Every Dark Kitchen in Town Has a Return Date Before Thanksgiving

Downtown Nantucket's November break comes with fixed end dates. The Town's Restaurants Open list for October 26 through November 1 marked five downtown dining rooms as closed. Each one came with a reopening date, and the latest of those dates is November 25, the night before Thanksgiving.

So the quiet in early November is real, and it ends on a schedule. The kitchens come back in four steps, on November 11, 18, 24 and 25. Meanwhile the Noel calendar fills in around them: wreaths on Straight Wharf, a harbor plunge at Children's Beach and more than 150 lit trees on Main Street. By the time the trees are lit on November 27, everything on that closed list is scheduled to be serving again.

Five Kitchens, Five Return Dates

Here's where each closed dining room stands, according to the Town's list, and what else is happening downtown the week it comes back.

That list covered a single week, so the dates above are scheduled dates. Before you make plans around one, check the current version on the Town's Open Restaurants page. For Or the Whale, its own website said reservations for Thanksgiving and Christmas Stroll would open on November 1, by phone at 10 a.m. and online at noon. That means those books opened while the dining room itself was still dark.

Broad Street, Half Lit

The break shows most on Broad Street. Billie's on Broad at number 20 and Ethos at number 18 sit side by side, and both were on the closed list. Across the street and along the block, the Town's list showed plenty still open:

• Brotherhood of Thieves, 23 Broad Street, serving lunch and dinner
• The Tap Room, 29 Broad Street, serving dinner
• Via Mare, 17 Broad Street, serving dinner, closed Sunday through Tuesday
• Surfside Taco Stand, 2 Broad Street, open 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Island Coffee, 4 Broad Street, open 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

So you can still eat on the block in early November. The two neighbors at 18 and 20 just return two weeks apart. Billie's reopens first, on November 11, and Ethos follows on November 24. By the end of November, every Broad Street address on the Town's list is set to be open again.

Tuesday Is the Thinnest Night

The closed list gets the attention, but weekday closures shape a downtown dinner plan more. In the same snapshot, Tuesday comes up again and again. These downtown rooms listed Tuesday as a day off:

• Black Eyed Susan's, 10 India Street, closed Monday and Tuesday
• Proprietors, 9 India Street, closed Tuesday and Wednesday
• Ventuno, 21 Federal Street, closed Sunday through Tuesday
• Gaslight Nantucket, 3 North Union Street, closed Sunday through Tuesday
• Sister Ship, 29 Center Street, closed Monday and Tuesday
• Bloom Bar Cafe, 9 South Water Street, closed Tuesday and Wednesday
• Café 22, 22 Federal Street, closed Tuesday

On a Tuesday night, that week's list still showed Brotherhood of Thieves and Rose and Crown at 23 South Water Street serving lunch and dinner. Bar Yoshi at 21 Old South Wharf listed dinner seven nights. Company of the Cauldron at 5 India Street kept its single 7 p.m. seating every night except Monday. For something quicker, Surfside Taco Stand ran until 9 p.m. Straight Wharf Fish at 4 Harbor Square, which closes Wednesdays, listed 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

In the daytime, Main Street stays steady through the week. Lemon Press at 41 Main Street listed 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Hub at 31 Main Street listed 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Luncheonette at Nantucket Pharmacy, 45 Main Street, listed 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Café 22 Holds the Corner

The corner of Federal and Broad is getting its first full off-season with a new tenant. Café 22 opened last winter in the space that used to house The Corner Table. N Magazine reported that the owner is Jonas Baker, a partner at The Brotherhood of Thieves, and that the building's owner, Remain Nantucket, sees the café as part of Broad Street's role as a culinary and cultural anchor with year-round jobs.

In the same N Magazine piece, general manager Michael Ferreri, a co-founder of ACK Roasters, described what they were going for:

"We want to have a space where the community can hang out."

N Magazine also reported that culinary director Daisy Carnelia teaches year-round cooking classes upstairs, carrying on The Corner Table's tradition. Baker said he wants local nonprofits to use the upstairs space for events too. The story pointed out that The Bean, Espresso to Go and Fast Forward have all closed in recent years. On the Town's late-October list, Café 22 was open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Tuesday.

The Calendar Fills In as the Dining Rooms Do

Downtown's event calendar builds the same way the reopenings do. It starts sparse in early November and gets dense the week of Thanksgiving. Noel officially began on November 1, according to the Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce, and runs through December 31. Red Tickets started the same day. Participating Chamber member businesses hand out one ticket for every $25 you spend, and the drawing is December 24 at 1 p.m.

From here, the rest of the month looks like this:

1. Wednesday, November 11. Billie's on Broad is scheduled to reopen.
2. Saturday, November 14, 7 to 8:30 p.m. The Rossini Club presents "Nachtgesang" in the Atheneum's Great Hall.
3. Sunday, November 15, 2 p.m. Dreamland screens "Twenty Years of the Met in Cinemas: An Anniversary Celebration" in the Main Theater.
4. Wednesday, November 18. Boarding House and The Pearl are both scheduled to reopen at 12 Federal Street.
5. Thursday, November 19, 5 to 6 p.m. Mitchell's Book Corner hosts Books & Banter on John Green's Hollywood Ending at 54 Main Street.
6. Monday, November 23, 5 to 7 p.m. The Nantucket Historical Association holds the Festival of Wreaths preview party.
7. Tuesday, November 24. The Festival of Wreaths opens to the public and Ethos reopens on Broad Street.
8. Wednesday, November 25. Or the Whale reopens on Main Street.
9. Thursday, November 26, 10 a.m. The Cold Turkey Plunge at Children's Beach.
10. Friday, November 27, 4 p.m. Tree lighting and community caroling on Main Street.
11. Saturday, November 28. Small Business Saturday, with Warren Miller's "Days Off" at Dreamland at 6:30 p.m.

The wreaths are in a new spot this year. The NHA's Festival of Wreaths page says the event is moving to the historic Macy Warehouse at 12 Straight Wharf, with newly extended dates running through Saturday, December 5. The wreaths themselves are made by islanders, local businesses, nonprofits, schools and other organizations. If you're heading to Straight Wharf, the Whaling Museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., through December 31. It's closed on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Morning to Friday Afternoon

The Cold Turkey Plunge returns to Children's Beach for its 25th year at 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving. It raises money for the Weezie Library for Children, which offers free programs year-round. If you have family off-island, they can register and take their own plunge outside anytime during Thanksgiving week.

The next afternoon, Main Street closes to traffic from noon to 6 p.m. for the tree lighting. The Chamber says more than 150 trees will light up at 4 p.m. Some storefronts will already be dressed for the season. The Chamber's Noel page lists early entries in this year's storefront decorating contest: the Artists Association of Nantucket at 8 Federal Street, Aunt Leah's Fudge at 16 Straight Wharf, Epernay Wine & Spirits at 1 North Beach Street, Erica Wilson at 25 Main Street, Haul Over Nantucket at 7 Salem Street and Nantucket Looms at 51 Main Street.

Then Stroll Weekend

The Christmas Stroll runs December 4 through 6, and Santa arrives by sea at noon on Saturday. The Stroll Marketplace runs Saturday, December 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the downtown Stop & Shop and NIR lot at 9 Salem Street. If you usually park there, plan around it. The Chamber says two rows of that lot will close from Friday afternoon, December 4, through Saturday evening, December 5. The NHA's Festival of Trees opens the same Friday, December 4, and runs through December 31.

At Sanford & Sanford, we keep a close eye on Town's off-season calendar because our owners and guests ask us about it every fall. If you'd like a Stroll weekend dinner suggestion or a quiet corner to recommend to family visiting for Thanksgiving, Amy and Henry are happy to help. Buy, Sell, or Rent with Sanford & Sanford.