COMMUNITY
Casual Dining Times Two in Vineyard Haven
by Karla Araujo
Island restaurateurs Stephen and Susan Bowen are a busy couple. They own and operate two popular Vineyard Haven restaurants – Blue Canoe Waterfront Grill and Waterside Market – both of which have dramatically enlivened the town’s dining scene during the past several summers. Waterside Market, located at 76 Main Street, just completed its third summer in downtown Vineyard Haven, while Blue Canoe opened a year later at it’s tough-to-beat waterfront location overlooking Vineyard Haven Harbor and the Lagoon.
Both restaurants offer a relaxed, family-friendly vibe, with Blue Canoe being the choice if casual dining in a more scenic setting is on your menu. Waterside Market is open seven days a week year round, serving breakfast and lunch daily, dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights starting in early November. Watch for dinner nightly next year. Blue Canoe is seasonal and serves lunch and dinner daily, brunch during the peak weeks of summer.
With all that said, it’s important to note that if fresh, straight-forward ingredients thoughtfully prepared appeal to your palate, you can’t go wrong with either choice. Both offer an imaginative range of options, particularly at dinner, when a generous lobster roll paired with homemade cole slaw at Blue Canoe might be just enough for you, while your companion might be hunkering for a more serious meal of filet mignon accompanied by garlic smashed red bliss potato, broccoli rabe and red wine demi-glace.
Both restaur-ants feature lighter choices: Wraps and dinner-sized salads at Waterside, sandwiches and a generous selection of reasonably priced starters, soups and salads at Blue Canoe.
Waterside Market
Bustling for breakfast and lunch, Waterside quiets down and finds its more sedate self at dinner. Manager Laura Jordan achieves an unexpected zen-like atmosphere in the evening with dim lighting and soft jazz in the background. Casual and child-friendly any time of day, Waterside is an eclectic combination of restaurant, emporium and coffee shop.
Truly a family enterprise, Susan’s mother, Susan Finigan Rosen, provided expert guidance with the decorating (wide plank floors, tin ceiling and a “general store” atmosphere), while Stephen’s parents, Linda and Trent Bowen, part-owners, came to the Island to help launch the restaurant and stayed for five months.
Expect to line up early in the day to place your order for hefty breakfast sandwiches, wraps, burritos and more traditional offerings including buttermilk pancakes with fresh fruit, French toast, or corned beef and hash. Once your order is ready, you can return to a marble-topped table and rattan chairs or take your meal home. Lunch offers a choice of over a dozen sandwiches, seven salads or breakfast items until 4 pm. A handful of salads and sandwiches are also available pre-packaged in the cooler for quicker service.
The dinner menu is pared down to a shorter list of salads, sandwiches and several entrée specials, some prepared by the chef at Blue Canoe. The coffee bar features delectable specialty brews, including Good Karma (caramel and vanilla), Honey Latte, foamy cappuccino and espresso.
For a healthy jump-start on the day, try the Skinny Wrap: scrambled eggs, sautéed spinach, tomatoes, avocado and cheddar in a wheat wrap. Add jalopenos or salsa for a little zest. The Fruit Parfait is light and delicious: organic yogurt and locally-made granola freshly mixed with bananas and blueberries. For a hearty mid-day meal, the John Alden, featuring turkey roasted on site, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mixed greens and mayo on a choice of bread, is a perfect choice. Watch for the specials at dinner – on a recent night, the three-cheese lasagna with spinach was surprisingly light yet flavorful.
You can pick up daily or weekly newspapers on site, as well as gourmet food items, greeting cards, coffees, locally-crafted pottery and woven market totes.
Waterside Market is located at 76 Main Street, Vineyard Haven. Phone: 508-693-8899. www.watersidemarket.com
Blue Canoe
When Steve and Susan first dined at Mediterranean Restaurant’s original location on the Vineyard Haven waterfront, it was love at first sight – with the setting, that is. Mediterranean moved on and the site became available, so the Bowens scooped it and opened Blue Canoe. That was in the spring of 2008. Two summers later, armed with a new license to serve beer and wine, Stephen says the restaurant is flourishing.
With executive chef Nick Wilson at the helm, Blue Canoe focuses on fresh, organic and local ingredients, served by a friendly, efficient wait staff. The intimate interior, with its bright white walls, beamed ceilings and picturesque nautical images by Island photographer Jeffrey Serusa is charming, while outside, the second floor deck offers a bird’s eye view of the adjacent marina’s handsome yachts, the masts of tall ships and the comings and goings of an active harbor.
Highlights of the dinner menu include: For starters, try the spicy tuna tartare or a rich New England clam chowder special dubbed by a nearby diner as “the best I ever tasted!” The sea scallops with heirloom tomato risotto were perfectly browned, crusty on the outside, sweet and tender inside. Dessert: a peach and blackberry cobbler with a just-picked flavor, topped by vanilla ice cream.
Brunch features include standards like a ham and cheddar omelet along with imaginative departures like carrot cake French toast and crab cakes benedict. Lunch offers many of the same lighter items that are carried over to dinner, along with mussels primavera and a carmelized pear, brie and arugula sandwich served on ciabatta with balsamic vinaigrette.
The wine list has been thoughtfully assembled with an selection of sparkling wines and champagnes, whites and reds from the U.S., Europe, South America and Australia at varied price points, with many under $40 per bottle. vs
Blue Canoe is located at 52 Beach Rd, Vineyard Haven. Ph: 508-693-3332. www.bluecanoegrill.com.
Both restaurants offer a relaxed, family-friendly vibe, with Blue Canoe being the choice if casual dining in a more scenic setting is on your menu. Waterside Market is open seven days a week year round, serving breakfast and lunch daily, dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights starting in early November. Watch for dinner nightly next year. Blue Canoe is seasonal and serves lunch and dinner daily, brunch during the peak weeks of summer.
With all that said, it’s important to note that if fresh, straight-forward ingredients thoughtfully prepared appeal to your palate, you can’t go wrong with either choice. Both offer an imaginative range of options, particularly at dinner, when a generous lobster roll paired with homemade cole slaw at Blue Canoe might be just enough for you, while your companion might be hunkering for a more serious meal of filet mignon accompanied by garlic smashed red bliss potato, broccoli rabe and red wine demi-glace.
Both restaur-ants feature lighter choices: Wraps and dinner-sized salads at Waterside, sandwiches and a generous selection of reasonably priced starters, soups and salads at Blue Canoe.
Waterside Market
Bustling for breakfast and lunch, Waterside quiets down and finds its more sedate self at dinner. Manager Laura Jordan achieves an unexpected zen-like atmosphere in the evening with dim lighting and soft jazz in the background. Casual and child-friendly any time of day, Waterside is an eclectic combination of restaurant, emporium and coffee shop.
Truly a family enterprise, Susan’s mother, Susan Finigan Rosen, provided expert guidance with the decorating (wide plank floors, tin ceiling and a “general store” atmosphere), while Stephen’s parents, Linda and Trent Bowen, part-owners, came to the Island to help launch the restaurant and stayed for five months.
Expect to line up early in the day to place your order for hefty breakfast sandwiches, wraps, burritos and more traditional offerings including buttermilk pancakes with fresh fruit, French toast, or corned beef and hash. Once your order is ready, you can return to a marble-topped table and rattan chairs or take your meal home. Lunch offers a choice of over a dozen sandwiches, seven salads or breakfast items until 4 pm. A handful of salads and sandwiches are also available pre-packaged in the cooler for quicker service.
The dinner menu is pared down to a shorter list of salads, sandwiches and several entrée specials, some prepared by the chef at Blue Canoe. The coffee bar features delectable specialty brews, including Good Karma (caramel and vanilla), Honey Latte, foamy cappuccino and espresso.
For a healthy jump-start on the day, try the Skinny Wrap: scrambled eggs, sautéed spinach, tomatoes, avocado and cheddar in a wheat wrap. Add jalopenos or salsa for a little zest. The Fruit Parfait is light and delicious: organic yogurt and locally-made granola freshly mixed with bananas and blueberries. For a hearty mid-day meal, the John Alden, featuring turkey roasted on site, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mixed greens and mayo on a choice of bread, is a perfect choice. Watch for the specials at dinner – on a recent night, the three-cheese lasagna with spinach was surprisingly light yet flavorful.
You can pick up daily or weekly newspapers on site, as well as gourmet food items, greeting cards, coffees, locally-crafted pottery and woven market totes.
Waterside Market is located at 76 Main Street, Vineyard Haven. Phone: 508-693-8899. www.watersidemarket.com
Blue Canoe
When Steve and Susan first dined at Mediterranean Restaurant’s original location on the Vineyard Haven waterfront, it was love at first sight – with the setting, that is. Mediterranean moved on and the site became available, so the Bowens scooped it and opened Blue Canoe. That was in the spring of 2008. Two summers later, armed with a new license to serve beer and wine, Stephen says the restaurant is flourishing.
With executive chef Nick Wilson at the helm, Blue Canoe focuses on fresh, organic and local ingredients, served by a friendly, efficient wait staff. The intimate interior, with its bright white walls, beamed ceilings and picturesque nautical images by Island photographer Jeffrey Serusa is charming, while outside, the second floor deck offers a bird’s eye view of the adjacent marina’s handsome yachts, the masts of tall ships and the comings and goings of an active harbor.
Highlights of the dinner menu include: For starters, try the spicy tuna tartare or a rich New England clam chowder special dubbed by a nearby diner as “the best I ever tasted!” The sea scallops with heirloom tomato risotto were perfectly browned, crusty on the outside, sweet and tender inside. Dessert: a peach and blackberry cobbler with a just-picked flavor, topped by vanilla ice cream.
Brunch features include standards like a ham and cheddar omelet along with imaginative departures like carrot cake French toast and crab cakes benedict. Lunch offers many of the same lighter items that are carried over to dinner, along with mussels primavera and a carmelized pear, brie and arugula sandwich served on ciabatta with balsamic vinaigrette.
The wine list has been thoughtfully assembled with an selection of sparkling wines and champagnes, whites and reds from the U.S., Europe, South America and Australia at varied price points, with many under $40 per bottle. vs
Blue Canoe is located at 52 Beach Rd, Vineyard Haven. Ph: 508-693-3332. www.bluecanoegrill.com.