Welcome

The ties binding Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are much deeper than modern guidebooks and ferries. Prehistoric glaciers and tremendous floods created many of the same features we love about these destinations today: Nantucket's curling edges, the Vineyard's wind-swept expanses, the Cape's sure yet slender landscape and bio-diversity. And what was left separating them was, of course, water - maritime trade and visitors came and went, bringing the shock of the new to these remote and secretive destinations. The history thereafter is rich with tales of Native Americans, wars, boom and bust, expeditions and invention.

Now a different type of change is afoot. For us at Where to Eat, it has to do with nothing but taste. On the Cape and the Islands this means something that is vigorously American, pure and timeless: fresh seafood, local art, honest people, striking sunsets and the days and meals we share in turn. It is this combination that has moved poets to verse and people from near and far to vacation. Such pursuit of pleasure leads only to possibility.

All of which means one thing: more change, and most expressively in local dining. It's a symptom of our country's love affair with cooking as well as a reflection of the sheer diversity of residents, visitors and cultures that have fallen for the Cape and Islands. Design, cooking and service have all realized an upping of the ante. You're just as likely to see boutique pinot noir, supplied by many excellent local wine shops, as you are to encounter ice cold domestic beer. A seemingly mom-and-pop exterior may very well be hiding a talented young chef, schooled in NY or Paris, in the kitchen. Neighborhood sushi bars, destination dining at country inns, sleek and sexy design. It's now just as likely that the country's next great cook or trendsetting restaurant is to be found on a corner in Oak Bluffs as in Greenwich Village.

This is why we've come to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. And it is why we continue our never ending search for where to eat.

- Rob McKeown