What better way to spend a crisp fall day on Cape Cod than on a golf course? Better tee times, fewer crowds with which to contend, and this year several new year-round restaurants have opened up within a short drive of some great courses.
If you’ve been around these parts for more than fifteen years, you remember the days when Mashpee was nothing but Bobby Byrne’s Pub and D’Angelo’s supermarket. There are now more than a dozen restaurants from which to choose after shooting a round at New Seabury or Olde Barnstable. Two of the newest are Trevi Café and Wine Bar, located in Mashpee Commons, and Heather, near the Roche Bros. Market, just a couple of blocks away.
Much of the action at Trevi takes place under the awning in the warmer months, and the Cape’s famously balmy autumn should prolong use of the expansive patio ? a fantastic spot for people watching. The long, narrow dining room, with mile-high ceilings and a gleaming bar, also proves a great place to enjoy a sampling of its oh-so-Italian menu. And, of course, the requisite fountain enjoys a place of prominence!
Trevi’s owner, the same John Reid of Chapoquoit Grill fame, presents a menu that lacks a bit in breadth but more than compensates with the originality of its offerings. Lunch items include salads, such as the arugula and goat cheese with balsamic vinaigrette, and a section devoted to meat and cheese, with selections that include proscuitto di Parma and Parmesan Reggiano. The sandwich selection further demonstrates the chef’s creativity with an untypical chicken panini with avocado and pesto mayo and the sliced sirloin panini with bleu cheese, horseradish cream and caramelized onion.
Salads and meat and cheese selections also find their way onto the dinner menu, which is enhanced by a small list of entrées and fun tapas. Think Lamb lollipops with taziki and pickled red onion, grilled sweet potato pancakes, and Greek meatballs.
Though Heather was just getting ready to open its doors for the first time at our press deadline, the restaurant has already created quite a buzz. Owned and operated by Chef Heather Allen, who commanded the kitchen and much attention as the chef at the Regatta of Cotuit for more than decade, this eatery is rumored to be setting out a stellar dining experience minus a shocking price tag.
Also through the grapevine, we learned that the 100-plus-seat restaurant is gorgeous, and that its menu (already posted on the Internet) is, in fact, a thing of beauty as well. Allen strikes her usual chord of serious gourmet fare with a touch of whimsy with appetizers like Cotuit oysters-on-the-half-shell with tequila lime sorbet and tomato confit, and tuna sashimi with cucumber wakame salad, ginger slaw and wasabi miso aioli. Heartier dishes, perfect for sating the après golf grumbles, include boneless short ribs with corn polenta, and a marinated blade steak with Portobello mushroom duxelles, and even tender a North Dakota buffalo filet. The selection of “small dishes” includes roasted lamb lollipops, Maine crab risotto with wild herb salad and sweet tomatoes, a Kobe beef melt on house-made chiabatta bread, and baby mussels served with saffron/onion broth on herb crostini.
If you’re playing anywhere in the vicinity of Hyannis, Main Street has two new dining spots that are geared toward fun. Swank surroundings are paired with music that’s just a little louder than typical restaurant level and really unique menus.
Already Embargo has got the big city sophistication down pat. A massive horseshoe shaped bar takes center-stage with lots of TV’s and lots and lots of stools. An ebony- stained floor and dark plantation shutters provide contrast against the white-topped bar, and the dining room is filled with high-backed booths.
This is a tapas place – but not in the way that some restaurants just add a couple of things they call “tapas”, just so they can sound trendy. Virtually the entire menu is devoted to tapas and Executive Chef Mike Crowell takes his tapas very seriously, presenting new American tapas, traditional and Spanish creations, plus “new stuff”.
At Embargo you can choose from Gambas al Ajillo (just say ‘garlic shrimp’) and traditional Spanish meatballs with Romesco sauce, or you can go for the Kobe beef sliders (mini burgers) with crispy bacon and chipotle ketchup. Or maybe an order of pepper-dusted sliced sirloin with balsamic reduction, or citrus-marinated lamp lollipops with toasted pistachios.
It’s not just the food that’s got it going on at Embargo. Crowell says that the cocktail crowd has most definitely found the place, and they’re for sure enjoying the house-infused vodkas that are a specialty.
Late afternoon or early evening is the perfect time to enjoy Embargo, when all of the tapas are half price at the bar from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Two blocks from Embargo, you’ll find Island Merchant, another hip hangout that’s quickly become a haunt for the locals and rather quickly garnered a ‘Best of Boston’ award from Boston Magazine for best fusion food on the Cape.
Island Merchant is a little place with a menu that chef/owner Joe Dunn says “is pretty small because it’s fresh.” Dunn likes to make use of what’s available locally and then to incorporate those items into the restaurant’s four or five nightly specials.
The number one sellers are the fish tacos, the catch of the day with avocado salsa and sour cream. Dunn adds, “If we do a hundred dinners, twenty of them will be tuna tacos.”
Soups, salads and sandwiches offer options if you’re not in the mood for a full dinner. Specialties of the house include the Cubano, a sandwich of grilled ham and shredded pork with grain mustard and pickles, and the house-smoked pulled pork sandwich with Island Merchant’s own barbeque sauce.
And what goes better with than island fare than a freshly muddled mojito? Nothing – and they’ve got them. They also have two-dollar burgers, available all night long on Mondays, and from 10:00 to 1:00 every other night.
Finding year-round dining in the sleepy town of Brewster has often been a challenge in the past, but with the opening of two – count ‘em, two – new restaurants, that has changed. If you’re coming from Captains or Cape Cod National, check out Ardeo Tuscan Tavern or Agro Dolce.
Kathy Morelli has partnered with members of the Jamiel family in the latest addition to the Ardeo family of restaurants. This new location in Brewster is number four, and the menu is much the same as the others, “just downsized a bit”, according to Morelli.
From that allegedly “downsized” menu, you may select from a list of Mediterranean appetizers like spanikopita and stuffed grape leaves, wood stone pizza with a slew of off beat toppings, and a lengthy roster of dinner entrées.
A lounge area with deep burgundy walls and lots of gleaming dark wood takes up about half of the space, and the remainder is a dining room done in a striking combination of more of that burgundy and rich gold.
Morelli describes Ardeo as a “warm, inviting place with a comfortable atmosphere for either a burger and beer or a steak and a bottle of wine.”
Owner and Executive Chef Robert Signoriello worked his way through a host of honors and accolades before opening Agro Dolce, and his massive, authentic Italian menu reflects his years of training.
The antipasti list includes mussels puttanesca, lobster risotto cakes, and calamari with spicy cherry peppers. There are dozens of entrée selections, from traditional pasta dishes such as the penne with sausage, broccoli rabe and ricotta, to linguini with clams and mussels in a spicy tomato sauce.
Lighter meals are available too – wood grilled pizzas, several paninis, and an array of salads.
For many, the golfing on Cape Cod only gets better in the autumn months. And this fall, happily, the selection of year-round restaurants is better too.
Trevi’s owner, the same John Reid of Chapoquoit Grill fame, presents a menu that lacks a bit in breadth but more than compensates with the originality of its offerings. Lunch items include salads, such as the arugula and goat cheese with balsamic vinaigrette, and a section devoted to meat and cheese, with selections that include proscuitto di Parma and Parmesan Reggiano. The sandwich selection further demonstrates the chef’s creativity with an untypical chicken panini with avocado and pesto mayo and the sliced sirloin panini with bleu cheese, horseradish cream and caramelized onion.