna cotta

sunset

Edited August 30, 2018 by liamsaunt (log)

kayb · August 30, 2018

Spectacular.

liamsaunt · September 2, 2018

Still here, still eating oysters... lots more photos to share later

Here’s a crazy sunset from the other night. I thought it looked like a jellybean

kayb · September 2, 2018

Oysters. Oh, dear sweet Baby Jesus. I'm jonesing for oysters.

End of this month. Myrtle Beach. There will be oysters, I trust.

liamsaunt · September 6, 2018

final installment for this visit. Dealing with the hotspot got tedious and we ended up just not going online for most of the week. It was nice. One day we went to Provincetown for a whale watch. We saw 19 different humpbacks and one fin whale. It's usually the other way around. Here are a couple of pictures

Afterwards we went to Mac's Fish House. Sashimi: striped bass, toro, and yellowtail

toro

scallop crudo

seveche

jalepeno yellowtail with ponzu

sushi smorgasbord

and for the two non-sushi eaters, bouillabaise

and striped bass

malva pudding for dessert for my niece

Another day we went to the Pearl. Steamers

Banging shrimp

The "mighty codwich". Half of this went home for another meal

Shrimp caesar salad

Warm lobster roll

Shrimp tacos

The rest of the time we cooked at the house, but I guess those photos are not appropriate here. This was our view/beach. The house was two miles into National Park land on a one-lane dirt road. Our car is badly scratched, but it was worth it.

Until next time...

Edited September 6, 2018 by liamsaunt (log)

Okanagancook · September 7, 2018

Thank you for sharing all your experiences.

Jacksoup · September 7, 2018

Your photos are gorgeous and the food looks amazing.

heidih · September 7, 2018

Ymmm- I definitely think your home meals in the area are appropriate so please? Looking at your images I crave seafood above all else. So fresh looking and lovely assorted preps.

kayb · September 7, 2018

Love it when you go out there. Thanks for sharing.

weinoo · September 8, 2018

On 9/6/2018 at 7:55 PM, liamsaunt said:

Warm lobster roll

Nice photos and nice trip.

That lettuce is just so wrong on a lobster roll.

liamsaunt · May 29, 2019

Cape Cod, 2019 edition! I'm in Chatham for a few days for the usual work conference, and then continuing on to Wellfleet for another 10 days. We have a lot of Cape Cod time planned this summer. I'm planning on cooking at the rental houses most of the time, but not this trip, as right now I am at a hotel. When we move to Wellfleet we are staying in a quirky house that, for a variety of reasons, we have deemed does not have adequate facilities for cooking. It's a great house in every other respect so we continue to rent it every year.

Last night we tried a new restaurant that opened a couple of week's ago. Mac's Chatham Seafood and Lobster. Owned by the same Mac of Mac's Shack and Mac's Fish House that I've shown photos of over the years. Here's the menu

https://www.macsseafood.com/images/uploads/Menu_CFL_ALL.pdf

It was pretty late when we arrived. so the seafood counter was closed. It looked huge, which make me happy because we have a house rented in Chatham for a week in August. We started with the local clams, sautéed with tomatoes, basil, wine, garlic etc.

Husband had a warm lobster roll (no lettuce @weinoo 🙂 )

I had a Caesar salad with shrimp. Have to get the shrimp in before my nephew with a crustacean allergy joins us Friday night in Wellfleet.

weinoo · May 29, 2019

We're headed to Provincetown week after next; looking forward to it and no lettuce!

rotuts · May 29, 2019

I always look forward to your ( colorful ) trips !

thank you for sharing.

kayb · May 30, 2019

Oh, boy! Back to the Cape! I love these trips.

Actually, I love everyone's trips. Contemplating road-tripping up into the Shenandoah Valley later this year. Dining suggestions up that way? I'll be starting from the south end, working north, may not get all the way to Harper's Ferry.

liamsaunt · May 30, 2019

Here is the view from my hotel room

Yesterday morning we returned to the Captain's Table for breakfast. http://captainstablechatham.com

Husband got a lobster omelet. I should have taken a picture after he cut into it, it was stuffed with lobster.

I ordered a special of poached eggs and bacon over cheddar-scallion grits with a toasted english muffin. They put the grits on the muffin. Weird. Kind of like an eggs benedict...but with grits. It's OK, I just ate the grits and the eggs and left the muffin.

We had dinner at Bistro on Main. https://www.bistroonmainchatham.com

We shared an order of clams balboa, which are steamed clams in a garlicky, spicy, lemony broth. So tasty

Husband ordered a grilled swordfish special which came with a crab-shrimp risotto cake and some vegetables in a lobster broth

I had local mussels in a spicy diablo sauce and some garlic-parmesan fries. The mussels were HUGE, but very tender and flavorful. The sauce suffered from the inclusion of unadvertised and unwelcome green bell pepper.

I only had my phone with me yesterday, and probably won't have any pictures from today as I think I have to attend a work-related dinner.

Tomorrow the pictures will improve when we move to Wellfleet. We are going to our 22nd anniversary dinner (one day early) at Ceraldi.

liamsaunt · May 31, 2019

This was the menu at last night's dinner. The food was very good. I especially liked the pea salad, the cod, the risotto, and the braised radishes. I tried everything savory but the beef (I don't eat beef) and for dessert I only tasted the panna cotta. I don't have a sweet tooth.