“You should do a story on that,” she quickly shot back. “Come up with the five best appetizers on Cape Cod.”
And so, I did, but with a qualifier. Considering my location, I limited it to seafood appetizers. Furthermore, it would be presumptuous to label these selections the “best,” for as the saying goes, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Therefore, these are my personal favorites. With so many outstanding restaurants across the Cape, I’m sure there are many other appetizers that diners can’t live without.
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Another note: My search was conducted in the offseason, so it did not include the Lower Cape towns of Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown, where many of the restaurants are closed in winter.
My criteria for choosing the seafood apps focused on taste, creativity, presentation, and uniqueness, with a nod toward the atmosphere of the restaurant. In my mind, the setting in which you consume a meal is often as important as the meal itself.
Mahoney’s Atlantic Bar & Grille, Orleans
Located in the center of downtown, just off Main Street, Mahoney’s was once a dry goods store. Most customers enter through the rear door, where they are greeted by an expansive bar area that includes table seating and a back rail to accommodate overflow crowds.
Relaxing and homey, the bar is the ideal spot for enjoying an app with a craft cocktail. As already mentioned, the standout choice for me is the grilled shrimp and scallops. The key to the dish, says owner and chef Ted Mahoney, is the homemade blackened seasoning, which includes black, white, and red pepper, salt, paprika, onion powder, chili powder, ground thyme, cumin, ancho pepper, and garlic butter.
“I then use the biggest jumbo shrimp I can find, and I put the shrimp and scallops in a sauté pan with clarified butter,” he said. “I shake on the seasoning and place them on a cast-iron pan that is kept hot all night long. Give them a quick sear for two minutes and they’re ready.”
The result are crunchy, zesty, succulent shrimp and scallops that explode with flavor with every bite.
Diners often take notice when this scallops and bacon dish is served at C Salt Wine Bar & Grille in Falmouth.C Salt Wine Bar & Grille
C Salt Wine Bar & Grille, Falmouth
You know an appetizer is unique when heads turn each time it’s brought to a table. The “Scallops NOT Wrapped in Bacon” at C Salt is one such appetizer.
“It’s an eye-catcher,” owner and chef Jonathan Philips said.
Philips drew inspiration from chef David Burke at David Burke Prime in Foxwoods, who first began hanging bacon with an appetizer or entrée. Philips decided to pair North Country Vermont slab bacon with New Bedford sea scallops to create a dish that is visually striking and savory. One note: The appetizer is for two and runs $32, so don’t go with a vegetarian.
The sea scallops are pan-seared with a touch of salt and pepper. But the bacon makes the dish come together. It is slow-cooked using brown sugar, with pink and black peppercorns, giving it a candied flavor. The bacon is then hung on what resembles a clothesline, with the scallops placed beneath. That allows the bacon fat, brown sugar, and peppercorns to drip onto the scallops, creating a decadent and delightful explosion of flavor. A side of red onion marmalade completes the presentation.
The Belfry Inne & Bistro, Sandwich
Originally a church that dates back to the early 1900s, the Belfry feels like a religious experience. The aisle leading to the altar is now an intimate dining room with stained glass windows, ecclesiastical lighting, oak walls, and a grand fireplace. The former confessional now displays bottles of wine, while many of the pews were used to build the bar.
The secluded “Tower Room,” an intimate table for two or four with curtains that can be closed for solitude, has its own separate space and is set alongside a baptismal altar. It has been the site of many marriage proposals, owner Chris Wilson said.
Chef Nicci Tripp, who mentored under legendary Alice Waters during two decades on the West Coast, took over the Belfry kitchen in January 2019. Although the menu changes seasonally, it always features the lobster gnocchi appetizer, a dish that Tripp has been making for 25 years.
“I’ve brought it with me to every restaurant I’ve gone. I could never take it off the menu,” he said. “Whenever I’ve tried, I’ve gotten threatening phone calls.”
Unlike traditional potato-based gnocchi, Tripp’s version is filled with ricotta and Parmesan cheese, egg yolk, sea salt, shaved lemon zest and a touch of flower, then folded together and poached in water.
While the gnocchi sit in a lobster bordelaise sauce, Tripp roasts lobster shells, adds tomato sauce, fennel, Vidalia onions, carrots, thyme, and tarragon, and then splashes it all with white burgundy. After covering in water and letting it simmer, he places the sauce and shells into a blender, and then strains it.
“It’s a process,” he said.
Served in a large soup bowl, the gnocchi, mixed with generous chunks of lobster, is tender and moist, while the mouthwatering broth adds just the right spice without overwhelming the dish.
Bleu, Mashpee
At Bleu, a French bistro in Mashpee Commons, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to Paris. Owner and chef Frederic Feufeu grew up in the Loire Valley and came to the Cape in 2003 after working at New York’s famed Rainbow Room. Not surprisingly, he created a menu that paid homage to his homeland, with French-inspired dishes, such as escargot, poached Foie Gras and Cassoulet with duck confit.
But he quickly realized he was missing something.
“Diners kept asking why we didn’t have a chowder on the menu,” he said. “I said, ‘We don’t do that in French cooking.’”
He wasn’t about to make clam chowder, but he came up with an alternative, called it “Fred’s Bacalao Chowder,” and it’s never left the menu. “This is chowder with a twist,” he said.
Using salted cod instead of clams, Feufeu created a silky-smooth chowder that includes apple-smoked bacon, celery, onion, fennel and leeks, and explodes with creamy flavor with each spoonful.
“It’s much more French than New England,” he said. “I had to stay true to the theme of the restaurant.”
In a twist to traditional escargot, lobster replaces snails at the West End in Hyannis.Rob Duca for The Boston Globe
The West End, Hyannis
For 50 years, this was the Paddock, a traditional steakhouse, with dark wood and dim lighting, where male diners looked out of place without a jacket and tie. Since purchasing the nearly 100-year-old building and opening The West End in 2017, owners Jen Villa and Blane Toedt have transformed a restaurant that is conveniently located steps from the Cape Cod Melody Tent into a chic and contemporary space.
The bar has white high-backed leather chairs, polished steel tables and a white tile floor, while the airy and elegant dining room features fabric-covered booths, oversize modern chandeliers and a wall of books focused on Cape Cod. But there are still touches of wood throughout that were retained from the former restaurant.
“We wanted to keep as much of the old as we could but bring a modern fresh feel by making it a sexy, upscale experience,” Villa said. “We wanted it to be visually stimulating.”
You might feel like you’ve left the Cape when you walk through the door, but there is one creative appetizer that will take you back to the sea. Villa calls it a “spin on Cape Cod, lobster reinvented.”
Reinvented might be a tad overstated, but the lobster escargot is unlike any other seafood app I’ve experienced on the Cape. Basically, it’s escargot without the snails. Instead, chunks of lobster meat are served to fit into an escargot plate, each piece swimming in a blend of butter, garlic, and Panko crumbs.
Fresh lobster drenched in lots of garlic and butter. Need I say more?
Rob Duca can be reached at robduca@gmail.com.