My Summer Fling
Cape Cod carte blanche
By Sam Bolen1
I make a point of forgetting food I’ve eaten at midtown cafeterias. But there was this one chicken tender from the ’Essen on 36th & 8th.
It was the fall of 2017 and enough internet articles had convinced me the best thing I could personally do for the environment was to stop eating meat. I stabbed that cold tender and said out loud, “What if this were the last one?” A week later, I texted my mother to tell her I was newly vegetarian. I am barely exaggerating when I say it felt like coming out all over again.
I love not eating meat. I love scanning a menu for the vegetarian dish instead of making a decision. I love all the fake meat (for the science!). I do not, however, love dogmatic decisions. Or the word “flexitarian”. Sorry!
It is in this spirit I travel to Provincetown each summer with a self-issued carte blanche to eat fresh seafood with abandon. The end of the Cape feels like the end of the earth! Rules fly out the window! And with a modicum of respect to that other gay summer spot: the food is actually so good.
At the old Provincetown Inn there is a public pool and at that pool there is a more than decent grill. Vacation begins when I have my feet in the water, a cocktail in my hand, and a tray of their fish and chips still too hot to eat but that’s not stopping me. The best happy hour is next door at The Red Inn. Oysters on ice like glistening jewels! I must slurp the jewels.
Down the way is Sal’s, famous to itself. In the pandemic they had tables on the literal beach and we had one flawless dinner. Rounds and rounds of cocktails as they seemingly corrected our order by bringing out even more food. Did they put that on our bill? Impossible to tell but who cares! We were eating seafood fra diavlo as the tide came in! Only when they moved us inside the next year and we saw them pouring pre-made cocktails at those Manhattan prices did we secede. We have famously never been back, though the group text shows wavering resolve.
I eat a single lobster roll a year and this year it was from The Canteen, a no-brainer in the middle of town. The Canteen’s lobster roll is what I, a mere midwesterner, would hazard to call Classic. I’m a cold roll girl and theirs is all lobster, chunky and lightly dressed, a kiss of celery for crunch. It’s fruity and rich and I eat it one bite at a time with exactly the look on my face you might think. The weather is perfect for taking up two tables in the backyard after all the families have finally gone home. We eat together with our feet in the sand. I’m so happy I’ve already forgotten the “market price.”
The vegetarian on my shoulder feels better knowing the lobsters came in that day from right out there. When your carbon footprint was so small? That’s when I carried you. I’m not sure who the I is in that story but the next day the I in this story grills scallops and shrimp from Mac’s Seafood on Bradford. A skewered scallop off the grill is a toasted marshmallow. You heard me! I wish I could offer you a bite right now. We drizzle them with clarified butter and eat them on the grass in the sun. I’m not the only one of us who can code-switch to Grillmaster, but I never miss an opportunity. Cooking for hungry boys is like doing a magic act. I pull the Airbnb’s finest “platter” out of a hat and drop it center stage to “oohs” and “aahs” that give way to the quiet of a family well fed.
Back home in Brooklyn you won’t catch me ordering the calamari. A crab po-boy in Times Square could never bring me joy! I’ll tell you what always will, though: getting the fuck out of town with my favorite fruits and indulging in fruits of the sea.
Name drops: ’Essen, The Provincetown Inn, The Red Inn, The Canteen, Sal’s, Mac’s Seafood,
A special thank you to this week’s illustrator, Alex Chen2. See more of her work here.
Sam Bolen acts, sings, writes, and lives in Brooklyn. A dog person with a cat named Dave. More piano bar than karaoke, more Provincetown than Pines. The best guest, the consummate host.
Alex Chen is an award-winning illustrator from China, currently based in Toronto. She earned her Bachelor of Illustration degree from Sheridan College, and her work has been recognized internationally by organizations such as 3x3, RGD, Hiii Illustration, and others.
She loves to find inspiration in daily life and turn it into lovely illustrations that provide a positive vibe and warm people’s hearts.