TRURO — As the Outer Cape braces for its seasonal population swell, businesses are unlatching their doors for the surge. In Truro, several of them are also in transition — or at least getting ready to try something new. What’s feeling a little old at this point to most of them, it seems, is the work of getting their seasonal crews situated.
“There are a lot of people who want to work here,” said Liam Luttrell Rowland, owner and chef at Salty Market in North Truro. “It’s just a question of finding a place for them to stay.” His words echoed those of his fellow Truro business owners.
There are some hopeful newcomers this year. Terra Luna served its last meal in October. But Juan Carlos Millan and Dawnell Dennison plan to reopen the place at 104 Shore Road as Millan’s.
Millan, who was formerly chef at the Mews in Provincetown, and Dennison, who was for seven years a prep cook at Ciro and Sal’s, got their liquor license go-ahead from the Truro Select Board on May 14.
Their proposed menu includes a culinary mélange. There will be a raw bar, poke bowls, green curry, and fettuccini Bolognese — wild boar or vegan.
“I’m really excited for you guys, and I wish you much, much success,” said board chair Kristen Reed.
“I appreciate your willingness to take this on,” said board member Stephanie Rein. “Those are some pretty big shoes to fill,” she added, referring to Terra Luna’s Tony Pasquale.
“We’re going to do our best,” Millan said. He mentioned the idea of offering the occasional Terra Luna-inspired special just to remember the place by.
Millan’s liquor license was effective May 15 and is valid until Oct. 31. The initial motion allowing alcohol to be served Thursday to Sunday was amended to allow the restaurant to serve every day. Millan said he hoped to stay open seven days a week starting in July.
Meanwhile at Salty Market, Luttrell Rowland is gearing up for a new Friday afternoon offering: pinchos and tapas. That’ll happen outside the shop, where picnic tables and benches make for casual seating.
Because Salty Market doesn’t yet have a license to serve liquor, it can offer only wine when doing tastings. At these events, the market will feature natural wines from mainly women-owned companies, said Luttrell Rowland.
The market opened for the season on April 6. Starting next week, it will be open every day but Tuesday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with groceries, grab-and-go meals, and a deli that makes sandwiches and other meals to order. The space has a new layout, partially thanks to three new tables that came from Chequessett Chocolate.
Katherine Reed, the artisanal chocolate entrepreneur, did not respond to inquiries seeking an update on that business, which she and cofounder Josiah Mayo decided to offer for sale last winter. Mayo, who in November told the Independent he hoped to continue working there, also declined to talk about the business’s trajectory. The doors at Chequessett Chocolate are closed and the windows covered.
Luttrell Rowland said he’ll miss having the chocolate shop down the street: “It’s sad,” he said. “It definitely affects us not to have neighbors.”
With Friday afternoon tapas soon to be on the menu, Luttrell Rowland is turning his attention to another ambitious goal: “We want to have the best breakfast sandwich on the Cape,” he said.
The front of the shop at the Truro General Store, formerly Jams, at 14 Truro Center Road, looks deceptively the same as last year. Produce, pantry goods, and toiletries are on offer alongside Truro swag. In the back, though, a new space has been cleared out for local artists to show and sell their work.
The store is also back to providing sandwiches made to order at its deli window. General manager Ruby Taylor recommended a turkey sandwich with bacon. Earlier they were reduced to grab-and-go options because of staffing shortages, said owner Scott Cloud.
The general store is also gearing up to offer catering for the first time — namely charcuterie, cheese boards, and fruit plates. “We’re not trying to do the whole wedding,” said Cloud. He doesn’t have the staff to do that, he said, which “greatly limits what you can accomplish.”
The shop is “working on being year-round,” Cloud said; he’s waiting as the town considers a year-round alcohol license. The shop sells alcohol during the summer, and clearing out the shop each winter would be a hassle, he said.
Truro Vineyards is now home to Chequessett Chocolate’s High Tide ice cream truck. “We always loved that truck,” said vineyard owner Kristen Roberts.
That new attraction is apt for the shift in visitors the vineyard has seen over the years, said Roberts: “For whatever reason, we’re seeing a lot of young families.”
High Tide will keep its name but serve ice cream from Lewis Brothers in Provincetown and the Local Scoop in Orleans. The plan is to keep it open only on weekends through June and expand to seven days in July and August.
“We’re hoping it’s a one-person job, and I do have a lot of younger people that are eager to work” the ice cream truck, said Roberts.
The perennial challenge of staffing — brought about, proprietors said, by a severe housing shortage — has been intense this year.
“We’re trying to find a place that we can purchase for staff housing,” Cloud said. “But when your average price tag is a million dollars, that makes it hard.”
“Year to year, I don’t know if we’re even going to open,” said Blackfish restaurant co-owner Eric Jansen. “That ‘if’ is fully based on staffing and housing,” which came together this year later than ever, he said, thanks to a combination of returning staff and a rental in Wellfleet for “a very large sum of money.”
The restaurant’s workforce is about half what it used to be (15 to 20 now, down from 30), and it’s open five nights a week instead of seven. That translates into a drop from serving 220 dinners to about 110 per night now, said Jansen.
At Truro Vineyards, “we can really shrink and swell what we offer based on staffing,” said Roberts, “but unfortunately, it’s not great for our bottom line.”
Roberts said that hiring high schoolers whose families live here cuts out the struggle to find housing but makes it hard to sustain a workforce in the fall.
“What we struggle with is finding staff that can work the full season,” said Roberts. “It just takes a lot of work and creativity.”
Roberts said that concerns about Truro becoming urban or suburban are “a flat-Earther argument as far as I’m concerned,” given that two-thirds of the town is in the National Seashore.
“I applaud anybody in Truro that is trying to make it work and trying to make a sustainable business,” Roberts added. “It is not easy.”
