Provincetown Offers Holiday Revelers 150 Shops, Galleries, Restaurants and Accommodations

Good Scents, at 351 Commercial Street, brings us fragrant
products from around the world, joined by at least 80 more
PTown boutiques and galleries open for your holiday shopping.

I took a spin around the streets of Provincetown the other day and found more than 150 businesses open for folks who want to shop, eat and play in the relaxed and welcoming atmosphere of our holiday season. I counted more than 80 stores, boutiques, gift shops, galleries, hand crafters, and other unique purveyors of various goods and finery before I lost count of them all.

Tonight, Mac's Italian style celebration highlights seven varieties of
seafood. Click on the link at the left for Mac's New Year's Eve menu.

There are more than two-dozen wonderful restaurants open to serve you anything from a great deli sandwich to a splendid holiday meal with wine pairings and live music. You can enjoy shoulder season bargains and specials or immerse yourself in fine dining at its best.
Mac's Fish House, for example, offers choices ranging from its famous all-you-can-eat fish and chips dinner on Thursday nights for just $16, to tonight's Feast of the Seven Fishes. This special meal is a traditional Italian holiday feast.
Mac's is also pulling out all the stops for its special New Year's Eve Dinner, beginning with an amuse-bouche, followed by six courses, then dessert, with optional wine pairings available as well. This fabulous meal will be followed by live music from the Rip It Ups. A portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit SKIP, the Soup Kitchen in Provincetown. Call 508 487-6227 to inquire about reservations.

Click on the link at the right to reserve a room online, or call
508 364-2549 for the White Porch Inn's special winter rates.

Lodging in PTown varies widely from rustic simplicity to stylish elegance.
The multiple award-winning White Porch Inn, for example, is a jewel among dozens of inns, B&Bs, guest houses and hotels in Provincetown that are open throughout the holiday season. In fact, this fine inn and a number of others stay open year-round, often featuring great bargains on seasonal rates.
This immaculate B&B has the charming look of an old sea captain's home, while the thoughtfully renovated interior provides a unique backdrop for contemporary paintings by artists from all around the world. Guests often become attached to a particular painting during their stay. Happily, many of these artworks are for sale, gaining the place a fine reputation as an Art Hotel. In an international survey of comments and ratings by its visitors, the White Porch Inn scored 9.7 out of 10, which ranks it among the top 3 percent of those surveyed hotels around the world.

Suede's unique talent defies description,; her voice is truly her own. MUST SEE!

The jazzy, bluesy, fabulous vocals of Suede will be oozing out of the Paramount at The Crown & Anchor on New Year's day as the diva takes the stage at 8 PM.
In fact, The Crown & Anchor will be a very busy place over the holidays, with Bobby Wetherbee's famous sing-along piano bar, Thirsty Burlington's Christmas Special, drag bingo to benefit the Provincetown Business Guild, and a huge New Year's Eve dance party.
There will be special menus in the restaurant, along with Peter's award-winning wine list, and special room rates, too. There will also be a food court on New Year's Day as part of Provincetown's First Light celebration, and this will be a great spot to watch the fireworks that evening. Click the links above to see all the things going on at the Crown.
Come and enjoy Provincetown for the holidays, with something for everyone. Visit the PBG website for the First Light event schedule, including parties, entertainment, Hanukkah festivities, family fun, European style holiday market, a bike event, indoor farmers market, polar bear plunge, fireworks, and food events all over town. There's also a list of lodging and restaurants open to serve you. Come Join us! Create a New Year's tradition for yourself with our 2nd annual First Light celebration.

Holly Folly Offers Provincetown Visitors More Holiday Events Than Ever

Find out about Holly Folly events when you visit this years' headquarters at Tin Pan Alley, 269 Commercial Street.

Holly Folly is Provincetown's annual holiday celebration, with a particular welcome to LGBTQ visitors who may not always be able to celebrate at home or with family. Every year, dozens of events are packed into a three-day period, beginning on Friday of the first weekend in December.

From ugly sweaters to art exhibits, from cookie parties to splendid holiday music, more than 30 events will take place throughout Provincetown Friday, December 2nd through Sunday, December 4^th. There will be great shopping in more than 100 PTown shops, galleries and boutiques, not to mention holiday treats and wonderful food from one end of town to the other.

This three-day party kicks off today, with six events this evening, and a chance to get a jump on your holiday shopping during the day. Be sure to save your receipts from participating restaurants, shops and galleries. You may win one of five fabulous gift baskets as a reward for your patronage at spots all over town. Get details online or at Holly Folly Headquarters, at Tin Pan Alley.

Swimsuits are required at the Jingle Bell Run, and optional at the Champagne Brunch, which follows.

New this year is the WICKED WINTER WONDERLAND, billed as “An Interactive Holiday Fright Maze for Naughty Kids & Adults of All Ages!” according to the PBG website. Certain special events will provide unique shopping opportunities as well, such as the Holly Folly Food Boutique at Sage Inn and Lounge, where you can 
”Sip, snack and shop from artisanal food and beverage producers from all over New England.”

There will be musical events such as concerts and sing-alongs, lots of food, a wide variety of parties, and a number of participatory events that don’t all fit neatly into categories, like the ANNUAL JINGLE BELL RUN AND CHAMPAGNE BRUNCH on Saturday. Proceeds of the event help to support and sustain the Provincetown Business Guild (PBG) fostering LGBTQ Cultural Tourism in Provincetown.

Guesthouses, homes and businesses throughout PTown are decorated for Holly Folly.

Just strolling through the town will lead you to charming guesthouses, businesses and lovely homes decorated for the holiday season, with prizes to be awarded for the best lights and displays. Special sightseeing tours in a warm, cozy van will be offered by *Discover Provincetown. Call 424•23P•TOWN (that's 424•237•8696) for info or pickup, or to schedule a private tour of historic Provincetown during your visit.

Pick up a printed schedule of Holly Folly events at Holly Folly Headquarters, at Tin Pan Alley, or go online for info at https://ptown.org/holly-folly/. Some of these events are free, some are fundraisers for local organizations, and all are great fun! Here’s just a partial list taken from the PBG website:

.

•HOLLY FOLLY INN STROLL 15 guesthouses and inns, guided tour also available

•Ugly Holiday Sweater/Hard Candy Christmas Party

•LEATHER DANCE PARTY

•HOLIDAY DANCE PARTY at Club Purgatory

•ANNUAL HOLIDAY PIANO BAR  Bobby Wetherbee, Central House,  No Cover

•HOLIDAY PAJAMA DRAG BRUNCH


•Special film screening, THIRSTY, featuring local drag legend Thirsty Burlington

•ANNUAL GINGERBREAD HOUSE DECORATING COMPETITION

•ANNUAL BOSTON GAY MEN'S CHORUS HOLIDAY CONCERT

•SOUPER SATURDAY luncheon to benefit PTown's marvelous soup kitchen

•'Tis The Season Holiday Revue at Paramount, at the Crown & Anchor

•The Annual SNOW BALL at the A House, 4-6 Masonic Place

•Holly Folly Cabaret @ Tin Pan Alley - Direct from New York City, Allison Mickelson sings Holiday favorites and signature standards.

•Holly Folly Sing-Along with Billy Hough at the Porchside Bar, Gifford House Inn: 9 Carver Street. Request your favorite holiday tunes. No cover.

•ANNUAL JINGLE BELL RUN AND CHAMPAGNE BRUNCH! Proceeds of the event help to support and sustain the Provincetown Business Guild (PBG) fostering LGBTQ Cultural Tourism in Provincetown.

These and twenty other events, displays, parties and performances await you. Happy Holidays!

*I started Discover Provincetown this past summer to provide year-round, custom, narrated sightseeing tours of historic Provincetown in comfort, at a reasonable price, and with accurate accounts of the history of this remarkable town as the centerpiece of each unique tour. Call or text 424•23P•TOWN (that's 424•237•8696) for pickup, or to schedule a custom tour ranging from 30 minutes to 4 hours.

Check Your Attic… Howard Mitcham's Provincetown Seafood Cookbook is Rare

Keep an eye out for Chef Howard Mitcham's iconic
cookbook at a good price, or make a few bucks by
selling your own copy of this collectible treasure.

In attics, old stairwells and circular cellars throughout PTown there are treasures tucked away, long forgotten. Besides rare, vintage photographs and artwork, silver serving pieces, jewelry and other obviously valuable finds, there are items far less conspicuous, but worth a good bit of cash on the open market.

A case in point would be Howard Mitcham's Provincetown Seafood Cookbook. The first printing of the original softcover Addison-Wesley edition back in 1975 is currently offered on eBay at $240. When I searched online I found the price for a used copy was most often nearly double, at $476. One site listed the book at over $1,200, so perhaps that was for a pristine, unread copy. It seems that a first edition hardcover will likely cost you over $7,000, if you can find one for sale. A second softcover edition printed that same year, used, runs $150.

Acclaimed chef Anthony Bourdain, who got his culinary start in Provincetown, describes this charming cookbook, in-and-out of print over the last 40 years, as "a witty, informative ode to local seafood, sprinkled with anecdotes." Bordain also reportedly declared this the “best seafood cookbook in history.”

An Amazon blurb says that "this illustrated cookbook combines mouthwatering recipes with fascinating glimpses of history and folklore. Provincetown's best-known chef recounts the development of the town's fishing fleet and offers dozens of Portuguese- and Creole-influenced recipes for Cape Cod seafood favorites."

Chapters include any kind of seafood imaginable.

Indeed, when I moved from the mountains to the seashore in 1988, I went from frying up a skillet of rainbow trout to wrestling with clams, oysters, lobsters and other fresh, gorgeous varieties of seafood that I'd never had a chance to cook with.
I learned how to shuck an oyster, and successfully pulled off cooking my first lobster, my first plate of linguine with white clam sauce, and whipped up my first from-scratch kettle of authentic New England clam chowder, all by reading the Provincetown Seafood Cookbook.
I learned a bit of PTown history and lore at the same time through this highly renowned chef's entertaining stories and anecdotes, which roll across the pages as easily as his recipes and illustrations do.
Amazon says "Provincetown's most famous chef, Howard Mitcham (1917–96) is widely considered the first of the celebrity chefs, and his recipes reflect the Creole influence of his second home in New Orleans. Mitcham's co-workers characterized him as 'a true bohemian' and 'a great art lover' and so well read that there wasn't a literary or mythical reference he didn't know." The praise of Mitcham and his book is universal.

The chef will immerse you in Provincetown's seafaring
heritage with stories of fishermen, and a sense of humor.

The cover illustration was done by the late, great Jackson Lambert, with line drawings inside done by Mitcham himself. Classic recipes like "Haddock Almondine Meuniere" still hold up, and the right way to perfectly cook a lobster has never been improved upon, so I highly recommend this book, for great recipes and techniques, and for a bit of Provincetown history, as well as some fine, evocative story telling.

Find the recipe for that haddock, and more stories about the chef, at Food for Thought, a delightful blog written by Heather Atwood, who also pens a weekly column by the same name, syndicated in Massachusetts newspapers.

If you want to add this great book to your collection you can look for an older, more valuable one, or search for months, as I did, till I found a lovely, beaten up old copy for 25 bucks. I had given my copy to my in-laws in the early 1990s, and had been looking to replace it ever since.

I highly recommend this Provincetown treasure for so many reasons, and you can get it very easily at the Provincetown Bookshop, at 246 Commercial Street, where a new copy of the most current edition (was that 1997?) is $50. That's the best price I've seen in more than two years. You may also find an edition or two at Tim's Used Books, tucked away up the footpath at 242 Commercial.

The 1976 edition is currently listed used on Amazon for $150, new for $180, and months ago they announced that they were taking advance orders for the new 2016 edition, with a promised publishing date of April 16th, with a guaranteed, pre-order price of $16.95, to be shipped for free as soon as the new edition is released. I looked for it today online, and can only find various vintage editions, new and used, ranging from $59 to $1200. The folks at Provincetown Bookshop could find no information on a pending new edition. Has it already sold out again, or does it remain out of print?

Either way, it's worth your trouble, and a bit of cash, or a look through Grandma's attic, to find yourself a copy for a good read, and some great recipes. Take a look when you walk by a yard sale, and you may run across this genuine taste of Provincetown. Bon appétit!