The winter months on Cape Cod are difficult in the restaurant business.  Menus change, hunker down, if you will, in response, and staffs go to skeleton ranks.  Each business looks for a tag, something to help them get through, put bodies in seats, generate some little measure of cash flow.
    Cape Dining Out found one such place, in Orleans, that chose what appears to be a very successful model for these winter months.  The Nauset Beach Club is offering a three course prix fixe menu on Sunday through Thursday nights that ranges from $18 to $26 depending on the entree chosen.  A soup or salad is included, as is dessert, and in each category additional choices for starters and desserts  are offered for a small upcharge.  On each of our visits, bodies were in seats, the dining room was lively and busy, and the winter business model seemed to be succeeding.  First, though, let's chat about the room.
    The main room is adorned with a fireplace, and warm-feeling sienna walls.  The tables are green linen covered with individual lanterns, and the bamboo and rattan chairs are surprisingly comfortable.  Large sculptures of a moon and a sun smile down upon diners from one wall, while some colorful and lovely artwork reply from the opposite wall.  Background music was at just the right volume, 1940's and 1950's, Billy Holiday, Frank Sinatra and others.  The overall feel and ambiance is warm and inviting.
    We were greeted at the door by a gentleman I later learned was the owner, who was kind enough to take our coats as he showed us to our table.   He also entertained us with little dining room anecdotes, setting a nice tone of friendliness that continued throughout the evening with our server.
    The soup of the day or a salad of wild field greens with a champagne vinaigrette are included with the meal, or for a few dollars more the menu offers another six starters.  On our first visit, we went off the prix fixe and chose a salad of baby spinach, red onion, crispy pancetta, and matchsticks of pear, tossed in a terrific gorgonzola dressing.  The portion was generous and the combination of flavors was perfect.  We could have made a meal of it, along with a piece of crusty bread.  The house-cured salmon was served with a fingerling potato salad tossed with champagne vinegar, with chives, dill, capers and salmon roe.  This lovely presentation was a good starter, but the salmon cure could have been just a bit more flavorful with the use of more herb, and perhaps more black pepper.  In all fairness, though, this may simply be a personal preference, as this was nonetheless a good starter.
    On our second visit, we found the soup, a Tuscan white bean, with carrot, celery, onion, pancetta and a hint of tomato, to be very good and well made.  It suffered just a little from temperature and should have been a little hotter, but it was a hearty rendition of a good soup.  The risotto of the day, with prosciutto and parmegiano reggiano, was creamy and smooth and everything that a risotto should be.
    A veal entree was two generous slices, well pounded and thin, cooked until just barely done, and served with a white wine and lemon sauce.  It was served with bias-cut slices of asparagus spears that had simmered in the sauce for a moment before being turned out onto the place.  The veal was quite good, but the sauce was just a little too soupy and thin, and tasted too much of the asparagus.  We would have preferred less sauce that had been  a little further reduced. 
     The risotto with caramelized scallops is one of Cape Dining Out's recommended dishes on this menu.  The risotto was, again, creamy and smooth and all a risotto should be, with a little chopped chives and lemon zest.  The scallops were caramelized crisp on the outside, and just barely done on the inside, perfectly cooked, and garnished with a preserved lemon-butter sauce.  The portion was generous but not excessive, and every morsel of this simple dish was gone when the plate returned to the kitchen.
    Our second visit stayed with pasta for our entrees, and the first was spaghetti with roasted tomatoes, basil, garlic and spinach, topped with some freshly shaved Tuscan pecorino cheese.  This is a simple dish of simple flavors, and as is the case most often in such simple cooking, it was excellent.  The portion size was just right . . . enough to sate the diner at the moment, with a little snack going home with you for later.  The spaghetti had been cooked with the other ingredients, as pasta always should be, and it was good at the restaurant and good at home just before bed.
    The other pasta dish sampled was the house-made ravioli with a braised duck and spinach filling.  The sauce was a vin santo-brown butter sauce with roasted garlics, and the dish was topped with freshly shaved parmegiano reggiano cheese.  Vin Santo (wine of saints) is a specialty of the Italian wine culture, made with dried grapes and aged in chestnut barrels for its first fermentation.  Most vin santos are sweet, and all are viscous in texture, high in alcohol , smooth and intensely flavored.  In this dish, it made for a wonderful sauce with the ravioli, and the dish worked well.
    Our dessert experience was mixed, but not bad.  The vanilla toffee heath bar crunch ice cream was very good, but the caramel sauce over it had a slightly burnt flavor.  The marscapone cheesecake with amaretto graham cracker crust was very good, with just a little chocolate sauce on the side.  The flourless chocolate cake with espresso creme sauce was a little too dense, and the texture detracted just a little from the good chocolate flavor.  The panna cotta, a vanilla bean custard, was served with fresh strawberries, and was good.
    Service at The Nauset Beach Club is quite good.  We were remembered on our second visit by our server, Allison, who provided amiable and professional attention throughout. Art Douquette, the owner, visited tables during dinner to say hello, and to recommend wines for guests, and did so with a very nice touch.  The crystal and the Villeroy and Boch tableware add a special and upscale element to the dining experience, too.  Executive Chef Fredrick Stoffel's resume includes the Brewster Fish House and L'Alouette, locally, and he shows a talented hand in the food he and his staff prepare.
    The Nauset Beach Club's main menu, served on Friday and Saturday evenings, is more upscale in its pricing than the Sun-Thur prix fixe menu being reviewed today.  This is not to suggest the food on the prix fixe menu is not up to its weekend cousin, however.  This is mentioned because Cape Dining Out has to determine the category of restaurant into which The Nauset Beach Club fits (upscale, medium range, family friendly are the three) to be able to assign a meaningful rating.  We've determined the appropriate category is upscale, meaning a higher standard applies.  With few exceptions, though, The Nauset Beach Club holds its own in that category, and Cape Dining Out liked its experience there very much.  We recommend it as a very good dining venue, and for the prix fixe menu, a great value on Sunday through Thursday evenings, and award it three Cods.

If you go . . . . . .

222 Main Street
East Orleans, MA  02643
For Reservations:  508.255.8547
Handicap Accessible on First Level
No Dress Code
www.nausetbeachclub.com

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