Well, we were off to Nantucket. No, not for a little weekend getaway. I was teaching a course at the Nantucket Wine Festival for the second year in a row. So I thought I'd take Tom along, since he'd never been, and it's always fun to have a traveling companion. We left super early on Thursday morning (around 6am) to avoid traffic and make it to the 9:15 am ferry. Luckily, the roads were pretty much wide open, and we arrived in Hyannis before 8. Knowing we might have a little time to grab breakfast, I had looked up the Collucci's Brother's Diner and we headed over there to grab something to eat.
I'm a little embarrassed to say that I knew about this place after watching an episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay." It's not a show I usually watch, but they were doing a competition in Hyannis! (and most likely, nothing else was on). When we walked in, the place was fairly empty (it was super early), so we were seated quickly. The interior is filled with mismatched furniture and mugs. It's decorated with lots of New England style memorabilia- Red Sox stuff, baseballs caps from local fire stations, etc.
Then it was off to Nantucket. We took the ferry over and arrived around 12:30. So it seemed like a good time to go searching for lunch. I had printed out a few lunch/breakfast options for our trip and thought the Something Natural Cafe would be a good place to go for a light lunch of sandwiches. I realized that it'd be a bit of a walk from where we were, but the sun was finally peaking out through the clouds. As we began our walk, I noticed that we were walking past homes. There really weren't any businesses about. And when we finally arrived, it turned out that the place was a house.
We walked in and looked at the display of fresh bread and pastries and ended up ordering a couple of half sandwiches and drinks. There weren't any tourists here, just locals, and it's probably a place they just stop by to pick up a quick lunch. There are no seats indoors, just picnic tables outside, in a yard, with this boat. 
It really was a cute place for a picnic lunch. And here are our sandwiches. I got turkey with tomato and cheese on herb bread.
And Tom got a turkey sandwich with lettuce. To be honest, these sandwiches weren't all that great. I could've made the same thing at home. And overall, I don't think it was work the ten minute walk up hill. 
After I taught my class, we spent the afternoon settling in and getting ready for dinner. Dinner was the one thing I was looking foward to the most on Nantucket, because I had made reservations for us at Sfoglia. Their NY location had gotten a great review from the NYTimes a few months ago, and my publicist had gone the previous evening and had an excellent dinner there. Though it was a bit cold, and the wind had started blowing, we decided to walk to dinner, and this is where Google Maps screwed up. When we finally reached the place indicated on the map (a 20 minute walk), there was no restaurant to be found. I called the restaurant and found out that we needed to keep walking, they were located mid-island and after another 15 minutes, we finally arrived on their doorstep. I'll mention that I didn't take pics here because it was too dark and small and I didn't want my flash disturbing other diners.
The restaurant is located in a small house. It really is quite "cozy" aka tiny. The dining room is dimly lit, but decorated with whimsical stuff. Old kitchen implements and bowls of various fresh ingredients - a tub of potatoes, citrus fruits on one table, a giant bowl of artichokes on another and our table had a glass jar of rhubarb. Tom described the style as distressed-chic. We were quickly shown to our table by one of the two waitresses, who were also filling many roles- answering phones, bussing, seating ppl, etc. To be honest, the space really couldn't fit more than two of them.
We were given a small bowl of olives to munch on and then the menus. It wasn't a huge menu, which I like because that means that things are fresh and seasonal. And we both decided to order several courses. After we ordered, we were given a plate of breads and a plate of live oil on the side. I decided not to fill up after ordering 3 courses. I started off with a bowl of spinach soup and Tom got an order of cheeses. (I found it unusual that they were serving cheese as an appetizer since normally this is served at the end of the meal, but whatever. ) I really like my spinach soup. If you think of saag paneer, minus the paneer and pureed until it was a soup with melt of the mouth veggies, that would be this soup. Nice intense flavors. They topped it with bits of frittata, which I thought were unnecessary. Tom enjoyed his cheeses. His favorite was a gongonzola.
Next, we were served our entrees. I had ordered a pollo al mattone, which is chicken under a brick. I like making this dish at home, but what I liked about the one at Sfoglia was that they didn't just use a breast, they used half a chicken. Plus they had nicely seared the skin and put red chili flakes all over it (I'll be doing that next time). I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken, despite the fact that it was a bit undercooked. (I didn't send it back because I was so full I didn't finish it). But my most favorite dish of the night was the simplest one- a side of radish bagna cauda. Normally a bagna cauda is served more like a fondue, but in this case, I was given a bowl of mini radishes with the anchovy sauce on the bottom and topped, oddly enough, with grated hard boiled egg. The combination was DELICIOUS. The egg didn't add much flavor so much as an interesting texture, but the anchovy sauce and radishes were great. I'm gonna try to make it at home.
Meanwhile, Tom was working on a massive veal chop that was the size of his plate. On top of this, he had ordered a side of spaghetti with calamari. I wasn't a huge fan of the spaghetti, cause it tasted so briny (like calamari, I suppose), but I think Tom enjoyed both dishes. Unsurprisingly, he didn't finish his veal chop.
And lastly, Tom had ordered a freshly made almond and fig jam tart. They had asked us to order this at the beginning of the meal because it takes 30 minutes to prepare. And they said it was large, so we'd have to share. I was a little annoyed that they didn't give me any other dessert options, just bringing out the tart (I know they had other desserts cause they offered it to our neighboring tables), but I wouldn't have ordered anything else, anyway. The tart was warm and delicious. It was served with a scoop of anise ice cream, which Tom ate. I'm not a fan of fig, so I mainly nibbled around the edges of the tart, eating up all the yummy, buttery pastry. We didn't finish the tart, either.
At this point in the meal, the restaurant was nearly full. A neighboring birthday party of 10 was in full swinging and the noise level in the place had become deafening. So we were happy to head out, with our bellies stuffed. The dinner was a bit of a splurge and Tom disliked the dimly lit dining room, but overall we had a great dinner and for anyone who's visiting Nantucket, I would highly recommend a visit to Sfoglia.
We walked in and looked at the display of fresh bread and pastries and ended up ordering a couple of half sandwiches and drinks. There weren't any tourists here, just locals, and it's probably a place they just stop by to pick up a quick lunch. There are no seats indoors, just picnic tables outside, in a yard, with this boat. 
It really was a cute place for a picnic lunch. And here are our sandwiches. I got turkey with tomato and cheese on herb bread.
And Tom got a turkey sandwich with lettuce. To be honest, these sandwiches weren't all that great. I could've made the same thing at home. And overall, I don't think it was work the ten minute walk up hill. 
After I taught my class, we spent the afternoon settling in and getting ready for dinner. Dinner was the one thing I was looking foward to the most on Nantucket, because I had made reservations for us at Sfoglia. Their NY location had gotten a great review from the NYTimes a few months ago, and my publicist had gone the previous evening and had an excellent dinner there. Though it was a bit cold, and the wind had started blowing, we decided to walk to dinner, and this is where Google Maps screwed up. When we finally reached the place indicated on the map (a 20 minute walk), there was no restaurant to be found. I called the restaurant and found out that we needed to keep walking, they were located mid-island and after another 15 minutes, we finally arrived on their doorstep. I'll mention that I didn't take pics here because it was too dark and small and I didn't want my flash disturbing other diners.The restaurant is located in a small house. It really is quite "cozy" aka tiny. The dining room is dimly lit, but decorated with whimsical stuff. Old kitchen implements and bowls of various fresh ingredients - a tub of potatoes, citrus fruits on one table, a giant bowl of artichokes on another and our table had a glass jar of rhubarb. Tom described the style as distressed-chic. We were quickly shown to our table by one of the two waitresses, who were also filling many roles- answering phones, bussing, seating ppl, etc. To be honest, the space really couldn't fit more than two of them.
We were given a small bowl of olives to munch on and then the menus. It wasn't a huge menu, which I like because that means that things are fresh and seasonal. And we both decided to order several courses. After we ordered, we were given a plate of breads and a plate of live oil on the side. I decided not to fill up after ordering 3 courses. I started off with a bowl of spinach soup and Tom got an order of cheeses. (I found it unusual that they were serving cheese as an appetizer since normally this is served at the end of the meal, but whatever. ) I really like my spinach soup. If you think of saag paneer, minus the paneer and pureed until it was a soup with melt of the mouth veggies, that would be this soup. Nice intense flavors. They topped it with bits of frittata, which I thought were unnecessary. Tom enjoyed his cheeses. His favorite was a gongonzola.
Next, we were served our entrees. I had ordered a pollo al mattone, which is chicken under a brick. I like making this dish at home, but what I liked about the one at Sfoglia was that they didn't just use a breast, they used half a chicken. Plus they had nicely seared the skin and put red chili flakes all over it (I'll be doing that next time). I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken, despite the fact that it was a bit undercooked. (I didn't send it back because I was so full I didn't finish it). But my most favorite dish of the night was the simplest one- a side of radish bagna cauda. Normally a bagna cauda is served more like a fondue, but in this case, I was given a bowl of mini radishes with the anchovy sauce on the bottom and topped, oddly enough, with grated hard boiled egg. The combination was DELICIOUS. The egg didn't add much flavor so much as an interesting texture, but the anchovy sauce and radishes were great. I'm gonna try to make it at home.
Meanwhile, Tom was working on a massive veal chop that was the size of his plate. On top of this, he had ordered a side of spaghetti with calamari. I wasn't a huge fan of the spaghetti, cause it tasted so briny (like calamari, I suppose), but I think Tom enjoyed both dishes. Unsurprisingly, he didn't finish his veal chop.
And lastly, Tom had ordered a freshly made almond and fig jam tart. They had asked us to order this at the beginning of the meal because it takes 30 minutes to prepare. And they said it was large, so we'd have to share. I was a little annoyed that they didn't give me any other dessert options, just bringing out the tart (I know they had other desserts cause they offered it to our neighboring tables), but I wouldn't have ordered anything else, anyway. The tart was warm and delicious. It was served with a scoop of anise ice cream, which Tom ate. I'm not a fan of fig, so I mainly nibbled around the edges of the tart, eating up all the yummy, buttery pastry. We didn't finish the tart, either.
At this point in the meal, the restaurant was nearly full. A neighboring birthday party of 10 was in full swinging and the noise level in the place had become deafening. So we were happy to head out, with our bellies stuffed. The dinner was a bit of a splurge and Tom disliked the dimly lit dining room, but overall we had a great dinner and for anyone who's visiting Nantucket, I would highly recommend a visit to Sfoglia.
