The team from B-ACK Yard BBQ has opened The Charlie Noble in the former space of Nix on South Water Street.
As the proprietors of B-ACK Yard BBQ on Straight Wharf and the Surfside Smokehouse in Plymouth for the last few years, Fred Bisaillon and Denise Corson have created successful establishments through handmade, honest food that people really enjoy. That philosophy in the kitchen is what’s behind the couple’s latest collaboration at The Charlie Noble on South Water Street.
Named after the shiny, well-kept copper smokestack in a ship’s galley, The Charlie Noble focuses on fresh seafood and bar fare. The menu is hearty, family friendly, and reasonably priced with sandwiches and burgers costing $15–$20 and full entrees ticking toward the $30 mark. Similar to his barbecue joint just down the street at the base of Straight Wharf, Bisaillon’s menu offers something for everyone with burgers, raw bar, soups and salads, buckets of fried chicken, seafood towers, street corn, coleslaw, and all the fixings.
The Charlie Noble will have the most extensive beer tap systems on the island, which will include fourteen regularly updated selections of beers including a variety of European brews, as well as a handful of fine, domestic, craft selections. Denise Corson, one of the island’s most beloved bartenders and restaurant managers, will oversee the front of the house and curate a selection of whiskeys, tequilas, and a margarita list that she says will rival anything else on Nantucket.
Featuring high top bar tables, the bar area is separated from the main dining space by a partition. The rear of the restaurant will house a variety of table games including foosball and the shuffleboard table from the old Captain Tobey’s. “It’s going to be a fun atmosphere without being an arcade or a nightclub,” says Bisaillon. “We’re hoping to hit that sweet spot.” They hope the rear gaming area will draw those looking to head downtown for some casual, low-key nightlife.
The restaurant space at 15 South Water Street has seen a few iterations over the years, but none so meaningful to the Nantucket community as the Atlantic Café. Owned and operated by John and Kate O’Connor for many years, it was a regular watering hole and family-dining establishment that many Nantucketers often patronized. For any kid that grew up on Nantucket during that time, it’s hard not to remember stopping in there for a meal or a snack before a movie at the old Dreamland or a jaunt over to the Juice Bar for some ice cream.
Since that time, Bisaillon, the one-time executive chef at the Brant Point Grill at the White Elephant, has dreamed of opening a restaurant in this space. “The AC was important to Nantucket,” he says. “It was family friendly for locals and tourists alike, and it was awesome year round.” And while The Charlie Noble has its own philosophy when it comes to its presence on Nantucket, the legacy of the space they inhabit will live on by honoring the Atlantic Café’s memory in this community.
