HARWICH, Mass. — The lobster rolls are to die for, whether you get the freshly caught lobster draped in mayo or melted butter, and the crab cakes will make you want to order seconds.
One of the restaurant’s owners likes the lobster so much, he used to eat it by the spoonful at the end of the night.
“That was the summer of no gains,” he says, laughing. “My chef quickly told me, ‘Chicken’s cheaper than lobster.’”
Between the tuna tartar, the tuna poke nachos and the tuna entrée, there’s a constant flow of tuna deliveries from the harbor a few blocks away coming to the back of the house. The scallop risotto will make your mouth water. The full rack of baby back ribs is smoked in the back. The wagyu burger is scrumptious. The filet is perfectly prepared, and the best seller on this incredibly appetizing menu is the pistachio halibut.
“Even if we change chefs, we tell them, ‘You have to keep it. We will have a mutiny in the dining room without our pistachio halibut,’” the co-owner of The Port — a steak and seafood staple for 20 seasons in the quintessential Cape Cod community of Harwich Port — says over a bottle of Caymus and, perhaps, a couple glasses of deliciously chilled Sauvignon blanc before he lets loose a sly grin.
“But if I had to have only one dish, I’d have the Portuguese stew.”
That’s halibut, clams, mussels and sausage with potatoes and tomato swimming in a fish broth. The dining room is filled with people in absolute heaven enjoying this explosion of ingredients.
On the edge of the dining room, the bar is packed. The mixologists, including the co-owner’s nephew, Hunter, are hard at work creating eclectic drinks with fun names like Cufflinks, Fear & Loathing, Witch Doctor, Yes Please!, I’m with the Band and the Green Monstah Rum Runner.
At the start of each season, the staff gets together to concoct new drinks and rewrite the cocktail menu. So it’s ever-changing, but season after season, the margaritas and frozen drinks have consistently burst out of the blenders like a tsunami, especially the mudslides, which come with a full candy bar crumbled in.
Adjacent to the dining room, the spacious patio on this gorgeous Cape Cod evening is packed to see a singer with an acoustic guitar doing covers. The raw bar, in another hidden nook, is also filled to the brim. The Port does $1 oysters two hours a day … every day. Between the raw bar and the Oysters Rockefeller, in a season, the restaurant will go through 80,000 oysters. The staff even takes an annual field trip to nearby Chatham, where they see how the whole process works — from growing the oysters from the time they are miniscule eggs to the moment they’re shucked on premises — so they can explain every facet to the customer.
Outside the restaurant, which is tucked between antique stores, art galleries, gift shops, coffee houses and other restaurants and bars, firefighters are out in force collecting donations in boots. And the sidewalks of Harwich Port are full as the refreshing breeze comes off Nantucket Sound.
That’s because it’s Wednesday night, meaning it’s the weekly summer musical stroll where a half-dozen bands, up and down the street, are entertaining the town.
In between the sets, a steady stream of hungry and thirsty locals and tourists walk into The Port — a bright, white and blue restaurant that’s got the Cape Cod vibe down to a T.
When you enter, you’re greeted by fun signs like, “WARNING, The consumption of alcohol will make you think you are smarter, more handsome and tougher than you really are,” and framed quotes from the likes of Anthony Bourdain and Frank Sinatra. But there’s no hockey memorabilia.
No sticks, no pucks, no picture of New England royalty Bobby Orr soaring through the air, no Wild or Canucks jerseys framed under glass.
Yet, the co-owner of this wonderful New England eatery currently sitting in a booth overseeing the dining room like it’s an NHL Draft…
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