Meet Me at the Corner Table Café
Every small town needs a central place to meet up, and Nantucket is no exception. When I grew up on the island, my friend and I would meet at one of two side-by-side Main Street pharmacies for a soda fountain Coke. We’d get a different flavored shot of syrup each week and a Devil Dog. Our tastes have changed, but we still need a touchstone place to meet up. The Corner Table Café is it.
ReMain Ventures, founded by Google’s Wendy Schmidt, a part-time islander and full-time supporter, realized that Nantucket was losing her soul. Bookstores were going out of business, the music center was about to close, and there wasn’t an affordable, central place for folks to meet and pick up ready to eat items for a quick coffee, latte or lunch. ReMain has purchased property in and around Main Street “to keep vitality downtown while taking real estate out of the equation for small businesses,” said Executive Director Cecil Barron Jensen.
Previously an attorney’s office, the café opened seven years ago, and the below-street-level spot quickly became a cornerstone – literally and figuratively – of the island community. The first managers had to step down last winter, but the café was able to reopen in time to provide picnic lunches for the annual Daffodil Festival at the end of April. It was a seamless and intentional transition from the previous managers, largely due to retaining past employees and procuring a management team from several walks of local culinary life: restaurants Via Mare and Ventuno and the artisanal local market Pip & Anchor.
“We are open seven days a week. Mondays are always super busy, so we have extra baked goods available as Born & Bread, our sister bakery around the corner, is closed,” General Manager Asher Smith explained. The second floor Culinary Center will come alive soon in the form of culinary classes for children and adults. But pop-ups for local makers had been going on all last summer. “Success for us is a new entrepreneur successfully launched from our pop-ups. Our dual mission is serving the community and creating successful businesses. This winter we will have a smaller version of the Saturday farmers’ and artisans’ market upstairs, as well as lengthier pop-ups. We’re calling it the “Pip Stop,” Smith chuckled.
The café has no printed menu, as they specialize in using locally grown seasonal foods, so items are subject to change. Salads, for instance, are based on what’s available from the downtown farm truck or at Pip & Anchor. But there are staples like the generously-sized breakfast sandwiches “cooked in a proper 500-degree oven”. “Sunglasses Inside” is a Portuguese bun with egg frittata, hash browns, cheese, and a pork sausage patty. The vegetarian version is “Easy Like Sunday Morning” where “the hash brown creates the flavor and satisfying experience of a meat patty on an egg sando,” said Smith. The chia pudding with Narragansett yogurt and house made granola is very popular, as is the prosciutto cotto sandwich – Ventuno-made focaccia with Italian ham and artichoke aioli.
The café is located only two blocks from Steamship Authority wharf and Main Street, and three from the Hy-Line wharf. A quintessential community bulletin board announces local events as you head down the stairs. There are tables inside and plenty of seating outside, protected enough to serve most of the year. I’ll meet you on the corner, save me a seat!
The Corner Table Café
22 Federal Street, Nantucket
508-228-2665
cornertablenantucket.com
@cornertablenantucket
