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Type: Italian, Seafood
Prices: Appetizers, $5-$10; entrees, $12-$24; desserts: $5.
Good choices: Sliced raw baby artichokes; grilled calamari bruschetta; fazzoletti ``Dancing Lobster''; Sicilian zuppa di pesce; haddock with asparagus and shrimp; grilled paillard of pork.
Hours: May-June, October-November: Fri.-Sun. 6-10 p.m.; July-September: Tues.-Sun. 5-11 p.m.; closed Monday.
No parties larger than 6; reservations accepted. Nonsmoking.
Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard.
Access: Fully accessible.
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DANCING LOBSTER
463 Commercial Street, Provincetown
(508) 487-0900
Restaurant reviewed 06/15/98 by Alison Arnett
There's an elemental feeling to Provincetown. Oh yes, the main street is flooded with T-shirt-buying tourists and raucous teens; the art galleries are inviting; the retail shops quirky and colorful. It's a busy scene, rising toward a frenetic crescendo in August. But step beyond Commercial Street and face Cape Cod Bay. It laps serenely onto a narrow ribbon of sand and rolls out again. The horizon looks close enough to touch and, at the same time, infinitely far away. Breathing slows, time stands still. The allure of the Cape, clouded by the traffic on Route 6 and carnival atmosphere of P-town, becomes clear. After contemplating infinity, one wants food that matches the vision. But summer beach fare is often either too mundane - fried everything or gummy clam chowder in paper bowls - or too fancied-up - architectural constructions and rarefied ingredients trucked to this spit of sand at the end of the continent.
All that makes the Dancing Lobster a wonderful find - a sense of Provincetown history mingled with chef-owner's Nils Pepe Berg's vision of simple Italian fare. Most important, the food tastes really good.
Sitting along the big windows overlooking the beach one evening, I watched a woman playing with a Jack Russell terrier as the sun set. The room, rustic and cozy with lots of dark wood and padded banquettes, looked like the Cape. The waitress was helpful and friendly with no trace of city attitude. The dishes on the menu sounded enticing. It took only a few minutes to feel glad I'd come. And when Norman Mailer came in with friends to sit at the next table, stars seemed to dazzle in the dusk.
Berg opened the first Dancing Lobster five years ago in a tiny shack on Fisherman's Wharf. The place, which seated only 35 when stretched to the utmost, was instantly popular; after Molly O'Neill wrote about it in The New York Times, it became insanely crowded with hours-long waits. Last season, Berg moved the Dancing Lobster to a former Provincetown institution, the Flagship, a much larger restaurant that allows for taking reservations and provides a calmer ambience. In a phone interview, he says he loved the old restaurant, where his parents met when his mother was a waitress there, and changed little in the interior's rustic look.
Berg says his cooking was influenced by his years in Venice working at Harry's Bar and by his interest in the Sicilian way with strong, basic flavors. The first bite of raw artichokes dressed with lemon and olive oil and covered with shaved Parmesan was so exquisite that I could only thank Venice. We don't often think of eating artichokes raw, but this rendition reveals the vegetable's crunchy texture as well as its clean, delicate lilt.
Bruschetta made from thick slices of rough bread was topped with grilled squid, chopped tomatoes, and mint, an appetizer that packed a punch with its lively, assertive flavors. The squid was just right, tender and smoky, tasting deliciously of the sea.
When menus are full of exotic seafood, it's unusual to see haddock given a place of honor. But Berg's Chatham haddock sang of freshness, of the virtues of eating close to the source. The haddock was sauteed in a thin white wine and butter sauce, with just enough richness to bring out the fish's sweet flavor without masking it; the dish was finished with nuggets of shrimp and asparagus.
A zuppa, or soup, of many of the creatures that inhabit the sea - mussels, littleneck clams, lobster, squid, and shrimp - was a lusty example of Sicilian cuisine. Berg's version was straightforward and spicy, brought to the table steaming hot, the dish edge splashed with a little broth. Each piece of it was wonderfully flavorful, and the bowl had obviously been dished up and rushed out, with no reheating or fussing about fancy presentation. It reflects what Berg says is his philosophy of ``sea-level cooking,'' going against the trend to decorate and embellish dishes. His ideal, he says, is out of the pan, onto the plate, and out to customer as quickly as possible. Thick pork chops, slightly pounded and grilled, were also very good, served with delicious roast potatoes and grilled peppers.
Beyond straight boiled, lobster dishes can often be disappointing. There seems to be a tendency to try to challenge the richness of the lobster with creamy sauces. I liked the Dancing Lobster's fra diavola sauce with fazzoletti, gently folded, wide ribbons of pasta. The bite of the peppery tomato-based sauce complements the lobster without masking its delicacy. The only flaw was that the pasta, while homemade and tender, stuck together, always a problem with the wider cuts, so that the effect was thick and gummy rather than light on the tongue.
Nonetheless, the evening moved by amiably, the mood heightened by snatches of conversation about books and the writing of them from the next table (imagine an entire social evening with no mention of the stock market). The wine list, mostly Italian vintages, was wide-ranging and reasonably priced. We enjoyed the desserts - a tiramisu and frozen berry tart - although they were Italian frozen imports that didn't live up to the sparkling freshness of the rest of the food.
But breezes drifted through the screened windows, soothing us. The mood lingered as we walked out onto the now-quieter Provincetown streets. A long stay on the Cape, with many visits to try the changing fare of the Dancing Lobster, seemed mighty tempting.
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