3 Under 35 - Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner in PTown for About $35 for All Three

Portuguese Bakery has simple, inexpensive breakfasts.

It's been a while since we worked our way around the town to a whole day of meals for less than $35, so here we go. We'll start with breakfast at the Provincetown Portuguese Bakery. This is not a fancy breakfast with a parsley sprig and a cantaloupe sliver garnishing the plate. This is a simple ham and cheese omelet served with a couple of slices of hearty multigrain toast with butter and jelly. Other bread choices are available, too.

The famous Portuguese Bakery, at 299 Commercial Street, has been there for well over a hundred years, selling not only wholesale Portuguese breads, which gave the shop its start, along with the huge selection of pastries that were later offered to the  public, but for the last many years they've also operated a tiny, no-frills café for breakfast and lunch as well, with a grill and a small kitchen in the front corner of the shop. They make fried eggs, French toast, omelets and breakfast sandwiches. My omelet was $5.85, and with tax and tip it cost me $6.85. Some folks don't tip at a counter-service restaurant where no one actually serves food to you at a table, but I generally leave around 10% for the folks who take my order and hand me the food, whether I'm eating-in or ordering takeout.

You are asked to bus your own table here, so just sweep your crumbs onto your paper plate and toss it into the trash bin. There's also a recycling bin for soda bottles and cans at lunchtime. Clearing your own table keeps prices low here, so your omelet isn't $8 to $10 as it is in a little fancier place.

Vorelli's has many choices within our lunch budget.

For lunch, we're off to Vorelli's, at 226 Commercial Street, where the sign out front announces three lunch specials for less than $9. How about the 6 ounce Black Angus Burger, served with steak fries, for $8.25? I like my burger medium-rare, and at Vorelli's, it always comes out juicy and flavorful and just as I ordered it.

Besides the BBQ pulled pork sandwich served with cole slaw, and the the soup & sandwich special mentioned on the sign, there are other menu choices like a variety of sandwiches that fit our budget for this meal, and when I last checked their lunch menu there was also an artichoke and spinach quiche and small salad for $8.95.

You'll always find someone helpful in front of Vorelli's, ready to show you the menu and make suggestions, and the service is always prompt and friendly. With tax and a 20% tip on our delicious burger and fries, we're out the door with a big smile for just $10.48.

You can't beat the early dinner specials at the Seafood Grille.

Dinner takes us to the Seafood Grille at the Waterford Inn, at 386 Commercial Street. They continue to offer a complete three-course early bird dinner special for just $14 as long as your order is in by 7 PM. Dinner starts with your choice of a lovely garden salad or a cup of clam chowder, followed your choice of four entrées, including Cape Cod fish and chips, broiled cod with Lobster Newburg sauce, grilled lemon pepper chicken breast with rice, or steamed mussels over Asian vegetables and linguini, which is what I invariably order because I can't just can't help it. This is one of my very favorite seafood dishes in Provincetown at any price. Your meal also includes a great crusty sour dough bread, and the dessert of the day, often ice cream drizzled with chocolate sauce. This early dinner special is a great meal, whatever entrée you choose. at the eminently affordable price of $17.78 including a 20% tip and state and local meals taxes, and that has earned it TheYearRounder's Best Bite award for the second year.

We've had 3 good meals and left a decent tip for a total of $35.10 for the day. More posts will follow soon in our "3 Under 35" series as we roam through Provincetown and find many more ways to enjoy three good meals for about $35 or less for the entire day.

The West End Breakwater is One of PTown's Greatest Recreation Areas

Kayaking, picnics and sunbathing are popular activities at the breakwater.

The breakwater in the Far West End is a great spot for all kinds of recreation. You can fish for striped bass off the left side, casting toward the Long Point Lighthouse. You can picnic on the edge of the breakwater, or you can walk out to the lighthouse at Wood End and have a picnic there, along with a swim and a little sunbathing in a spot where you aren't likely to have many people around you. You can practically have your own private beach, especially if you're willing to walk a bit farther once you get out to that little spit of sand across the harbor.
You can launch a kayak or a canoe or an inflatable raft and paddle out to Long Point, the very tip of Cape Cod, where you can also fish, swim, sunbathe and picnic to your heart's content, with hardly anyone around you. Folks I talked to last week rented a kayak and paddled out to the far side of Long point, on the edge of Cape Cod Bay, and found seals all along the beach there.

During a very high tide you can swim through the wetlands.

A lot of people will go swimming off the right side of the breakwater, out into the wetlands if the tide is high enough, or just paddle around within a few feet of the shoreline at the head of the breakwater, never getting more than a few feet from the shoreline. Others will try their hand at snorkeling in this area as well. And as the water recedes as the tide goes out, the tidal flats that are revealed yield shells, bits of sea glass, hermit crabs and all kinds of treasures for beachcombers. Families with small children can be spotted carrying nets and buckets to scoop things out of little tidal pools that form at ebb tide.
You can also catch the shuttle boat to get out to Long Point. The Long Point shuttle leaves MacMillan Pier on the hour all day long in the summertime, and it leaves Flyer's boatyard at 10 minutes past the hour, traveling out to the area near the Long Point Lighthouse and back again several times during the day. There is no dock out there, so you'll take off your shoes, roll up your pants legs and hop off the boat in knee-deep water. You can take beach chairs, a small cooler or whatever else you need for the day, but be considerate of others taking the shuttle, too. Don't expect to take the 80 gallon cooler, the barbecue and a side of beef on the shuttle boat. For that kind of party you want to check into renting or chartering a boat of your own.
With this glorious weather we've had recently, there are dozens of ways to use this area we call the breakwater. A lot of folks will simply take a walk out on this enormous granite barrier that forms a walkway from the land at the west end of Commercial Street out to the spit of sand that stretches into Long Point and the tip of the Cape. However you may choose to use this spot, it is one of Provincetown's greatest recreation areas. Be careful, be safe and have fun!

Striped Bass at Native Cape Cod Seafood takes TheYearRounder's "Best Bite" Award

Native Cape Cod Seafood's simple grilled striped bass is a terrific value.

You might know I've been out nearly every night recently on my summertime search for the best striped bass in Provincetown, having had eight or nine over the past week or so, each at a different restaurant. The price has ranged from under $20 to well over $30, with the size of the bass portions also varying from smaller to larger servings, but not necessarily correlating with the cost of the dinner. More ingredients in a recipe does not always result in a better dish, just as a more renowned restaurant does not always turn out a better meal.
A higher price has sometimes brought a more complex preparation, or more elaborate side dishes, but perhaps a smaller serving of bass, and each of these dishes has also achieved a certain level of success on the proverbial scale from 1 to 10. This summer I've not been served a single plate of bass that was hugely disappointing, as has sometimes been the case in the past, and often with a $36 price tag for a hapless bass that was tragically overcooked, or for one that had been unmercifully sauced beyond the point where the taste of the fish could still be recognized. On the contrary, the stripers I've found this summer have all been well prepared, with only a couple of them leaning just slightly toward the frufru of over-complicated preparations.
My striped bass at Native Cape Cod Seafood was grilled perfectly with a little lemon, salt and pepper, served on a paper plate with a sort of rice pilaf and fresh zucchini brushed with a tiny bit of oil and a dash of sea salt and grilled until just tender. This uncomplicated plate of simple flavors let the taste of the bass shine through, and I ate it sitting in the open air of the Aquarium Marketplace deck, looking out over magnificent Provincetown Harbor. It was among the best of all the stripers I'd had during the week, the ambience was stellar, and the price of just $18.95 pushed this dish all the way to the top of the list, earning it a Best Bite award. That's two now for Andrew and the crew at Native Cape Cod Seafood. See my August 22nd post of 2012 about their fabulous Lobster Scampi, which won them TheYearRounder's Best Bite award last summer for one of PTown's greatest seafood dishes.
When the striper runs out for the season, Andrew will continue to bring in the best fish available every day, serving it blackened and a little spicy or simply grilled, along with fish pockets (kind of like a deluxe fish taco,) shrimp, fried clams, oysters, many others and, of course, the scampi. Andrew raises his own shellfish, trades throughout each week in the Boston area both buying and selling while he's delivering shellfish there, and has solid connections for the freshest and best seafood in New England, most of it from Cape Cod waters. When there is no more striped bass available, which may be any day now, I may suffer withdrawal symptoms, so I asked Andrew if he could cook me up a 4 or 5-pound lobster for my dinner one night next week and he said no problem, and I know the price will be fair as well. I can't wait.
If you've never visited Native Cape Cod Seafood, you owe yourself this treat. It's worth the effort to find this little counter service joint tucked away in the Aquarium Marketplace at 205-209 Commercial Street, in the old aquarium building. It sits kitty-corner across Commercial Street from the corner of Carver Street, at the back of the food court at the edge of the outdoor patio and the waterfront deck, where they also run the raw bar. Give them a try. The food is delicious, top quality and one of the best values in PTown.

Dinner Saturday Supports Lewis A. Young Post of VFW in Provincetown

This poster was found on the counter at Native Cape Cod Seafood, in the Aquarium Marketplace, asking its
customers to have dinner on Saturday at the VFW rather than in this restaurant. Ya gotta love a town like this!

With recent talk of economic reasons pointing to the possible sale of the VFW's building at 1 Jerome Smith Road, it becomes even more vital to show our support for this important community resource. Many local restaurants and fishermen are combining efforts to put on a fundraising dinner for the Lewis A. Young Veterans of Foreign Wars post, held in this venerable hall that has so often hosted breakfasts and dinners and countless events that have raised thousands of dollars for other local organizations over the years.
This Saturday, August 10th, from 4 PM to 8 PM, volunteers will be cooking and serving
a wonderful dinner of fried scallops, hand-cut French fries, coleslaw and freshly baked bread at the VFW, with the proceeds this time benefitting the VFW. This terrific dinner is just $15. Please plan to have your dinner at the VFW on Saturday. And please invite four friends to have their dinner there as well, and ask each of them to also invite four friends who will also invite four friends, and so on. Lets create a huge turnout for this organization that has supported so many others over the years. No excuses. See you there!

Whale Tale at Visitor Center Today Only

Watercolor of Ibis and Blizzard by Collin Silva, Provincetown

Today at 11 AM we'll have one last chance to see local kids in a wonderful musical, puppet and live action theater production on stage at the Province Lands Visitor Center amphitheater. This play is based on the true story of Ibis, the first whale ever to be rescued from the tangles of fishing gear that kept this young humpback from swimming and eating freely after becoming entangled in the waters near PTown in 1984.
Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies Rescue teams worked under very dangerous conditions to disentangle this young whale from the fishing gear that was threatening her life. Another young whale, Blizzard, helped Ibis to the water's surface where rescuers worked to perform this first-ever whale disentanglement.
Live music and "whale music," the sounds and songs made by humpback whales, along with the performance of puppeteers and local elementary school kids, all combine to make this show engaging for kids and adults as well. This is a free event, and parking at the visitor center is free as well. I'll be taking the shuttle bus to get there myself, and plan to spend time before the show enjoying the displays, exhibits, films, and the fantastic 360 degree view from the Province Lands Visitor Center rooftop.

Family Week 2013 Brings "The Greatest Pirate Story (N)Ever Told" to PTown

The Greatest Pirate Story (N)Ever Told is great fun for all ages, at 7 PM at the Crown & Anchor thru Thursday.

The old sea witch has flung Captain Henry Martin and his motley crew of pirates into the future, and to save themselves, they must perform the greatest pirate epic ever seen on stage. With their script torn asunder, this stalwart crew of pirates-turned-players are forced to improvise a sprawling pirate adventure based upon suggestions from their audience. There's everything you'd ever want in a pirate saga... Romance, treasure hunting, sword fighting, and plenty of general swashbuckling! There's music and dance, and lots of interaction with a gleeful audience thoroughly immersed in the tale of these buccaneers as it unfolds upon the stage. Don't miss this hilarious, rollicking family musical where you help write the story, and may even end up on stage. See it again, and the story will be entirely different!

Playing in Provincetown tonight and tomorrow, August 7th and 8th, at the Crown & Anchor, at 247 Commercial Street. Phone 508 487-1430 for tickets and info.

TheYearRounder is Back, and on a Quest for Provincetown's Best Striped Bass

This is my favorite time of day on the water's edge, as the sunset starts its warmup with the first round of brilliant
colors dancing on the harbor, the pinks and purples and golden colors just beginning to make their appearance.

Greetings, dear readers. I've missed you. Technical difficulties kept me from writing my blog for what seemed like a very long time... After a ten-day struggle with corporate America, and serious phone help from at least 8 technicians, TheYearRounder's Guide to Provincetown is now back on the Internet. Thank you for your patience, and your persistence in trying to find this page. And my thanks to those who sent e-mails wondering if everything was OK.
The beach scene above was shot from my table at the Mews the other night. I've been on my annual quest for the best striped bass in Provincetown, and the Mews always ranks high on the list of contenders. It's been really frustrating to have so many great meals (bass number 6 tonight at Jimmy's Hideaway) and not be able to tell you about them. So I suppose I'll write a single post to give a brief description of several great striped bass dishes I've consumed over the last week or so. Give me a day or two to sort through my notes and photographs so I can "show & tell" you about my whirlwind tour through some of PTown's great restaurants as I gobble up as much as I can of the noble "striper" while it's running.
There's likely not much time left to get out and enjoy this delectable fish, since the commercial fishermen have a strict limit on the amount of it they can take from local waters. So enjoy it while it's here. You've likely got a few more days to work in a couple of plates of striped bass before it disappears for the season. Last year I found the last bass in town being served by a restaurant whose chef had managed to procure one more striper by ducking over the border to Rhode Island to get one to serve one last time as the season ended. Let me know where you've found your favorites this summer, and I'll tell you about mine in my next post.