DeMarco Restauarnt - Italian Comfort Food with Style

Whether you want a light meal with an excellent cocktail at the bar or you’re bringing the family in for a four-course Italian feast, DeMarco Restaurant will set you on the path to bliss. 

Occupying a 19th-century townhouse, restored to accentuate its rustic wood beam ceiling and original plank floor details, the ambiance at DeMarco is a cozy mix of private club and public eatery.  This is one of a handful of island restaurants whose owners have resisted the urban chic trend in decor.  If owner Don DeMarco is present (he nearly always is), he loves to warmly greet and chat with his patrons—here you’ll feel like a welcomed guest, not just another customer.

Servers are young and earnest and always smiling.  Though it’s a seasonal restaurant, staff here tends to return each year, making the service smoother than in many summer establishments.  Our server, Nicholai, is spending his third season at DeMarco.  He was attentive without hovering, and familiar with the rhythms of the restaurant.  Courses were well-timed, silverware replenished and glasses refilled before we needed to ask, and special requests handled with grace.

Don DeMarco’s food is very good “comfort food” with style.  If your expectations of Italian food include Baked Ziti, Sausage Cacciatore, or Veal Parmesan, DeMarco’s offers them and they will be among the best you’ve ever had.  If your tastes are more refined, then you’ll be very pleased with the Bruschetta or the Pan-Seared Duck with creamy polenta or the Grilled Swordfish with spring vegetable caponata & caper broth.  You can tell there’s real talent in the kitchen at DeMarco’s, from the transcendent stocks, luscious sauces (and just the right amount of them), and the beautifully executed dishes.

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	We opted for the Italian feast at our dinner this week, and started with a classic Italian Wedding Soup that floods your mouth with flavor.  Its aroma is irresistible.  The chicken broth has great body, and we love the tiny meatballs bobbing in the broth with escarole, orzo, and housemade tortellini. Pleated in the tender folds of pasta is fresh ricotta lightened with a whisper of lemon zest.  We’ll be back for this!
	Another very good way to begin is the Bruschetta. The fresh focaccia baked daily at DeMarco is sliced thin and grilled (not too hard, just enough so that the bread doesn’t get soggy under the luscious toppings).  Spread overtop the foccacia are thin, silky slices of salty-sweet prosciutto di parma, drops of fruity olive oil, sliced green olives, strips of sun-dried tomato, and melted fontina cheese.  Drizzles of balsamic reduction add a tasty pucker to this great mix of flavors.
	We don’t recall ever being offered meatballs as an appetizer, but after sampling DeMarco’s Meatballs Three Ways, this seems like an ideal way to start.  Each juicy meatball is just a few bites big, and the varied flavors excite your palate for the meal to come.  The “Traditional Style” is topped with DeMarco’s richly-flavored house recipe marinara; the “Belgian Style” is shaped from the meat of young poultry and set in an apple and pear puree. Our favorite of the trio is the Spring Lamb Meatball, topped with a fresh and vibrant sauce of mint pesto, sweet garlic, and pine nuts.
	The Fried Green and Ugly Tomatoes has been a DeMarco patron favorite for years.  It’s a little early for peak season tomatoes, but when this appetizer was brought to table, there they were:  thick slices, deep red, and glistening with juice.  In between each cool slice of red tomato is a warm slice of green tomato, breaded and fried to a crunchy golden brown. Balls of fresh mozzarella and shreds of fresh basil garnish the plate along with tracings of basil oil and aged balsamic.  This dish is a stunning contrast of crunchy and juicy, warm and cool, sweet and tangy.
	It’s a very good thing that the pasta dishes at DeMarco can be ordered in half or full portion—it makes it easier to justify a fourth course! DeMarco’s Boscaiola, as the menu boasts, is “legendary” on Nantucket.  You mustn’t leave without trying this entree of “badly cut” fresh pasta.  Folded into the ribbons of pasta are chunks of portabella, shiitake, and cremini mushrooms, tomatoes, sage, and prosciutto, all in a tomato cream sauce.  Broad shavings of aged imported parmesan are draped over the top, melting slightly into the sauce.
	Linguini with Clam Sauce is another winning dish at DeMarco.  The fresh strands of linguini are tossed with sweet English peas, strips of guanciale (unsmoked Italian bacon), chopped and whole clams, and garlic.  A touch of chili adds a spark of heat to the hearty broth of white wine and clam juice.
	Several of the pasta dishes on DeMarco’s menu this season are vegetarian, continuing what Don started a few years ago...introduction of delightfully light and nearly guilt-free summer dishes.  Going Green is one. This entrée features fettucine in a vegetable and tomato broth scented with green tea and herbs and tossed with peas, cherry tomatoes, and chopped asparagus.Spring Vegetable Lasagna is another.  For this the homemade sheets of pasta are layered with fresh mozarella and ricotta, eggplant, mushrooms, and green pepper. The lasagna is bathed in Don’s superb marinara sauce.  Both these pasta dishes have great balance of vivid flavors.
	Unable to decide between the Pomegranate Spring Vegetable Farfalle and the Bolognese, we asked the chef to choose for us.  What we were served surprised us all:  an off-the-menu treat of Gnocchi with Braised Rabbit. The herbed gnocchi were light and puffed and dressed with just a bit of olive oil, slices of carrot, and garden-fresh peas.  The braised rabbit leg overtop was tender and juicy and deeply flavorful.  If this was a test, the dish passed with flying colors and should definitely be made a regular offering! Seven entrees (plus nightly specials) round out the selections at DeMarco, pretty evenly divided between meats and seafood.
	Cod is not a sexy fish, but when prepared correctly it is a delicious whitefish:  mild, low in fat, and so plentiful in these waters that it’s usually fresh from the docks.   The Pan-Seared Cod here is perfect—buttery, moist, and flakey.  It’s served draped over a very nicely done summer vegetable risotto surrounded by lemon butter sauce.
	Truth be told, we find most versions of Bouillabaisse disappointing, so we rather reluctantly ordered it.  DeMarco’s Bouillabaisse has revived our faith in this dish...it is superb!  The seafood is chosen from the freshest available, so it could vary.  We had mussels, sea scallops, shrimp, and codfish—each cooked to its own savory excellence. Once you get the seafood right in bouillabaisse, it’s the brodo that will make or break it.  We should have known after being wowed by the Italian Wedding Soup that this kichen would hit it out of the park.  The seafood broth in this dish has a soul-satisfying flavor.  It’s spiked with banana pepper that makes it lively, not hot. The only thing we wished for was more bread to sop up the sauce.
	Beef lovers will adore the Grass Fed Beef Tenderloin.  Not much needs to be done to a cut of meat this good.  Just cook it to order (accomplished!) and serve it with appropriate accompaniments, which in this case take the form of rustic roasted potatoes, deliciously browned and crisp on the edges and tender inside, and a juicy ripe Italian tomato stuffed with pesto and gorgonzola.
	The Free Range Chicken is another winner.  Succulent breast meat under a sinfully crisp skin is anointed with a delectable marsala-cherry jus.  Deliciously chewy farrow is served underneath, and overtop are sauteed shiitakes.
	If you have little room for dessert (a true risk here at DeMarco), then order their housemade sorbets.  We sampled the cherry, which woke all our tastebuds, and the lemon, which is intense and refreshing. If you can find a bit more room, then the Tiramisu is a must.  Their version of this creamy sweet dessert is heavenly.
	If you want a grand finale, then the Molten Chocolate Cake with Strawberries is what you’re after.

As Don DeMarco wrote in his cookbook Nantucket Taste Memories...
The nights spent dining with friends at my table in Nantucket, looking out onto the lantern lit cobblestones of India Street, are woven into a tapestry of treasured memories and images...

DeMarco Restaurant

9 India Street  •  508-228-1836
www.demarcorestaurant.com
Dinner served nightly from 6 pm  •  Full Bar opens at 6 pm
Entree prices range from $12 to $36
Open seasonally May through October
Families Welcome  •  MasterCard, Visa, Amex accepted