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In This Issue
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The Jetties - The Island's Beach Bar & Restaurant
Jetties , with its broad sandy beach, walkway to the water, warm shallows and sandbar, dunes, and wide shoreline views, is the quintessential Nantucket Beach. Many treasured memories of summer fun have been created on this stretch of sand. In season, it’s the site of Film Festival events, July 4th Fireworks, the Boston Pops, the annual Sandcastle Contest, the Comedy Festival, and numerous parties. Off-season, it’s the place for solitary walks and astounding feats of kiteboarding.
From May into October, it’s also the location of the quintessential Nantucket beach bar and restaurant.
The Jetties is made up of four levels of wide wooden decks built over the sands of Jetties Beach. The restaurant is partly open air and mostly sheltered with roof and removable sides, so the occasional summer rain shower need not interrupt the fun.
It’s easy to spend the entire day at Jetties Beach with all that The Jetties offers. Starting at 8 am, you can enjoy an eye-opening cup of Carrabassett coffee with croissants, coffee cake, muffins, bagels, fruit, granola, yogurt, or egg sandwiches. At 11 am, the menu expands to include sandwiches and wraps, traditional lobster and clam rolls, crisp salads, hummus, chowder and gazpacho, and grill selections from burgers and chili dogs to cheesey fries and popcorn chicken. Beach treats are available all day — ice cream bars, candy, chips, cold and frozen drinks — they even have a Slurpee machine that can pump out those fun red and blue frozen beverages. You can rent chairs and umbrellas from The Jetties shop, and if you feel that you really must fit in a bit of work, The Jetties has wireless for your laptop.
At 5 pm, each bright blue picnic table at Jetties is set with a cruet of olive oil, a shaker of crushed red pepper, a peppergun, a tin bucket of heavy duty plasticware, and a roll of papertowels in a wooden holder. You can lean back and dig your feet into the sand while lounging in one of the many colorful beach chairs that owner Marshall Thompson sets out for his evening guests. It’s the perfect setting for cocktails and dinner at the beach—a fun mix of dining out and picnicking at home.
Of course at home you won’t have live music every evening, you probably don’t have a raw bar, the menu selection and choice of cocktails is certainly smaller, and only a few of us have stunning views and gorgeous sunsets to rival those at Jetties.
Jetties has become a favorite stop at the end of a day filled with work or with play. Bring sunglasses for late afternoon and early evening and a light sweater for after the sun goes down. The setting is relaxing, the cocktails refreshing, and Chef Bruce Yancy’s New England fare with Italian accents is superb. Yancy prides himself on his house-made sauces, fresh fish, and delicious preparations. We were impressed with the variety and quality of food that comes out of his small beachside kitchen.
On the uppermost deck of The Jetties is the spacious wooden bar that some will recognize from The Westender—as Marshall likes to say, “We got the bar, and we got the drink.” In addition to the famous Madaket Mystery, bartenders at The Jetties can serve whatever cocktail you can think of.
The Raw Bar is ‘round the corner from the cocktail bar. Ocean-fresh local clams and oysters are opened to order and served by the half-dozen. Shrimp and crab claws round out the selection. Mondays in June after 5 pm are “Buck-a-Shuck” night—come early because they go fast and this fun only lasts as long as the shellfish do! You could spend the evening with a couple of dozen oysters and a cold draft or chilled bottle of Veuve Clicquot. The Jetties wine list includes more than 18 bottles and at least as many by the glass, and their pitchers of Sangria are just the thing for sharing with a table full of friends.
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Also ideal for sharing is The Jetties’ Fried Calamari with it’s zingy spicy red pepper sauce and, new this season, their Breaded Three-Cheese Ravioli. Filled with mozzarella, ricotta, and parmesan, these half-moon finger food treats are crunchier and more flavorful than mozzarella sticks and just as much fun to eat.
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Even better for sharing (they’re too big to finish solo) are The Jetties’ thin crust pizzas. Choose one of their seven special varieties or build your own from a choice of 14 toppings. The thin and crisp-edged crust is a perfect balance: firm enough to hold the toppings yet soft enough to fold. We recommend the Caprese Fresco, a fantastic variation on a white pizza that combines sweet and mellow roasted tomatoes, bright fresh basil, and tangy drizzles of balsamic reduction over a base of fresh mozzarella cheese and alfredo sauce. The alfredo sauce adds a cheesey richness without over powering the fresh toppings.
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What better food for the beach than seafood? The Jetties has many tasty dishes to choose from. We enjoy their Steamed Mussels. The plump orange tidbits are sweet and tender and served in a pool of flavorful pesto cream sauce with pine nuts that is heavy on the pesto and light on the cream. We like to eat this by popping all mussels out of their shells and then spooning them up with the sauce and the nuts.
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Among the several salads served at Jetties, the Lobster Salad Caesar is one of our favorites. There’s just enough garlicky caesar dressing to coat the romaine; the croutons are crunchy and the parmesan plentiful; and, best of all, a generous portion of clean-tasting, freshly made lobster salad is nestled right on top.
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The Jetties still offers their popular New England Shore Dinner. It’s the perfect way to enjoy a traditional Nantucket lobster feast, complete with chowda, steamed lobster, grilled chicken, sweet corn, and potato. If you’re not quite up to this amount of food, then go for the Lobster Dinner that features a steamed lobster, sweet corn, and potato. Both are served with drawn butter and lemon and are tucked into biodegradeable boxes whose lids, when open, serve as trays for the shells and the cob. You can dig in on the deck at The Jetties, or order a couple to go and savor them with family and friends on your beach blanket.
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Another terrific beach entree is Chef Yancy’s Shrimp Provencal. Full of tangy Mediterranean flavors, this combination of plump shrimp, big chunks of sauteed mushrooms, sweet onion, mellow roasted tomato, and briney kalamata olives is tossed with linguini in a simple white wine and garlic sauce. It’s delightfully light for a hearty summer entree. If you order this, be sure to get a little of everything in each mouthful for a kaledioscope of flavors.
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Evening specials at The Jetties nearly always feature whatever is freshest from the docks. We sampled Roasted Local Cod topped with fresh pesto and roasted red pepper. The pesto adds an appealing brightness to the fresh fish and combines deliciously with the linguini alfredo served alongside.
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Two of the pasta entrees on The Jetties’ dinner menu feature meat, and both are sure winners. Moist chicken breast cut into thick slices is sauteed with big chunks of mushrooms and caramelized onions in a luxurious and slightly sweet creamy marsala sauce for Chef Yancy’s Chicken Marsala. After you devour the chicken, there’s plenty of linguini (regular or whole wheat) to twirl with the rich sauce.
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Our table favorite of the evening was the Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo. Impressively tender beef tenderloin medallions, marinated and grilled, are presented atop Yancy’s delicious linguini alfredo. Gorgonzola cheese is crumbled overtop and drizzles of balsamic add the final tangy touch. The flavors meld lusciously together.
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Desserts at The Jetties vary. We had a hard time choosing between the two-layer Carrot Cake...
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...and the Blueberry Lemon Cream Cake. We tasted each, and it was close, but the Blueberry Cake edged out the Carrot Cake. |
