On the last day of April, a few minutes before 8 a.m., I stood in line in a chilly, light drizzle, waiting for the opening of Wellfleet’s most recent home-grown or home-made food purveyor, The Bagel Hound. The store, run by Ellery Althaus and his wife Claire Adams, is located on Route 6 at what was formerly JB’s Pizza Bar and Grill. The Bagel Hound hadn’t put up their new sign yet, so unless you had heard of the opening by word of mouth or online, you might wonder why there was a queue standing in the rain outside a pizza place early on a Saturday morning.
It reminded me of a similar opening in 2010 when two French cooks opened PB’s, an authentic bistro/boulangerie in South Wellfleet. They opened in mid-March and there were lines stretching out the door into the street.
We’re spoiled, I know that. What other small town with a year-round population that hovers around three thousand has so many home-grown or locally prepared food enterprises? In addition to the bistro and the brand-new bagel shop, there is the Gelato Joy Café, which serves genuine Italian gelato made by the Valli family in summer out of a walk-up counter down an alley in Wellfleet Center. So great was the response to this local delicacy that Sandy, the proprietor, has run an off-season, online-order Gelato Pint Club the past two winters. Add to these such businesses as the Blue Willow in the South Wellfleet Post Office complex, which prepares home-made pastries and take-out dinners, and the venerable Briar Lane Jams and Jellies, Est. 1932, and you could make a reasonable case for Wellfleet as a Local Foodie Town.
And as if that weren’t enough, in 2020, some Cape fishermen, deprived of their usual business with many local restaurants closed by the pandemic, created the Lockdown Seafood Cartel, which sells fresh native seafood from a fish truck with weekly stops in Wellfleet.
Moreover, if I include our neighboring town of Truro in this survey of locally produced food, we can add several more of these enterprises, including the Truro Vineyards, South Hollow Spirits, and the Chequessett Chocolate shop in North Truro. Forgive me if I’ve left out others.
Of course, I could also add any number of local farmers who produce fruits, vegetables, eggs, honey, and other locally-produced food that they bring to our local Farmers Market during the warmer months. In any case, not a bad inventory for a couple of towns whose combined population is under five thousand.
So, what, I wonder, will be our next locally-produced food item: Wellfleet Wild Free-Range Turkey Burgers? They’re out there, folks – just waiting to be plucked.
