The Jetties
The Perfect Place To Enjoy Nantucket
Stunning ocean vistas, beautiful sunsets, warm sand and cool water...Jetties is, for many, the perfect island beach. The Jetties beach restaurant and bar adds just the right mix of good food, cool beverages, live music, and facilities to make a day or an evening at the beach even more fun.
Jetties Beach is an ideal location for a morning walk along the beach. Time it right and you can follow it up with a hot cup of freshly brewed Carrabassett coffee and a croissant, muffin, bagel, or other treat from The Jetties when it opens at 8 am. You can even stay for breakfast and have a more substantial egg sandwich.
At 11 am, the menu expands to include sandwiches and wraps, crisp salads, and other “grab-and-go” favorites, available until 5 pm. Grill selections made to order, hot and fresh, are served until 3 pm. You can order your lunch at the counter and have it brought to one of the The Jetties picnic tables or you can carry it to your beach blanket closer to the surf. Beach treats are available all day — ice cream bars, candy, chips, cold and frozen drinks.
The Jetties Shop has everything else you could want (or that you forgot), from hats and sunglasses to beach apparel, totes, and beach toys and games. You can rent chairs and umbrellas; changing rooms and showers are available; and if you feel the urge to update your Facebook account or blog about your day at the beach, you can access wireless from Jetties.
Go to Jetties in the late afternoon on a sunny summer day, and you'll find many locals relaxing in beach chairs set in the sand, sipping cocktails and savoring appetizers. The Jetties’ house-made Sangria (Red or White) is very refreshing and the Blueberry Lemonade might just be the perfect summertime cocktail (but watch out, the vodka can sneak up on you). The Jetties also serves the original Madaket Mystery, a legendary and potent island concoction of rum, fruit juices, and more rum.
When the weather is less than stellar, you still find locals at The Jetties, but perched around the beach bar or on the spacious sheltered deck listening to the live music. The Jetties is especially popular between 5 and 6 pm, when they offer “Buck-a-Shuck” — fresh clams, oysters, and shrimp from their raw bar at just a buck each for as long as the tasty morsels last.
Come 5 pm, and it’s dinner time. This casual beach eatery offers a menu designed to please a variety of appetites. When The Jetties re-opened in 2007 with experienced restauranteur J. Marshall Thompson at the helm, New York TImes described it as “New England meets Italy.” That description still fits. Light fare on the menu includes a Lobster Roll as well as a Hand-Crafted Italian Burger. Appetizers range from Bacon Wrapped Scallops to Antipasto Roulade. Soups are Nantucket Clam Chowder and Tuscan White Bean. The dozen or so entrees include both a Lobster Dinner and Seafood Fra Diavolo.
The recent evening we spent at The Jetties, there were couples clearly enjoying their time at the beach together, singles in the bar area, and a number of families—several multi-generational. The Jetties is perfect for families with young children: it’s the only restaurant on Nantucket where you can order dinner, go play in the sand with your little ones, then return to your table for lobster and champagne while the kids munch happily on burgers and hot dogs.
The Jetties Raw Bar is a big draw to those who adore fresh shellfish. You can order by the piece or their combinations: West Jetty, East Jetty, Half-Dozen, or The Whole Shucking Thing which is a feast of clams, oysters, shrimp, and a chilled lobster tail.
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One of our summer favorites at The Jetties is their Caprese Salad. (shown) One of a half-dozen fresh salads they serve, this colorful construction features the classic combination of juicy, ripe red tomatoes sliced thickly and layered with snowy-white mozzarella cheese. Strips of fresh basil leaves and drizzles of balsamic reduction finish off the salad. Their variations on a Caesar are also highly recommended and can be ordered as entrees as well as for hearty appetizers. We particularly like their Grilled Steak Caesar and their Lobster Salad Caesar.
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New to the menu this season and proving to be a customer favorite is the Antipasto Roulade. To prepare this chilled appetizer, traditional elements of antipasto are rolled together—proscuitto, black olives, roasted tomato, roasted peppers, arugula, feta, and fresh oregano—in a sheet of mozzarella cheese. The rolls are sliced and the colorful pinwheels of flavor are served atop a mixed salad with bright and juicy grape tomatoes. Very light and summery!
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They also have hot appetizers at Jetties that include their crunchy and delicious Breaded Three-Cheese Ravioli, succulent Bacon Wrapped Scallops (a Nantucket staple), and sensational Fried Calamari. (shown) Nearly every casual eatery on this island serves some version of calamari, but few are as good as the calamari served at The Jetties. The pile of tender rings (plenty for sharing!) comes with a sweet-tangy citrus and chili sauce for dipping. Each piece very pleasantly surprised us with its tenderness and the lightly crisp tempura-style coating.
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We have friends who come to The Jetties just for their thin crust pizza. (Okay, they come for their pizza and for the Madaket Mystery.) You can design your own from 15 different toppings, or you can order one of Chef Bruce Yancy’s eight specialty pizzas. All are very good, but we’re partial to the Fungi Pizza with its crimini mushrooms; to the Caprese Fresco with its base of alfredo sauce and mozzarella topped with roasted tomatoes, fresh basil, and balsamic reduction; and to the Jetties Lobster Pizza (shown), a superb mix of red pepper cream sauce, goat cheese and mozzarella, arugula, and chunks of lobster meat. The thin crust is crisp but not crackly. There’s enough cheese on this pizza so the lobster isn’t overpowering, and enough lobster so you don’t just taste cheese—a perfect balance.
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Speaking of lobster...The Jetties still offers their popular Lobster Dinner that features a steamed lobster, sweet corn, and potato. Served with drawn butter and lemon, the dinners 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 for a feast on the beach.
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About half the entree selections are pasta dishes that showcase fresh seafood and produce. The Grilled Swordfish entree is a generous swordfish steak, grilled lightly and nicely seasoned. It’s served on a tangle of fettucine tossed in red pepper cream sauce with roasted onion and arugula. Simple and tasty!
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Another dish we highly recommend is the Chicken Mushroom Alfredo. It sounds heavy for summertime, but the alfredo sauce Yancy uses is light with no loss of flavor. There are lots of crimini mushrooms, sliced and sauteed, and the large chunks of chicken breast are succulent and tender. We like this entree best with the whole wheat linguini—it adds a nutty flavor.
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Chef Yancy gets to be creative with the nightly dinner specials, which often feature fish pulled fresh from the sparkling waters around Nantucket. We tried his Locally Caught Pan-Seared Striped Bass and were delighted at this fine-dining entree served in a beach setting. The fish was cooked just right: beautifully seasoned golden on top, and moist and flaky right through the middle. Yancy served it on country mashed potatoes surrounded by an ancho chili sauce that started with a whisper of sweetness and finished with a tinge of heat. On top the fish were sweet carmelized shallots and juicy diced tomato. We’re hoping Yancy will make this a “regular special” as long as the bass are running!
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If you can’t decide between seafood and meat, then order The Jetties Surf and Turf. This duo of split lobster tail and medallions of beef tenderloin is a luscious pairing of land and sea. The lobster comes set on fettucine tossed with the red pepper cream sauce we so liked on the Swordfish entree; the beef comes with fettucine in alfredo sauce with generous crumbles of gorgonzola cheese and tracings of balsamic. You’ll not eat the two halves of this dish together, but they truly satisfy your taste for lobster and for steak!
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The Jetties usually has two different desserts. Currently they are offering an individually sized Carrot Cake. This is moist and flavorful and sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.
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But order the Mississippi Mud Pie. And if you have children with you, send them to play in the sand before you order it, because you’ll want this fudgy dessert all to yourself! Closer to a flourless chocolate cake than to any pie we’ve ever had, this Mud Pie is more chocolately than it is sweet. We liked it with a cup of black coffee, but we suspect it would be just as good with a cold Stella or a glass of Malbec.
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