(One of) the best on Martha's Vineyard: Beach Road Restaurant.
Good food in a welcoming and quietly buzzy environment on an idyllic island. Who can resist?
There’s just something about Beach Road.
Every time I walk in, I fall in love with the place. The short darkish entryway that opens up to a spacious dining room. High ceilings and funky vaguely nautical lights bathe the room in a mellow glow. A wall of windows overlooks green marsh and the Lagoon Pond. It’s warm and cozy and light and summery all at once.
This place is busy. All the time. An energetic buzz makes you feel part of an interesting cocktail party and yet nothing impedes or overwhelms your own conversations.
Chris, the manager, greets all the guests with a just-right mix of cordiality and calmness. Everything feels under control. A particular shout out to Adrienne and Taryn at the bar for making every single “walk-in” person feel welcome. They welcome you with a smile and make an extra effort to find you just the right drink.
Jim Murrin’s epic summer painting of a man at the beach on a perfect summer day oversees all the tables. It sets the tone: looking forward to something pretty great.
The menu is simple and short.
A few signature items (I’m talking to you, fried chicken cornbread and fries) really rise to the top of my favorite-things-to-order list, while other offerings switch in and out with the seasons and, presumably, the chef’s interests.
If you go, make sure to order the corn bread. It’s worth a trip to the island just to bite into it!
Seriously. It arrives hot and moist, but not heavy, in a cast iron pan with salted honey butter on the side. It is so fu@%ing good you can’t believe it.
Cornbread backstory: One of the secrets is the cornmeal: a fine grind white cornmeal from Anson Mills in Columbia South Carolina. Anson Mills is the lovechild of Glenn Roberts - a guy with a restless and curious spirit who played the French horn for the San Diego symphony, flew planes for the Air Force, sailed around the world, rode horses in dressage competitions and drove long-haul trucks for a living. Yup, he’s my kind of adventurous guy.
Somewhere along the line, he dove into exploring the history of food in general and heritage crops in particular. He roamed South Carolina looking for heritage rice, which he turned into celebratory meals.
Driving around the back roads near Dillon, South Carolina, he found a bootletter growing a specific kind of corn known for its high mineral content and floral characteristics. Long story short, he fell in love with it and found a unique way to mill this corn into the corn meal that used at Beach Road. So, thank you, Glenn Roberts, for enhancing the meal experience of those who eat at this lovely restaurant.
And for you who love to cook, here’s the Cornbread Recipe so you can try it at home.
Another must-have: the fries
….at least if you are a fry freak like me.
Fries are my “stranded on a desert island” food and I order them as often as humanly possible. The Beach Road fries are the skinny kind and they arrive hot, crispy outside and silky smooth inside. The herby aioli hits all the right notes. Of course, there is ketchup as well. Don’t you just want to pull one out of that homey wooden box?
The “real food” is great as well.
The fried chicken is a signature dish at Beach Road; it has a crispy perfection to it; it’s not highly spiced or seasoned.
The Torchio is a curvy 1/2” wide pasta seemly infused with a butter sauce, as well as perfect summer veggies: zucchini, roasted corn, tomatoes. This dish tastes so buttery and yet fees so light; it’s a great vegetarian option.
The roasted carrots and Brussel sprouts, like the fries, are crispy on the outside and creamy in.
If you are a Nebbiolo lover, try this one (PS: if you aren’t one, you might consider becoming after you give this one a try)
This Fantino Rosso Dei Dardi is a younger, lighter, fresher Nebbiolo that is a great companion to summer dining. The Fantino brothers are known for their Barolo’s but wanted to put their south facing Piedmont slopes to good use so they developed this wine as an alternative. It’s about $20 at retail; a great price for a highly drinkable wine.
What we ordered:
Summer salad
Roasted Carrots
Brussel Sprouts
Cornbread
Fried Chicken
Torchio
Fries
Bottle of Fantino Nebbiolo
The tab: $210.79 BEFORE taxes and tip for 3 people. ($70.26 per person)
If you go:
Beach Road
79 Beach Road
Vineyard Haven
Martha’s Vineyard
508-693-8582
info@beachroadmv.com
“If you have something to say, say it to my face”, as Kamala recently said. Seriously, I’d love to hear from you:
Thank you for getting this far! Anne
Will definitely be going there next week!
This was written so well with such great detail and enthusiasm, that it makes me want to travel a couple thousand miles for the dining experience. I LOVE FRIES AS WELL!!