In This Issue
	Features • Nantucket: for the Birds • Man Behind the Music • Banking Under the Stars • Limerick Challenge Events • Tour of Historic House • What's New & Happening Island Cooking • The Holidays Island Essay • Island in Winter Featured Restaurant Island Science

The Hen House - Like Mom Used to Make, Only Better

In every town there’s a restaurant where the locals go.  It’s friendly and familiar—the sort of place where the waitstaff (and possibly the cooks at the open grill) know your name and your favorites and exchange friendly chatter.  A restaurant where they pride themselves on their old-fashioned home cooking, and it’s justification.  Where there are plenty of tempting choices on the menu, but you keep ordering the same thing because it’s really, really good.  A place where you won’t empty your wallet or leave hungry.

On Nantucket, this eatery is The Hen House.

From the outside, The Hen House is unpretentious: gray shingles and a sheltered front porch where patrons wait patiently for their names to be called on busy days.  Seating is first-come, first-served —  it’s up to you to write your name and the number in your party on the chalkboard in the entryway. 

Inside, The Hen House is warm and welcoming.  Butter yellow walls adorned with country-style knick knacks, decorative plates, and, of course, plenty of hens.  There are wood tables and booths, and a gorgeous polished wooden bar cut from a tree that grew on the Vermont farm of owner Michael Gillies’ grandparents.  The bar doubles as a counter for diners and as a bar.  The Hen House has a full liquor license, so you can enjoy a Bloody Mary with brunch or cocktails with lunch.

A steady flow of customers, with many stopping by a table to say hello or waving from across the room gives the dining room a true neighborhood feel.   Waitstaff is calm and relaxed, and they never rush patrons to finish.  The kitchen staff is skilled and very well organized:  the restaurant can be full with others stopping by for takeout, and still the food is made to order and will appear at your table in very good time.

Food at The Hen House is full of the honest flavor that comes from using very fresh ingredients and knowing how to handle them.  The ham and turkey they use for sandwiches are roasted on site and sliced as needed.  Eggs are cracked the day they are used.  Even the salad dressing is housemade.  Virtually nothing is out of a can.  It’s food like mom used to make, only better. The kitchen accepts special requests, and, if they have it on hand, they’ll accommodate.  Portions are enormous and the Starbucks brand coffee and the soda are “bottomless,” so arrive with a hearty appetite.

Breakfast is served all day (7 am to 2 pm), and the menu barely fits on a page.  Choices have broad appeal.  There are the American breakfast standards:  Two Eggs and Toast, Corned Beef Hash (with very good house-made hash that you can request extra crispy), Buttermilk Pancakes (with or without blueberries), an Egg Sandwich, and Eggs Benedict.  Their French Toast is prepared with cinnamon swirl Portuguese sweet bread, and there’s nothing quite like it.

	Eggs Benedict comes in three varieties:  Classic, Italian (with roasted red peppers, asparagus, Italian sausage and cream cheese), and Veggie.  We can’t say enough about the Veggie Benedict.  A duo of perfectly poached eggs over a mix of ripe tomato chunks, cream cheese, and fresh spinach on thick slices of toasted English muffin with rich hollandaise poured overtop.  You won’t miss the meat!  Even the homefries that are served with this and many of the other breakfast entrees deserve high praise: they’re served piping hot, crisp all around the outside and soft on the inside.  Clearly they’re not sitting in a hot tray till needed.
	Omelettes at The Hen House go beyond hearty.  Made with three eggs, guests have a choice of fifteen fillings and three different cheeses to be folded into their omelettes.  We sampled one with linguica, Irish sausage, mushrooms, and spinach, and there was nearly more filling than egg.  You can order the omelettes with their fabulous home fries or with sliced tomatoes, an especially tasty option now that field ripened tomatoes are in season.
	If you’ve come to The Hen House with a big appetite, then it’s the Irish Farm House Breakfast that you want.  This is served on a platter and includes two eggs (we recommend scrambled with cheese), homefries, sauteed mushrooms, baked beans, Irish sausage (which is a tad sweeter and smoother than American), lean and smoky rashers, traditional Irish white pudding (similar to sausage), and a wedge of tomato.  The varied tastes and textures included in this entree make it a feast and somewhat large for many to polish off at breakfast.  But it’s well worth the attempt.  This dish very popular among patrons who start their days before the sun shines, and summer residents who’ve been out fishing since 4 am often stop by for this feast and a brew.
	Recognizing that there are some who eat light in the morning, The Hen House serves short stacks of pancakes; two eggs with toast (for under $4!); fruit, granola, and yogurt; and a luscious Fresh Bowl of Seasonal Berries — a generous bowl, not a small saucer — filled to the brim with blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.
	Lunch starts early at The Hen House:  from 10:30 am you can order from their menu of soups, salads, hot and cold sandwiches, hot luncheon entrees, and daily specials.  Their Baby Spinach Salad is a real treat.  Tender leaves topped with roasted red pepper, sliced kalamata olives, lots of feta and grilled chicken breast.  There’s a choice of dressings, but we recommend the balsamic vinaigrette, it has great depth of flavor and combines very well with the sweet, briny, tangy flavors of the salad.
	The Turkey or Ham Club sandwiches made with freshly sliced meat instead of prepackaged are sensational at The Hen House, and the chicken salad is a recipe worth asking for, but we opted to try a new addition to the menu: Focaccia Sandwich.  The focaccia is topped with romano cheese, and the kitchen grills the slices to add a delightful crunch.  The cold sandwich built on this warm bread is spinach, fresh mozarella, slices of tomato, and roasted red pepper, all drizzled with fruity extra virgin olive oil.  The fresh flavors meld wonderfully, and this vegetarian sandwich is light but filling.  It comes with french fries, but ask for it with the thin and salty sweet potato fries.
	From the hot entress, we tried the Shepherd’s Pie.  Upside down from what we’re accustomed to (mashed potatoes are on the bottom), this is a stick-to-your-ribs hearty dish with ground lamb, diced carrot, kernels of roasted corn, onion, celery, potato in a flavorful gravy.
	Also recommended is the Beer Batter Fish & Chips.  Straightforward and very well done, the codfish is encased in a light puff of batter—deliciously crisp outside and moist and flaky inside.  Careful: it arrives hot!  On this platter, the coleslaw is not just an afterthought.  Housemade, it is a crunchy mix of fresh cabbage, carrot, green pepper, mayo, and a touch each of chili pepper and chipotle.