Cape Classic

Chatham Bars Inn takes local favorites to new culinary heights

By GWENN FRISS

When you visit the Chatham Bars Inn, executive chef Anthony Cole and his staff want you to feel at home. So over the past eighteen months, they’ve changed both the look and feel of the inn’s main dining room, as well as serving more local foods.

“Ninety percent of the fish we’re serving is all local,” Cole says. “All of our fin fish is fresh. We buy it from Chatham Fish, and we also buy from Cape Cod Clam in Brewster.”

And with summer comes the Cape produce: tomatoes, a dozen varieties of lettuce, berries, asparagus and other fruits – both literally and figuratively – of the sunny season. While Cole is taking advantage of the local bounty, one thing he is importing is his experience cooking in other parts of the country. His five years in Atlanta early in his career lend a decidedly Southern flavor to this seaside resort: There were fried green tomatoes at Mother’s Day brunch, and grits – more often listed on the menu as polenta – are a regular.

The inn is not only going local, but green as well, with a compost program, recycling newspapers and glass, a voluntary linen program that allows guests to keep towels for two days if they choose, says Richard Carroll, director of sales and marketing. And the kitchen is donating oil used for frying to an employee who converts it for use as fuel. There even are plans to eventually build a greenhouse so the inn can grow its own herbs and tomatoes.

If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. In the past eighteen months, Chatham Bars Inn’s new owners have put about $18 million into renovations and new programs – from redecorating all dining facilities to making gourmet picnics for guests going out for big game fishing on the inn’s new 52-foot Starfish. (Cole or someone on his staff will cook whatever guests catch on their trips, which go 100 miles offshore.)

Much of the redecorating has gone into making the inn’s several dining venues seem less like facilities and more like welcoming spaces where friends gather. The main dining room still offers those breathtaking ocean views but now feels more like a beautifully appointed seaside home.