The 2024 Guide to Dining on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard

MARTHA’S VINEYARD

The Obama-anointed special occasion restaurant in Oak Bluffs is spread across an intimate indoor dining room and a tented, heated patio that’s a witness to live jazz each Thursday night. Every night, however, may be accompanied by hamachi crudo, pistachio pesto mafalde with crab or a heritage pork chop with pinenut risotto.

With a menu determined by the availability of local meat, produce and seafood, it’s hard to predict precisely what might greet you at Red Cat Kitchen. But the indulgent Oak Bluffs restaurant has been known to reliably serve 12-hour Korean barbecue pork belly, fried shrimp and grits with buttermilk aioli, or sea scallops with sweet corn risotto and a cabernet vanilla syrup. It also boasts one of the strongest zero-ABV cocktail lists on the island, with selections including the Spice Spice Baby made with mango purée, guava, papaya, jalapeño, orange, lime, and soda.

Alchemy, a 20-year veteran of the Edgartown dining scene situated in a historic, two-story home in the vacation town’s main street, continues to deliver with indulgent bistro classics including Jonah crab and grilled asparagus salad or a surf and turf plate that pairs filet medallions to butter-poached lobster with roasted garlic potatoes and truffle jus. And that’s not even mentioning the long-running establishment’s cocktail program, which can refresh with a French Quarter (vodka, St. Germain, grapefruit, bitters) or close out on a boozy Edgartown old fashioned, accented with housemade apple cider bitters.

Atria has two faces. There’s the main dining room of its 19th-century Captain’s Home, where you might sit down for long conversation and plates of burrata-stuffed ravioli with tomato confit or eight-hour braised pork with mascarpone and grits. Conversely, a more relaxed atmosphere reigns at its brick cellar, which serves an all-star burger lineup that includes the Frenchy with truffle aioli and cabernet-roasted onions, the Moroccan lamb burger with toasted sesame and eggplant relish, or the eponymous beef burger topped by sautéed onions, roasted mushrooms, tomatoes, tarragon aioli, cheddar, and bacon.

The first thing you may want to know about Chilmark Tavern is that it is BYOB — a vital concern, as it is situated in the Vineyard’s last remaining dry town. Once you’ve digested that information, turn your attention to the roadside restaurant’s rustic menu, which includes such dishes as honey jerk dry-rubbed wings, beer-battered fish and chips with malt vinegar dust, and porcini-rubbed New York strip steak.

Beach Road’s maritime interior is inspired by the Whaling shipyards of old, but its locally focused menu leans contemporary with globetrotting dishes including Spanish octopus in a kalamata caramel glaze, lamb chops in piri piri sauce with coriander yogurt, and a half-fried chicken with gochujang pickles and chili crisp. The cocktail menu is similarly free-ranging, with everything from the Lazy Monk made with mezcal, Green chartreuse and green pea matcha to a Fowl Play prepared with duck fat-washed bourbon.

NANTUCKET

The house restaurant of the White Elephant Resort — maybe you’ve heard of it — keeps things expectedly upscale for guests and visitors alike, serving 26-ounce, dry-aged cowboy steaks and line-caught Atlantic tuna on a patio overlooking Nantucket harbor. The breakfast menu, which offers caviar-topped lobster eggs Benedict or a house-cured salmon and avocado tartine, is worth an early start on vacation.

Now entering its 11th season on the Grey Lady, the Proprietor’s Table continues to push local palates with a globally inspired range of sharing plates including semolina cavatelli with pea butter and ricotta or a seared fluke with smoked potatoes and a Champagne butter sauce. Its cocktail menu similarly delights with inspired drams like the Club Tropicana, made with green cardamom and banana-infused mezcal, or the Baller’s Boulevardier, featuring bourbon cask-finished Campari and coffee bitters.

Set inside the waterfront Wauwinet resort, Topper’s features a one-two-punch of Nantucket Bay views and a selection of locally sourced New England seafood favorites. The main dining room offers a four-course prix fixe that may include dayboat scallops in caviar butter or roasted and braised veal with grilled ramp salsa verde; meanwhile, a more casual “deck menu” stocked with wagyu beef burgers or Meyer lemon aioli lobster rolls is served outdoors.

With over 50 years of service under its belt, cozy Company of the Cauldron — helmed by French Laundry vet (and Thomas Keller relation) Joseph Keller — marks special occasions with a French-influenced menu of American classics. On a given visit, that may mean the restaurant’s famous popovers followed by a bavette steak with caramelized shallots and a lobster-filled baked potato with a chocolate tart Chantilly to finish.

The Nantucket Hotel’s restaurant consists of both “Breeze,” which is open indoors from March to January, and “Sailor’s Valentine,” which operates on the front porch from May 24th to September 29th. Both serve the same menu, which for this season promises blackened scallop tostadas, lobster rolls served warm with butter or cold with citrus aioli, and an “ACK Glambake” that masses native lobster, littleneck clams, chorizo, sweet corn, and potatoes into a lemon herb broth.

Spread across the eccentrically decorated dining room, bar and porch of the Greydon House hotel, Via Mare purports to be a Venetian-style bacari, but only “loosely” so, per the restaurant’s’ own admission. This means that you’ll encounter authentic cicchetti such as whipped salt cod with crispy polenta, but also hot chicken Milanese with Moroccan pancakes or spicy cumin lab with Sichuan peppercorns.