The Ship’s Inn at 13 Fair St is an elegant, understate and creative restaurant you shouldn’t miss. The restaurant is on the lower level of the inn itself, and has its own entrance at right rear. Or you can go into the inn and down the stairs. Fair Street is one way inbound towards Main and you have to drive out and back in to get to the restaurant. On street parking is limited and you may have to park some distance away or somewhere downtown.

The inn itself is quite elegant and has a comfortable and old-fashioned quality, and claims to be on the site of the birthplace of Lucretia Mott, the first abolitionist and women’s suffrage pioneer.

Chef Mark Gottwald’s menu is creative and priced on the high end of moderate, with only three of the 12 entrees above $40. The appetizers are priced from $12 to $20. The service is elegant and attentive, and quite rapid.

We started with two excellent salads, a House Salad ($12) of field greens, feta cheese and a lemon thyme vinaigrette, and a classic Caesar salad ($14) with romaine, parmesan and croutons. Both salads were ample, and the Caesar so

rich we could hardly finish it.

For our main course, we ordered Boneless Beef Short Ribs ($36) with horse radish spatzle. The beef was amazingly tender and richly flavored and the spatzle small and elegant. It was so huge we were able to take some home for lunch the next day.

Our other entrée was Grilled Shrimp ($35) served with English peas, chorizo and baby clams (shown in the dish on the left, and saffron and tomato rice shown on the right. The huge shrimp plus the chorizo and clams made an enormous but satisfying meal and one we’d enthusiastically recommend to anyone.

We decided there wasn’t room for dessert, but we certainly will return to try some more dishes on this excellent menu.

• Nantucket