If you’ve been eating at a number of Nantucket restaurants, you soon discover that their menus have an essential sameness and that is why you want to have a meal at The Proprietors. The menu is made up of clever small plates of things you aren’t likely to find anywhere else: like Pig Ears, Bluefish Pate Focaccia, Chickpea Socca pancake with eggplant, and seared Halloumi cheese. And all of them are delicious. They also have Michale LaScola’s fabulous charcuterie platter.
Most of the plates are small, although they become more substantial as you go down the menu, and the last five or six are full entrée portions. They suggest two orders per person, and you can all share, of course.
One addition to the menu the night we were there was Crab Puffs ($19.50), more or les a crab salad spread on puff pastry. We were glad to be able to share that one.
Our other starter was the Pig Ear Fries ($19.50) with Cholula (shown above), lime and micro cilantro. If you aren’t familiar with it, Cholula is a well-known Mexican hot sauce that spiced up the pig ears. Fortunately, there was a jug of cold water on the table. No one could call this a small serving of pig ears, but in any case we couldn’t finish them all, delicious though they were.
One of us ordered the large Chicken Fried Trout with Green Goddess, bacon vin and lemon confit ($22.50). You don’t get delicious crunch trout very often, but this is an exceptional dish.
The other entrée was Cavatelli with smoked corn, ricotta cream, chili and tomato sugo ($22). This was quite tasty, but we wish the cavatelli had been cooked just a bit more.
We weren’t entirely sure what we’d be getting when we split a dessert called Banana Bread Toast. (The diners at the next table had become very loud at that point.) It seemed to be chocolate banana bread, topped with chocolate ice cream and decorated with sweetened popcorn ($15). But it was a delightful surprise and a bit lighter than I’d feared. But I still miss the Flying Elvis!
You are sure to have a fine time at The Proprietors. There are so many items to choose from. We certainly welcomed its variety, and will be returning every year.
Food Science Institute 