One Day on the Cape: A Foodie Tale

One Day on the Cape: A Foodie Tale.

What does a foodie do during a weekend getaway to the Cape with her Valentine? No couples massages or champagne for us. No sirree! In between some tennis, a little volleyball, and a walk near the beach, we squeezed in a tour of Cape Cod Beer in Hyannis, MA, as well as a lovely breakfast and an amazing dinner at local restaurants. The entire weekend, which included a no-extra-cost blizzard, was a welcome weekend away from our three mouthy challenging sassy exceedingly typical kids. I’m sure you can sympathize 🙂

One Day on the Cape: Breakfast

Breakfast was quick but delicious at a local eatery called The Daily Paper. Chef-owned and operated, they use local, fresh ingredients wherever possible, and put interesting twists on typical breakfast fare. Mark went for a standard corned beef hash with eggs, with some extraordinarily delicious homemade honey oatmeal bread. It was so good we just had to buy a full-sized loaf to take with us. When we discovered it was just $3.95, I solemnly informed them they were not charging enough.

I, on the other hand, went for a meal I’m not likely to make for myself. I love eggs Benedict, and this southwestern version was too tasty-sounding to pass up. It came complete with sautéed onions, peppers, and linguica, as well as a chipotle hollandaise sauce. It was awesome, not to mention enormous. This was breakfast AND lunch.

One Day on the Cape: Beer Making Tour

After a short walk by the beach, it was time to learn about beer-making. For those who know me well, you’re probably wondering why a beer tour? Beer is never my first choice. I’ll usually only drink it on a hot summer day, and I have to be really thirsty, and it must be ice cold, and not too bitter. Anything else, Princess? If you must know, I’m more of a Kahlua girl. I do also like a smooth merlot. And since we’re being honest, I’ve never been known to turn down a jello shot…I love jello. I’m aware how very un-dietitiany this is of me. I forgive me. Do you?

Regardless, let’s get back to beer.  I am intrigued by the whole beer-making process, which seems quite mysterious and complicated, and Mark LOVES beer. So off we went to this fun local brewery, where Tami led our free tour (daily at 11:00 am). After hearing about their love of beer-making, eco-friendly practices, and their commitment to the surrounding Cape community, I became their newest fan.

Beer-making is a precise scientific process

It requires constant tracking of things like temperature and gravity and other what-nots I don’t  understand. Which is why I’m a little concerned they use a dry-erase board to record their all-important production details. An errant wave of the hand could erase critical information! What if the beer-meister gets a little tipsy and stumbles up against it? Or the sprinkler system goes off unexpectedly? Or a hooligan breaks in and changes all the numbers just to mess with them? Disaster! But, still, they seem like a sober crew who take their beer-making quite seriously, so I’m sure there’s a back-up plan somewhere…

Here are the beer vats…

…of which some are hard-wired through the wall for refilling containers. The ultimate in beer taps!

“A blonde, a red, and a porter walk into a bar…”
Fun facts about Cape Cod Beer:

–>They do everything themselves, from brewing to packaging to labeling to marketing to delivering. All with  just 18 employees.

–> The beer is not pasteurized, which means it needs to be kept refrigerated at all times. If the beer gets too warm, the still-active yeast will cause the volume to expand and eventually the bottle will explode. Please do not share this information with my kids, who will undoubtedly test this theory.

–> They are purposefully local, in part to the necessity of refrigeration. They deliver their product in refrigerated trucks within a 50-mile radius, from Provincetown to Plymouth. They brew on the Cape, for the Cape, its residents, visitors, and businesses. This also reduces their carbon footprint, a practice important to their core values.

–> They only use refillable containers, including kegs, souvenir bottles, and the very popular 64-ounce ‘growler.’ Customers come back to the brewery regularly to have them refilled for a lower price. Some are so attached to their growlers that they decorate them and will not allow them to be switched out for a different one. You could say they get a little growly about it 🙂

–>They do cool things like repurpose the grain bags into shopping bags, and compost their spent grain or donate it to local farmers for feed. You can also bake with spent grain — they give it to local bakers as well.

After a tour  you can taste 5 different brews for just $5, plus you get a cute miniature glass. I really liked the Beach Blonde, which is a light and refreshing golden ale. Give me beach and sand and 80+ degrees and I’d be very happy with this in my hand. (ice cold and after a bout of beach volleyball, preferably).

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel, and spent an hour impressing no one at all on the tennis court. Then it was time to discuss dinner plans! Despite the blizzard warnings across the Cape, and snow already falling, we decided to make the trek over to the Brazilian Grill, a rotisserie barbecue experience everyone should have at least once.

There’s a gorgeous buffet filled with all kinds of roasted veggies, salads, cheeses, sushi, fried plantains, black beans, and various entrees PLUS a waiter bringing you skewer after skewer of the best tasting grilled meat I’ve ever had.

I confirmed that prime rib is just not my thing, and wasn’t feeling adventurous enough to eat chicken hearts, though I slightly regret that now in the light of day. I did enjoy tastes of filet mignon wrapped in bacon, marinated flank steak, rib-eye steak, and chicken. Wrapped in bacon. (Really, it’s like they knew I was coming.) And the buffet was filled with all of my favorite things, from mango to roasted brussel sprouts, to sautéed mushrooms, black beans, and a fresh take on chicken salad, with apples and raisins, that I’m absolutely making soon.

Finally, we splurged on a couple of desserts, which were both awesome and I really wish I had thought to snap a picture. Coconut cream chocolate layer cake and passion fruit cheesecake – indeed as good as they sound!

So, that was just one day on the Cape, from a foodie’s perspective. Looking forward to heading down again soon. I am hooked on food factory tours now, so heads up, Cape Cod Chips, cuz you’re next!