Kender & Sisters / Firestarter Pizza
Wake up to scrumptious pastries and bright egg “Sammies” at Kender & Sisters. Grab a barbeque chicken salad and hummus sandwich for a picnic lunch. Return at sundown to claim pizzas and firedawgs just out of Firestarter’s wood-stoked oven.
Falling in love with cooking, each other, and a baby girl, it made sense for husband-and-wife team Geoff Boehme and Margot Kender to find a novel way to combine their visions. Kender & Sisters serves up breakfast, lunch and baked goods plus hot and iced coffee selections from 8am to 2pm. Then a brief timeout until 4pm, when the couple flips the eatery to Firestarter Pizza, creating sizzling wood-fired pies, several sandwiches, and snacks like ricotta toast and chicken wings.
Now into their fourth summer at 593 Main Street (Route 6A) in Dennis, the two have paid their culinary dues. First meeting while at different establishments in Philly’s Rittenhouse Square area, Boehme worked as a fine dining chef and Kender managed a cafe. After moving to the Cape, Kender’s home base, they spent several years at different restaurants before marrying their skills to begin this business.
Kender and Boehme are thankful to work alongside key employees that they value like family; the vibe here is upbeat and welcoming. Actual family is in on it, too. Kender’s sister Mallory painted their Tuscan Mugnaini wood-fired oven just in time for opening day and she bakes part-time. Kender’s parents, Kolleen and Steven, help with childcare.
Margot’s traditional oven upstairs is where her airy croissants bake; so lovely, they move quickly. Frequent sweets on the menu include blueberry muffins, zucchini bread and tremendous slabs of chocolate coconut banana cake dolloped with giant gobs of cream cheese icing. With flavors like salted cherry chocolate chip, a not-too-sweet chewy ginger and a powdered sugar topped chocolate earthquake, the huge cookies are not to be skipped. “We have a direct partnership with New Harvest coffee too,” says Kender, “They roast their fair-trade beans in Pawtucket, RI. I’m a big fan.”
As part of the afternoon turnover and preparing for the onslaught of the online orders, Boehme fuels the fire to the perfect temperature. Orchestrating the dance before him, many hands, often including Margot’s, are on the line. They stretch the dough made with Italian flour, ladle homemade red sauce and pop on toppings from basic whole milk mozzarella to spicy togarashi honey. Assembly time is 70 seconds or better. With finesse, Boehme’s paddle swoops into the oven depositing its treasure. After just 2-3 minutes of baking, he retrieves it, deftly checks the darkness of the leoparding on the crust’s sides (marks appearing like the animal’s spots), and slides it onto a board to be boxed up and sliced by yet another pair of hands.
Firestarter offers basic red and white pizzas plus many addons. Boehme’s custom creations come and go, with fun names like The Tommy Pickles – bacon and dill pickles atop a basic red, or The BOBito, garlic oil and basil, named after the Hip Hop DJ B.o.B. True to its name, The Carnivore has four kinds of meat, with the option to add a fifth. The Truffled Mushroom comes with onions and rosemary over crimini mushrooms with a drizzle of truffle oil. Finally, this veggie lover can’t forget salad. Theirs is a generous one of mixed greens and toppings. Definitely go for the creamy ranch; homemade and so loved, the pair is small batch bottling it.
A bright patio has several beer garden tables for self-service dining, and a few seating areas tucked around the property and on the porch. Now operating with online and phone orders and curbside pickup only, the couple is grateful for their loyal customers during this difficult year, a few even purchasing twice daily to show their support. They hope to return to some indoor dining options in the fall.
Holidays and sporting events often trigger culinary celebrations with comfort desserts like banana pudding with vanilla wafers and freshly-whipped cream, tiramisu and key lime pies cycling in and out. The Love Your Mother was a build-your-own strawberry shortcake kit. Slab Sunday occurs nearly every week, with individual rectangule-shaped pizzas. Follow their kicky Instagram posts for the changing combos, as the regular menu is blocked when it’s Slab day. Order ahead online by 2pm Sundays for Slabs with pick-up times beginning at 4:15pm.
New this year for both cooks is helping to stock the food concession at the soon-to-reopen historic Cape Cinema, also on Route 6A in Dennis. Kender will bring pastries and cookies, with mini pan pizzas arriving from Boehme. Trialed last Thanksgiving, wood-fire baked fruit pies are joining Kender & Sister’s and Firestarter’s menus. Cooked after closing time, the pies will caramelize as the oven cools down from the 850 degrees it hits for pizza.
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593 Main Street, Route 6A, Dennis
508-258-5001
kendersisters.com
firestarterpizza.com
Online and phone orders only please, with curbside pick-up.
