A new café takes up shop on Surfside Road.
Downtown Nantucket has enjoyed a resurgence in cafés, coffee shops and bakeries over recent years, and now that tasty trend has spilled onto Surfside Road. “There isn’t a thing we can’t do,” says a spunky Rebecca Moesinger in her new kitchen on Surfside Road. “We are a little powerhouse team.” Flanked by fellow chefs Elizabeth Brown and Jeff Wheaton, Moesinger is putting the finishing touches on Nantucket’s newest dining destination to hit mid-island, 45 Surfside Bakery and Café.
Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner yearround, 45 Surfside’s menu will boast baked goods, sandwiches, paninis, “every kind of salad you can imagine,” coffee, teas, and dinner specials — all created with fresh, locally-sourced ingredients. “Pegging what kind of food we’re making is like asking a mom what kind of meals she cooks her kids at home,” said Moesinger. “A mom just does her research and makes what is good! Having already owned a business, I know that concept works.”
Moesinger is the founder and one-time owner of the award-winning Konditor Meister Bakery in Braintree, which became renowned throughout New England. She eventually left her successful bakery behind to spend more time with her children, and became an instructor at Boston’s Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. That’s where she met Brown and Wheaton, who will be running the day-to-day of her Nantucket operation. “Jeff and Beth are just so talented and down to earth; they are going to make this place very cool and hip,” she says. “Between the three of us we’ve got the cooking covered. We all just want to make great food.”
Moesinger has been coming to Nantucket since she was a little girl and has always dreamt of having a permanent presence on island. There have been some struggles in the process (she was forced to purchase additional property to accommodate adequate adjacent parking), and she was supposed to open her doors last summer. Situated on some prime real estate on the new Surfside/Bartlett roads rotary currently under construction, the café will house approximately 30 indoor seats with plenty of seasonal, outdoor seating as well.
Moesinger sees the community as being a big part of the success that she hopes for 45 Surfside. She designed the café as a place where families, parents, teachers, Town employees, friends and couples can enjoy breakfast, lunch, or dinner. “The most important thing you can do is get people in the door, charge a fair price, and hopefully get them to come back in.” She expects the doors at 45 Surfside to open on June 1st, but will also have a booth in the Culinary Tent at this year’s Nantucket Wine Festival for you to get a taste of what’s to come.
Visit 45surfside.com for more information.
