Growing up, there was really only one restaurant in town: The Rustic Oak. Sure, we had fast food places – McDonald’s, Arby’s, Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips – but The Oak was the only spot for a **good** meal.
The two things I remember most about The Oak was the massive fireplace that was always roaring (and the stacked wood outside the front door to keep it going) and their soup and salad bar. The salad bar wasn’t anything fancy – tan tubs of iceberg lettuce, grape tomatoes, olives, bacon bits that could crack your teeth, and croutons nestled in ice under a brightly lit sneeze guard – but as a kid, unlimited anything was exciting. If you saw me and my parents at the Rustic Oak in the 80s, we were probably celebrating something.
Photo from the New Haven Register
I don’t remember eating out much growing up, unless we were on vacation. And even then, when we would go to the Jersey Shore every year, we’d stay in an efficiency hotel room, equipped with a small kitchenette, where my mother would cook dinner for us after the beach a few nights during our week-long stay. The hotel hallway would smell like fried chicken cutlets all night.
This is the kitchen where my parents insisted on cooking dinner a few nights a week while we were on vacation. Photo from The Pan American Hotel.
Most of my restaurant meals were Happy Meals picked up from the drive thru after church on Saturday nights. My treat with my babysitter while my parents went out for the night. And when we did go out! Man, did those nights feel luxurious. It’s probably what led to my obsession with restaurants and food and eating out today.
I LOVE EATING AT RESTAURANTS.
Like, really love it. I would eat out every single night if I could. And it’s not because I don’t like to cook – because I do – but I just like having someone cook for me even more. I love reading menus and eating. I love to eat. My Insta feed is filled with deliciously plated foods and fancy cocktails, with the occasional sweater-wearing dachshund mixed in.
In what could only be described as a cruel twist of fate, I am raising a child who does NOT like to eat out. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE??
To be clear: Little Mister likes restaurant food, but he wants to eat it at home (the place where – after you eat your meal – no one cleans up after you and does the dishes and offers you dessert).
Every weekend when Mr. KK and I are ready to leave the house and relax with an adult beverage and a meal cooked by someone who is not Yours Truly, the negotiating begins.
“Where are we going?”
“What kind of food is it?”
“What else is there to do there?”
“Is anyone else coming with us?”
“Can I watch a movie while I’m there?”
After a long week, I don’t want to see the inside of my kitchen – for cooking or for eating. Instead, let’s enjoy each other’s company, take our time easing into the weekend, enjoy some delicious food, and revel in the fact that we don’t need to clean up!
(Also, if parents say we’re going out to eat, WE’RE GOING OUT TO EAT!)
For my birthday this year, Mr. KK and I indulged in a long weekend in Nantucket.
“The best gift you could give me is to let me plan this entire trip,” I told Mr. KK.
Nantucket had been on my bucket list of trips for a decade, mostly thanks to me reading (and re-reading, and listening to) Elin Hildebrand novels. From the pages of her books, I fell in love with the island of Nantucket, and I just knew I would feel right at home when I finally got there.
I planned this trip for almost a full year. And by this, I mean I researched, read blogs, followed restaurant Instagram accounts and referencing Elin’s “The Blue Book” she put together in her book The Hotel Nantucket.
Me and Elin Hildebrand at her book signing, just a few days before I headed to Nantucket!
Planning 3 Days in Nantucket
I planned our trip for the third week in June, before the summer crowds but when it was warm enough that we could have a beach day. My list of places I wanted to go, restaurants I wanted to eat at and things to see was so long, I may as well should have been planning a month-long sojourn.
The excitement I felt seeing that lighthouse from the ferry (after reading about it in so many books) was incredible. NOTE: Elin Hildebrand’s “Swan Song” in my bag!
The Best Hotel in Nantucket
If you’ve ever looked at hotels in Nantucket, you know that it can cost a small fortune for lodging. I knew we wanted to be close to town so we could walk everywhere, and while I was willing to splurge a bit, I wasn’t White Elephant splurging.
I booked a room at The Salt Hotel in June of 2023 for the following year. When I went to share the website with a friend, the website no longer existed and redirected to a hotel called The Brant. After a quick panic attack I found that the hotel was under new management and had a new name. And after a quick phone call I discovered that they did indeed have our room reservation for the following June. PHEW.
I cannot even begin to describe how amazing The Brant Hotel is. First, it’s an easy walk from the ferry (even dragging a rolling suitcase). Second, it’s an easy walk from the hotel to Jetties Beach. Third, it’s a quick walk to town. Basically, the location is perfect.
Everything was new. They had just built this gorgeous barn that served as a front desk/bar/breakfast/gathering place. Just the craftmanship of the building, and the attention to detail was pure Nantucket. They had copper gutters!
The Brant’s signature color was orange (my favorite!) so it felt like a perfect match! They had these cute bikes you could use, however I didn’t think riding around on cobblestone streets was the best way to reintroduce my body to a bike after 25 years.
We arrived around 10am from our ferry – way before check in time – and not only was our room ready, they upgraded us! The hotel wasn’t very busy, so we had the opportunity to spend a bit of time chatting with the staff and enjoying the beautiful quad area with lounge chairs, corn hole and fire pit.
After our stay, I noticed that The Brant started to get quite popular, even winning a Michelin Key! It is likely out of our price range now, but I’m so happy we had a chance to stay with them when they were just starting out. The staff was superb.
Day 1 in Nantucket
Because we arrived so early, we had a full day ahead of us. Once we were checked into the hotel, we changed into bathing suits and borrowed chairs from the hotel and walked the 3/4 of a mile down to Jetties Beach. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but a little windy.
We spent a few hours on the beach then headed up to The Sandbar for lunch. The Sandbar is the quintessential beach bar. I loved everything about this place – from the retro 1970s logo to the frosé to the amazing spicy swordfish sandwich. They had me at homemade potato chips. Seriously, I could have gone here every day of our trip. There is just something about hanging out in a cover up, skin salty from the sea air, sand on your feet, drinking the day away.
The drink menu at The Sandbar
Three cocktails and one t-shirt later, we were on our way back to the hotel to relax on the comfy lounge chairs. I think I even took a quick nap in the sun, it was glorious.
Dinner our first night was at the coveted Nautilus. We had eaten at the Nautilus in Boston, but knew we had to try and snag a table at the one in Nantucket. We luckily had an 8:30 reservation. Before dinner we did a little cocktail hopping, first at or, The Whale on their beautiful back patio. Then we scored two bar seats in the dark and cozy Pearl, where I had the most delicious martini called the Ooh Mami Tini, which was made with vodka, fine sherry, umami bitters, olive brine and blue cheese olives. FANTASTIC.
Our cocktails at The Pearl. Check out my fancy coupe glass for my martini.
We arrived at Nautilus starving, only to find they were running behind and our table wasn’t ready. We grabbed (another) drink while we waited, which turned out to be about 45 minutes (!) – did I mention how hungry we were?
Nautilus has one of those menus where everything sounds amazing, and you usually just start ordering and dishes just start appearing at the table. We ate many delicious things, but the stand out dish for us were the Romano beans. Sounds silly, but these beans were prepared in a sauce that was so tasty, here we are 5 months later and Mr. KK and still talk about them. They were that good. We ate them so fast we didn’t even get a picture of them! But I did get a photo of the blue crab fried rice, which was also delicious.
Day 2 in Nantucket
Well, Day 1 was pretty damn near perfect, it was going to be hard to top it on Day 2. We woke up to sunshine and blue skies, and still talking about those Romano beans (seriously, so delicious!). We grabbed a quick breakfast at the barn (did I mention that they offer a complimentary continental breakfast that is actually good?) and we hopped on a bus to ‘Sconset to do the Bluff Walk.
Nantucket has a pretty robust bus system that can take you all over the island that is free during the summer months. The ride out to ‘Sconset was about 30 minutes. From drop off it was a short walk over to the start of the Bluff Walk, which is a path that runs a few miles along the ocean and basically in the backyards of waterfront homes. You are literally walking behind houses and waving to people on their back porches. They are, of course, used to people all up in their privacy, as it comes with living along the bluff. We walked all the way to the Sankaty Head Lighthouse in the blazing sun, but it felt good exercising and working off those Romano beans and 27 cocktails.
Us, sweating along the Bluff Walk.
After we got back, showered and cooled off, we headed to Cisco Brewers. There’s a convenient free shuttle right from town that was a 5 minute walk from our hotel. If you go to Nantucket, a visit to Cisco is a must. The place has a vibe. If you don’t drink beer, there’s no need to worry, because they also have wine (and frosé!) and Triple 8 distillery with mixed cocktails. Plus, multiple food trucks. There is literally something for everyone. The place was jamming on a late Friday afternoon; the crowd was bachelorette parties, locals, Chads after their rounds of golf, tourists, couples, and everyone in between. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so once we secured our first drink (beer for Mr. KK and – you guessed it! – frosé for me), we shared a lobster roll from one of the food trucks. There was live music and OH MY GOODNESS the people watching. That was probably my favorite part.
That night, we had reservations at Dune (which I just now learned has permanently closed, which is so unfortunate because the food was delicious!). We were able to walk to dinner (again, GREAT hotel location) and we were ready to eat! We shared a few appetizers, and I ordered the chicken and Mr. KK ordered the pork tenderloin. Once again, everything was delicious, and the presentation was beautiful. We were seated inside, but it looked like the restaurant had a pretty lively patio as well.
Food coma!
Day 3 in Nantucket
We woke up excited for the day, but also with a little sadness that this was our last full day. We grabbed iced coffees in town and walked to breakfast at Island Kitchen, which was a decent walk to mid-island. We sat outside and enjoyed a few bloodies.
We also walked back to burn off our breakfast burrito and avocado toast, and then spent the day wandering the cobblestone streets, popping into stores, and being tourists. Mr. KK bought more souvenirs for himself on this trip than he has on every other trip we’ve gone on together over the last 25 years.
My favorite photo from our trip. If you don’t see hydrangeas did you even go to Nantucket?
We were booked on The Endeavor sail boat that afternoon, for a two-hour tour of the harbor. The day was overcast for the most part, but when we sailed out we say some hints of a blue sky. We enjoyed relaxing on the boat as we cruised around Nantucket, dodging yachts and ferries.
Us, chilling on The Endeavor. I’ve never met a boat I didn’t like. If there’s a sailing excursion where I am, I will be on that boat.
We had some time to kill, so we headed back to Jetties Beach for buck-a-shuck oysters from 3-5pm. Talk about a good deal!
Our last dinner was at The Proprietors Bar and Table, or “Props” as the locals call it. The restaurant is in what looks like an old house, and we were seated upstairs. We had a delicious meal (once again) and were talking about how we wish we could just teleport back to the hotel, when the waitress came over to see if we wanted dessert. We said no, and then she reminded me that we were there celebrating my birthday, and I had to have dessert. “I’ll bring you a dessert!” she told me.
Dessert came with a candle, and Mr. KK captured the moment for me.
The dessert was…fine. I’m not a big dessert person, and none of the desserts were really jumping out at me to begin with. We ate a few bites, took this momentous photos, and then both threw in the towel. The biggest surprise was when the bill came. The birthday dessert that the waitress insisted I have and that she “bring me”, was charged to us for $20! No dessert is worth $20, especially one I didn’t really want in the first place.
Day 4 in Nantucket
We were on the 12:30 ferry home, so we had enough time to head out for one last delicious meal on island before heading back to reality.
We chose to eat at Black Eyed Susans and it was delicious! We sat at the counter and were mesmerized watching the cook handle the volume of breakfast orders. With full bellies we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and check out.
We were going to miss The Brant so much! I’m not bougie but I can slip into that lifestyle like it was my job.
I give our Nantucket weekend 10/10 stars. Each thing we did or experienced was so much better than I had imagined it would be. It’s the kind of place you visit once, and you never want to leave…or you can’t wait to come back.
It’s easy to see how so many people come for a short period of time and never end up leaving. I can’t wait to plan a second trip and come back.
This past September, we were in Newport, Rhode Island for a wedding. The day of the wedding dawned sunny and bright, 70 degrees and no humidity. The perfect day to dine al fresco by the water if there ever was one.
Our group of six made out way up and down the wharfs until we came to a restaurant with a stellar outdoor patio, right alongside the water. AND, it was empty! This was like kismet because finding a spot to eat for 6 people was proving to be difficult.
We walked up to the host station. “Six please, for outside,” I said.
“I’m sorry,” the host said, “We don’t have any availability.”
Me: “But your entire patio is empty. Can’t we sit at one of those empty tables? Are they all reserved?”
“Reserved? No,” she said. “I just don’t have any waitstaff to work this area.”
And so it went, as we stopped at a few restaurants. They had open tables, but no one to work them.
Fast forward a month and a half to tonight. Mr. KK and I decide we’re going to do take out. The fact that we made this decision – and picked a place – in a relatively timely fashion was a miracle in itself. When it came time to order, Mr. KK took one for the team. I took the dogs out.
When I came back in, Mr. KK was still on the phone, holding muzak blaring from his phone. “I’m on hold,” he told me.
This went on for several minutes.
“Let me call, too,” I said, dialing from my cell phone. It rang and rang. No one even answered.
“It’s been 10 minutes,” Mr. KK told me, “and I’m still on hold.”
I called three separate times, and each time my call went unanswered. “They must be short staffed,” I said, hanging up. For the record, this was a Wednesday night. Not a busy Friday or Saturday.,
Just a day earlier, we read about a restaurant in a neighboring town that was closing because they couldn’t find a chef to hire. Imagine that, they couldn’t find someone to cook at the restaurant.
Last year was horrible for restaurants and staff; Mr. KK did what we could ordering from our local favorites when they had family meals and take out available. And here we are – a year later – and restaurants can’t staff their establishments.
This is so sad to me. And maybe it’s only happening in places that aren’t big cities where there are thousands of people who need/want a job. But in our small town, restaurants are on the verge of closing their doors (if they haven’t done so already).
Maybe it’s The Great Resignation. Maybe people don’t want to work in the restaurant biz anymore. But it seems that people don’t want to work anywhere anymore. I’m not going to lie, while I love my job, if I could retire tomorrow in a way that I was financially stable, I would do it in a heartbeat. Not because I don’t like to work, but because I could think of a million things I could be doing every day that aren’t work.
So what is going to happen to restaurants? I’m sure the popular and city ones will be fine. They will bounce back and have full reservations. But what about the other ones? The local bars, Nonna’s Italian place down the street, and the local pizza joint? What happens to them?
Even in cities like Boston, so many familiar, old-standby bars and restaurants have closed. College and 20-something favorites have shuttered their doors, leaving behind vacant buildings and memories.
So what’s going to happen? Restaurants just start closing down because they don’t have anyone to work? There are so many people out there looking for jobs, why can’t restaurants staff their establishments?
Once a year, my friend J and I arrange a girls’ weekend in Boston where we spend the weekend eating, drinking, catching up and shopping.
The weather Gods were in our favor this year, as we had gorgeous fall weather, low 50’s and sunny – perfect poncho weather.
Lunch was at Coppa Boston, where we sipped wine and enjoyed a gorgeous charcuterie platter of fennel salami, duck prosciutto and spicy soppressata, paired with nutty pecorino, creamy robiola and and sola cheeses; and meatballs and a celery caesar salad that was so crunchy and fresh, I have to try and recreate this dish at home.
When J and I lived in Boston (15 years ago!) we both lived in South Boston (Southie, to those in the know). J lived on the nicely gentrified East Side, right on K Street near the famous L Street Tavern where Matt Damon and the Good Will Hunting gang used to hang out. I lived on the gritty west side off of West 5th Street, next to the park where Matt, Ben and others fought those kids on the basketball court.
Even though we lived on different sides of town, we both left before Southie became the trendy, up-and-coming area teeming with hipsters and millennials that it is today. So in an effort to relive our time living in the greatest city of all time, we decided to go to dinner in our old neighborhood.
“Wait until you see how Southie had changed,” I told her. “You won’t even recognize it.”
As our Uber driver, Wellington – whom we fondly referred to as Beef Wellington – took a left onto Albany Street, we both pressed our noses to the glass. What used to be dilapidated buildings and abandoned doorways, was now trendy gastro pubs, fromageries, and wine shops.
Whitey Bulger’s old haunt Triple O’s Lounge was now a rustic Italian cafe. Hole in the wall pizza joints were now chic taverns. And the old Mexican haunt with tabletops sticky from spilled margaritas was now a loud and hip sushi restaurant – and our destination for dinner.
Maybe it was eating at a restaurant where we the scene matched the food, or the hoards of youth on the sidewalks, but after dinner these two now-suburban moms were not ready to call it a night.
“Let’s go back to Broadway and go for a drink!” we thought who we were. And then we saw the lines at the bars. And then we realized who were weren’t.
We weren’t waiting in a line at a bar. Because we are OLD.
Both bars had lines so long, that it was doubtful that the kids – and they did look like kids – would ever see the inside of the place before dawn. And, not to go all MOM on the young ladies, but it was under 40 degrees, and the girls wore halter tops and mini skirts and no coats!
Don’t get me wrong, I still wait in lines. I’m just selective about the types of lines I’ll wait in.
I’ll wait in line to get into my favorite pizza place.
I’ll wait in line to get the latest beer released at a brewery.
But I won’t wait in line to get into a bar and pay inflated prices for cocktails and scream to be heard.
When we saw those lines, we looked at each other and a look passed between us, and in that brief moment we silently said to each other, “We have pajamas waiting for us in a hotel, with no spouses or kids and an entire bed to ourselves where we can lie down and watch HGTV uninterrupted until we fall asleep. So let’s leave these kids standing in line and high tail it back to our room.”
So we abandoned the line, hopped in an Uber and were in our jammies faster than you could say “millennial”.
To the young ones out there, waiting in lines at bars, enjoy it while you can.
Life of kk 