PROVINCETOWN — Winter felt long here this year — the weather was unusually cold, and there were a notable number of closed storefronts and restaurants on Commercial Street. Napi’s Restaurant closed for good in September, and the Provincetown Brewing Co. closed its taproom on Bradford Street in January, removing two community gathering places that were especially important to Provincetown’s year-rounders.
There are still a few empty storefronts in town, but most of this winter’s darkened windows are now filling with carefully arranged inventory and newly written menus. There will soon be at least three new restaurants, four more that have moved or expanded, and several new places to shop for clothes and gifts; the spring bounty even includes a florist who will deliver arrangements as far away as Wellfleet.
Food & Drink
The small red building between the Canteen restaurant and the Provincetown Bookshop at 227 Commercial St. has held a lumber business, a hat store, a convenience store, and an ice cream shop, but it’s never been a bar, according to new proprietors Rebecca Orchant, Sean Gardner, and Ben Weihbrecht, who are opening a cocktail, snack, and dessert spot called Ladyslipper in June. They’ll be open from 4 p.m. to almost midnight.
“This space is very playful, and I want the drinks to be playful,” said Weihbrecht. “There will be a good selection of tequila and mezcal, some fun rum drinks, and herbal liqueurs from all over the world.”
“We’re going to try to keep food going until 11,” said Orchant. “I think it would be nice to be able to get a snack or dessert after a show” when many kitchens in town have closed.
The trio are planning food that is shareable but elegant. Gardner and Orchant’s trademark pimiento cheese from their sandwich shop Pop+Dutch will be there, and there will be barbecue chips and dip sourced from Weihbrecht’s hometown in central Pennsylvania.
“We’re serving it all on china we found in thrift stores,” said Orchant. “I’m excited to be able to put food on a plate and make it look pretty” instead of packaging everything for to-go sales, as she does at Pop+Dutch.
Safara Brooker, who with her family is opening Calypso Cove in a second-floor patio space at 336 Commercial St., said she was also looking forward to the chance to plate her food. The Brookers already own One Love, a takeout place in the Aquarium Mall that serves traditional Jamaican favorites, but at Calypso Cove the family is aiming for “Jamerican” food that samples flavors from across the Caribbean.
“We want to let people see the island,” said Brooker. For the pineapple salmon bowl, “we’re going to cut the pineapple in half and serve the salmon on top of the real pineapple.” The menu also includes an eggplant and chickpea curry, a braised oxtail with rice and beans, and a quesadilla with jerk chicken and spiced mayonnaise. “We mixed up the jerk mayonnaise because we want something different — a twist of the island,” Brooker said.
The restaurant is set to open Memorial Day with a non-alcoholic drinks list, and a liquor license is in the works, Brooker said.
One Love has a new neighbor in the Aqua Mall this year: the Latin Corner, owned by four friends from Colombia, began serving on May 7. They bring experience gleaned all over town: Ricardo Stummo worked at Pepe’s Wharf, Camila Amaris at The Club and 1620 Brewhouse, Laura Lopera at Ciro and Sal’s, and Alfonso Amaris at Ptown Pedicabs.
Their menu includes four kinds of ceviche, arepas filled with crispy pork belly chicharrones, and empanadas with lobster, mango, garlic, and lemon, and their takeout restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner.
“Our food takes time and a lot of prep, but we wanted to bring things into town that people haven’t tried before,” said Amaris. Their Peruvian ceviche has “a kick of spice at the end, but we try to keep on your palate the flavor of every single ingredient,” she said. “To be on a beach without a ceviche — you’re missing something.”
New Digs
At least three restaurants are moving into bigger venues this year.
Helltown Kitchen, a dinner restaurant with Venezuelan and eastern Caribbean entrees, is moving from its old home at 338 Commercial St. to a larger space farther east that used to be occupied by Spindler’s restaurant.
Michael Ceraldi is relocating his eponymous restaurant, which serves elaborate multi-course farm-to-table presentations, from Wellfleet to the yellow building at the Provincetown Marina that used to hold the 9 Ryder restaurant.
And the Provincetown Brewing Co. is taking over management of the Central House restaurant at the Crown & Anchor, where the owners aim to recreate the “queer clubhouse” vibe that made their taproom on Bradford Street a local destination.
“We do really well with people who know about us,” said Chris Hartley, an owner and founder of the brewing company, “but being on Commercial Street will mean a lot of foot traffic and first-time visitors that have been harder for us to reach.”
The restaurant’s courtyard is being reimagined as a beer garden — or “queer garden,” Hartley said — with games like corn hole and foosball and occasional live music. Many of the kitchen staff at the Central House are staying on, but the menu is being redesigned toward more casual and shareable options.
“The weekend drag brunches will continue, and there will still be piano bar on Friday and Saturday nights,” Hartley said. They’re shooting for a Memorial Day weekend opening.
New Shops
One new retail spot is now the first store that people arriving in town by ferry will see: Days on the Pier, which sells “easy-to-grab lunches and pantry staples, coffee, and items for travelers and beachgoers,” according to Bernadette Leonard Dutra, who opened the shop last week with her co-owner and boyfriend Mylan Janoplis.
The store is an extension of Days Market in North Truro, which sells a similar mix of beach supplies and fresh food to go. The lobster rolls at Days on the Pier will be made at the Days Market on Beach Point and brought in daily, said Janoplis.
“This property was vacant until a couple of months ago, and the building is still for sale,” said Janoplis. But he’s hopeful things will hold steady. “We know the owners, and we signed a four-month lease,” he said.
Downtown, several new shops await visitors, including Dominick Joseph Antiques, which opened where the restaurant Mistralino used to be at 133 Bradford St.; Grayscale, a ceramics and clothing store at 347 Commercial St.; and the White Hare, a home decor and gift shop at 377 Commercial.
Ed Agolia and Jonathan Chimera opened the doors at the White Hare in April after several years of looking for a good location in town. After a couple of frustrating near misses, the lease on their store came together smoothly last November, they said.
“My family owned a florist shop, and I’m a creative director for a large importing company and their main Christmas designer,” said Chimera. “I got the bug a few years ago that for the next phase of our lives together we should open a retail store here.”
Their shop is organized around colors: a corner of deep blues to the left, a tower of lemon yellow to the right. At the back of the store, pastel-colored Christmas decorations are arranged into a glittering rock-candy mountain range.
The pair aim to bring new products to town by working with vendors who don’t already sell here, Chimera said. “There’s price points for everyone as well,” Agolia said, “so anyone can walk in here and find something that suits their taste.”
Douglas Fisher had also been looking for a commercial space for several years before opening his new florist business, Ptown Blooms, in a spot at the intersection of Ryder and Commercial streets. He’s owned flower shops before in his hometown in northern New York state.
“We’re attempting to be open through December, and we’ll reopen for Valentine’s Day,” said Fisher. “My husband is a biology professor, so he can help me in the summer, but a lot of the time it will be just me.”
Fisher and his husband, Keylon Cheeseman, own a seasonal camper at the Coastal Acres campground, which is open from April 15 to Nov. 1, Fisher said. After that, he’ll stay with friends to keep the business running.
“At the moment we’re the only florist north of Orleans offering delivery,” Fisher said. “The majority of my deliveries for Mother’s Day were in North Truro — I guess there’s a lot of moms there.”
