Easy Street Restaurant & Seafood House
A Taste of Coastal New England

What better place to dine on Nantucket in August than at a harborside café? Head to the corner of Easy Street and Steamboat Wharf, and there you’ll find the perfect eatery with gorgeous views, great food, and prices that won’t break the bank.

For generations, Easy Street Restaurant & Seafood House has been THE place to go on-island for New England seafood. Owned and operated by Joseph Arno, whose parents Vincent and Clara Arno started the family tradition of good food and a respect for value, Easy Street is open from 9:30 am till 9:30 pm, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Patio dining is at a premium during warm summer weather, and Easy Street has half dozen or so comfy outdoor tables. It’s an ideal spot to enjoy the cool ocean breezes and watch the activity on the wharf—if you like people-watching, time your visit for when the ferry boats arrive!

Inside the restaurant, the style is easygoing and upretentious, with warm wood, high ceilings, and expansive views. A large wrap-around bar divides the first floor: along one side of it is a lounge area with tables that are perfect for hanging out with friends; the other side of the bar is a spacious dining room. Windows all along two sides of the dining room allow for great views of the wharf.

Upstairs are two smaller dining areas with more fabulous views! The choice table here is tucked into a corner of windows overlooking the harbor. Set apart from the main dining room, this second floor space is ideal for private celebrations, and with prior arrangement can be reserved for parties.

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	With breakfast starting at 9:30 a.m. and lunch beginning at 10:30 a.m., you can start your day with specialties from either meal. The Belgian Waffle ($6.00) comes highly recommended—it’s delicately crisp along the edges and tender inside, with whipped butter and real maple syrup filling the deep pockets. We like it best with fresh strawberries ($7.50), but you can also order it with bananas or blueberries. Don’t forget a side of naturally cured bacon, thick and crisp.
If your companion wants lunch while you want breakfast, there are dozens of choices, from a simple Grilled Cheese ($4.75) or B.L.T. ($5.95) to the lobster feast that they call their New England Lobster Boil. For just $20 this comes with a freshly cooked lobster, drawn butter, sweet corn-on-thecob, baby YukonGold potatoes, and a traditional bib. During our recent dinner at Easy Street Restaurant & Seafood House, we watched as Lobster Boil platters were brought to every table. If you time it right and call ahead, you cantake your Lobster Boil with you on your trip across the pond and be the envy of every other passenger on the ferry. Every item on the Easy Street Restaurant menus —breakfast, lunch, and dinner—is available for takeout.
	If you’re looking for a lighter lunch but still want lobster, we recommend Easy Street Restaurant’s Lobster Roll ($16.95). A generous amount of fresh lobster salad—light on the mayo and with some diced celery for a cool crunch— is stuffed inside a buttered and toasted split hot dog roll. Cole slaw is served alongside. Other lunch and all-day favorites include Naturally Raised Beef Burger ($10.95), Fried Scrod Sandwich ($12.95), Fried Salmon Sandwich or Swordfish Sandwich ($13.95 and $14.95). All sandwiches come with fries and coleslaw.
Some traditional dinner items can be ordered as early as 10:30 a.m. until Easy Street Restaurant closes at 9:30 p.m., so if you’ve gotten up early for fishing or a whale watch and are ready for a hearty meal at mid-day, they can accommodate you with half a dozen seafood dishes in addition to the $20 Lobster Boil. For liquid refreshment, the bar at Easy Street Restaurant & Seafood House has a dozen draft beers, favorites as well as some very good imported beersincluding Spaten Lager from Munich, Stella Artois from Belgium, and Smithwick’s Ale from Ireland. Bottled beers add another 13 to the selection. If you’d rather have a summer cocktail, there are more than 15 specialty drinks featured. They make a very good Bloody Mary, a classic Dark& Stormy, and their E.Z. Ice Coffee and E.Z. Lemonade are sure to help you chill on a hot summer day.
	Finger foods served at Easy Street make great snacks and great appetizers. We were very impressed by the very tender Fried Calamari ($11.75), which are batter dipped then fried and served hot and crunchy. Even the tartar sauce served alongside for dipping deserves high praise! And there’s plenty to share.
	Several of the appetizers are served by the piece, which means you can try one of each or feast on a favorite. Jumbo Buffalo Wings, Chicken Tenders, and Oysters on the Half Shell. We ordered the Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail for four, and putting “jumbo” in the name is no exaggeration! Classically served with the shrimp curled around the edge of a martini glass with lemon wedges and the spicy red cocktail sauce in the center, the shrimp are nicely chilled, plump, and succulent—exactly how this appetizer was meant to be!
	You can’t have a traditional New England Seafood feast without Clam Chowder ($4.95), and the kitchen at Easy Street Restaurant serves an excellent traditional New England version, full of tender clams and potatoes and creamy without being too thick. For something a bit fancier, try their Lobster Bisque, satiny smooth, with chunks of lobster floating in the rich bisque.
	Another great way to start a meal starring fresh New England seafood is with a delicious bowl of Steamed Mussels ($11.95). These tasty morsels are steamed and served in their natural juices with a splash of white wine, onion, and with chopped tomato. The broth is good, but the fresh and tender mussels really are the stars of this dish. Toasted garlic bread is served alongside to get every drop.
	Over the years and mostly thanks to “fast food” joints, fried food has gotten a very bad rap. But Joseph Arno says it best when he says “Great fried food can be fine dining.” And at Easy Street Restaurant & Seafood House, it definitely is! Scrod, flounder, scallops, whole belly clams, and jumbo shrimp are all on the menu, sparkling fresh and fried to order in pure canola oil. We recommend the Fisherman’s Platter which includes shrimp, sea scallops, clams, and fresh fish ($19.95). The batter is a nice complement to the sweetness of shellfish or a flaky fillet. "Our platters sell like crazy," commented Lisa, our very helpful and friendly server. Be warned: the Fisherman’s Platter is heavily laden with seafood, french fries, and coleslaw, so come hungry!
	Not all the seafood at Easy Street Restaurant is fried, they serve a very satisfying Sauteed Jumbo Shrimp Scampi ($19.95) and a superb Grilled Salmon ($17.95) that is fresh from the docks, beautifully grilled and comes with creamy mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and vegetable (in our case green beans steamed to a delicious tender-crispness).
	The pièce de résistance here is the Lobster Tail and Filet Mignon ($20.00). The filet arrived cooked to a perfect medium-rare, and the lobster tail (split for easy access) was cooked just till it curled, so the meat stayed moist and sweet. The lobster was so good, we didn’t touch the drawn butter served alongside—it wasn’t needed.
	If you do not partake of seafood, you can still enjoy a meal at Easy Street Restaurant & Seafood House. In addition to the Buffalo Wings and Chicken Tenders, there are three fresh salads (just skip the anchovies on the Caesar), and very evening they offer several non-seafood entrees, usually Chicken Marsala and a Filet Mignon.
	Desserts at Easy Street Restaurant are homemade and served in portions as large as the rest of the menu items! The fresh Blueberry Pie with flaky crust is served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
	The dessert that will truly satisfy your sweet tooth is the Belgian Chocolate Mousse Cake, tall as a threelayer cake, but filled with rich, airy chocolate mousse!

Come to the corner of Easy Street and Steamboat Wharf for a New England Seafood feast: you’re sure to leave with your hunger satisfied and your wallet intact!

Easy Street Restaurant and Seafood House

31 Easy Street, corner of Easy Street & Steamboat Wharf
508-228-5031 • www.easystreetnantucket.com
Breakfast served from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. from $4.50
Sandwiches, Appetizers, Salads, and All Day Entrees
from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. starting at $4.75
New England Lobster Boil served from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. for $20
Dinner entrees from 4 to 9:30 p.m. starting at $14.95
Full Bar • Indoor & Outdoor Dining • Families Welcomed
All menu items available for take-out