DINING
ON CAPE COD
by John Mariani
The great arm
of Cape Cod both beckons to those out at sea and caresses those
who sail in the calm of the Bay, so that its earliest history
as a safe haven has endured through its whaling days and well
into its days as a summer tourist destination, when its 400 square
miles, from Buzzards Bay to Provincetown, bear the brunt of the
summering crowd.
Eating out on the Cape has largely been a matter of which dockside
seafood house you prefer, with legions of lobster shacks and places
claiming to have the best clam chowder in New England. Not too
long ago the higher end inns offered the kind of continental fare
and Yankee suppers that you could just as easily defrost in your
own refrigerator. But there has been a marked change for better
and better food over the past few years, led by Chillingsworth
in Brewster, set in a sprawling 300-year-old structure spread over
six acres. There are a few pretty guest rooms here, but this is
a major gourmet destination, having won just about every award
possible for its cuisine and wine list, as maintained by owners
Pat and Nitzi Rabin, who close the place from December 1 to Mother's
Day and move to Mexico, where they run a vacation home named Casa
Blanca.
The landscaping depends on ancient trees and new lawns, and the
place has a fine antique charm in the main dining room, counterpointed
by a modern, bright bistro on the premises where I had my most
recent meal here.In the restaurant table settings are gorgeous,
the appointments sheer luxury, the draperies and linens thick and
the wineglasses exquisitely thin. Nitzi is the chef here, and he
offers sumptuous French and American cuisine in 7-course dinners
at table d'hote prices of $57.50-$68.50. The Bistro (right) is
far more casual, with a lighter à la carte menu, whose main
dishes run $15-$25.50. The skylighted premises, decorated in blond
wood and terracotta tiles, are ideal for lunch or weekend brunch,
and you have access to that exceptional wine list here too.
When I was there Nitzi slipped in a couple of dishes from the
restaurant menu, but the distinctions are not all that radical,
so that in
the restaurant you might have a seared duck breast with spicy field
greens and confit with a balsamic vinegar duck sauce, while in
the Bistro the duck breast comes with lentils, beets, confit and
parsley ragoût with micro greens and duck sauce. Still, the
restaurant menu is far more lavish. My lunch was just about perfect,
beginning with foie gras with risotto and a richly reduced meat
glaze. Seared line-caught cod came with jicama, apple, seabeans,
bacon, and cream with chervil--the very essence of sublimated New
England fare, while jumbo squash and mascarpone were the filling
for ravioli with pork loin in a Beaujolais-and-rosemary pork reduction.
The precision of French pastry was demonstrated in a textbook example
of a chocolate pyramide with fruit. and in three impeccably creamy
crème brûlées.
Excerpted from
DINING ON CAPE COD
by John Mariani (click
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