Publisher's Note

After a long and very quiet winter, Nantucket is more than ready for spring. Though we didn’t have a season filled with snow and ice or sub-zero temperatures, the somber mood of the nation in this economic decline was surely felt here.

Construction came to a virtual halt as many jobs were canceled and no new jobs begun. As a result, with so many tradesmen out of work, there were far fewer trucks on the road. Coffee shops and restaurants were empty and Main Street was far quieter than usual. Real estate agents saw many of their sales dry up as buyers employed in the financial sector lost their jobs as well as their dreams of owning a summer home on Nantucket.

If there was a plus side to this downturn it was seen in a general revival of community spirit, with merchants offering discounts to bring traffic into their stores and restaurants posting creative menus and pricing options to fill their tables as they trimmed staff and pared down for leaner times.

There were casualties as well. The Atlantic Café, beleaguered by a withering downtown and the closure of the Dreamland Theater, finally closed its doors for good. Several doors down, Water Street ended its brief two-year run as a chic, upscale, organic eatery.

The old also made way for the new. Michael Getter, who made his name on-island first as chef at
21 Federal many years ago and then as chef/part-owner of American Seasons, before leaving that world for real estate and wine sales, bought Cioppino’s on Broad Street, and made over its interior and menu as Dune. See the story on page 48.

Angela and Seth Raynor of Boarding House and Pearl fame took over the lease on the Water Street property and turned it into a Latin kitchen concept with a seviche bar under the name Corazon del Mar, which translates into The Heart of the Sea. Maybe Nat Philbrick and James Cameron will get special discounts there. Look for our story on that in the next issue of Nantucket Today.

On Chestnut Street, restaurateur John Keane (Kitty’s and Queequeg’s) is opening Town, a global bistro with food unlike anything else you’ll find on Nantucket. Neil Hudson, chef at Queequeg’s, will oversee both Queequeg’s and Town as executive chef. Look for a story and review of those restaurants also in the June issue of Nantucket Today.

In this issue we visit California wine country, in preparation for the Nantucket Wine Festival. Our West Coast correspondent, Dan Fost, visited winemakers on the Sonoma Coast who will be featured on Nantucket this year: David Hirsch, Andy Peay, Ray Coursen and Ehren Jordan, who grew up on Nantucket and whose mother Lucille still lives here. Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice caught the beauty of the area and the personalities of the winemakers with her camera.

To round out this food and wine issue of Nantucket Today, writer and photographer Terry Pommett takes us inside the world of island beekeepers, whose bees produce that sticky, sweet stuff many of us like in our tea in the morning. Pommett is a novice beekeeper himself and provides insight into why people are drawn to this hobby.

MARIANNE R. STANTON

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER

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