The Cape Sea Grille
by Tom Dott
Photos by Doug Langeland

Walking into the kitchen of The Cape Sea Grille, all eyes go right to the hulking, professional cooktop. Ten burners are heating ten empty sauté pans at full tilt. Tightly shimmying over the flames, the pans are hot as hell, awaiting the first clicks of the order printer. To the right are two towers of 28 more pans, poised for their turn to burn. It’s 5:00 P.M. and not a scrap of food is heating. It’s a spectral feeling—all of this heat without the sizzle, as if the restaurant is in full swing, cooking for phantoms.

Keeping their cool nearby are dozens of small Tupperware and retired yogurt containers, each unveiling their colors one after another moments before showtime—the bright green of fresh, local mint, the purple of perfectly chopped onions, the pearl white of smooth and glistening sea scallops. Although yogurt containers don’t sound remotely picturesque, they’re refreshing. They’re the antithesis of the stainless steel bain marie pots making their way in and out of commercial refrigerators around the world. These containers are small and disposable, and hold enough product for one night’s service.

Prep-wise, the kitchen is stripped to the bare bones, yet tonight everything on chef/owner Douglas Ramler’s ambitious menu is available. With eyes returning to the stovetop, I ask Rambler about the pre-service pan torture. With a half grin he answers, “I cook with lots of heat. Because the food is fresh I have to cook very fast, and nothing gets cooked until we get the orders. With pre-cooking you can taste the difference.” Making his way behind the line, Ramler turns demonstrative and reaches for his tongs to further make the point (pay attention—we’re only going to do this once).  Grabbing invisible food in the tongs from pan number one and putting it onto an equally invisible plate, he returns the tongs to the pan handle and directs it into a soap-filled sink, then grabs hold of pan number two in the back, sliding it effortlessly to the front, replacing pan number one. He then pulls a cooler pan number three from the top of the tower and lands it dead in the middle of the now empty burner from pan number two. The dance takes less than five seconds. All pans are in their fires, awaiting their call of duty.

With the sound of the first guests being welcomed into the dining room by his wife and partner Jennifer, Ramler gives us a quick peek at his new baby—the bistro bar and dining room. Still covered in a thin layer of sheetrock dust, the new bistro promises to be Harwich Port’s place to be this summer, a spacious bar of red birch and copper, rich walls of burgundy and burnt sienna and artful, acidstained floors. The dining room’s vaulted ceiling pulls in the setting sun through bay windows, yet keeps things intimate with a couple of nooks and crannies hidden around a fireplace. By the time you read this, the bistro will be open—and I, for one, can’t wait.

Hearing the distant rat-a-tat-tat of an arriving food chit means it’s showtime. Chef Ramler heads around the line to join his team— Hunter Kepley, in his second season at The Cape Sea Grille, and sous chef Matt Hirtle, who has been in place since day one. With Ramler issuing orders, the three men fall into position under a Jonathan Papelbon poster that says “Steadfast and Strong”. The suggestive phrase is duly noted. Time for dinner.

The quality Chef Ramler’s colorful food is undoubtedly in direct correlation with his extensive resume. The spark hit the wick when Ramler started cooking for his college fraternity, and as the fuse burned brighter, he took his new passion to Jackson Hole,

Wyoming where he could ski and fish during the day, while cooking 400-600 covers nightly at the famously fun Mangy Moose. To hone his craft without hanging up his skis, Ramler earned a culinary degree at Johnson & Wales University in Vail, Colorado, and interned at the AAA-Four Diamond-rated Beano’s Cabin in Beaver Creek. Eventually, Ramler returned to New England and Boston’s South End spending three years working under award-winning chef Gordon Hamersley at Hamersley’s Bistro. Not one to ignore the call of the wild, Ramler then headed to Juneau, Alaska’s North Glacier as a head chef at a dog sledding tourist camp (bet you didn’t see that one coming) where he spent his free time catching and preparing local salmon, trout, cod and halibut. Eventually, New England’s siren call out-shouted the wild side and Rambler headed home once again to sous chef at the ultra-chic Gargoyle’s On The Square in Somerville, followed by a stint at Metro Brasserie in Cambridge.

In the spring of 2002, ready to open his own place, Ramler and his wife purchased The Cape Sea Grille, where Ramler put his powerhouse of a resume to work, showcasing fresh, local seafood and produce, while Jennifer took over the front of the house, maintaining the wine list and dazzling a captive audience night after night.

It’s one of those rare reads; despite listing eleven appetizers, ten entrees, four specials, four sides and a three-course prix fixe, the menu doesn’t hold a single item that does not appeal to me. We decided to kick things off with an order of fish tacos. Not surprisingly, they’re not the typical heavy-on-the-guacamole-and-sour-cream taco. Instead, local, dry-rubbed cod—rolled in a warm blanket of grilled cabbage slaw, tomato, avocado and jicama—is the star. A mint-chipotle aioli keeps things vibrant. Having eyed the lobster bisque being prepped in the kitchen earlier, I couldn’t resist fitting it in before the main course.  For my entree, I went with cod again—this time with empanadas, braised endive, fava beans, roasted red peppers, yellow beans and crispy capers. With the addition of saffron yogurt it could be easy for the fish to get lost in the dish, but on the contrary, the cod came out celebrated, clean and perched majestically on a throne of accompaniments. My girlfriend Ali, who prefers smaller portions, was thrilled to see a half-lobster entree on the $25 three-course menu.  Sealing the deal for the prix fixe option was the offering of Rambler’s signature country paté. Tonight’s paté was comprised of pork, braised carrots and English peas accompanied by a rainbow of house-pickled red onions, green cornichons, bright yellow mustard and a deep red balsamic syrup.

On March 31, 2006, Chef Ramler had the distinct honor of being chosen to prepare a meal at the legendary James Beard House. The highlights from that dinner are featured on the menu nightly: crispy local oysters with avocado and house-pickled banana peppers; roasted duck confit with a Swiss chard purse, roasted beets and red wine glace; and pan-seared lobster with pancetta, potatoes and grilled local asparagus in a Calvados-saffron reduction.

After finishing the meal with warm bread pudding and a plate of house-made cookies, I thought about pride and passion, and how they go hand-in-hand. With the absence of pre-cooked ingredients in the kitchen and the emphasis on local and seasonal on the menu, you can tell that fresh is at the helm of this ship before taking the first bite.  Daily creations share the menu with dishes from a celebrated dinner five winters ago: a perfect blend of innovation and tradition. Ramler has taken a tip from D.H. Lawrence one step further. “When genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.” In his genuine passion, Ramler doesn’t need to say a thing. He just throws on his chef whites, grabs a set of tongs and fires up those ten burners.  The Cape Sea Grille is located at 31 Sea Street in Harwich Port For reservations, call 508-432-4745 or visit www.capeseagrille.com.

Tom Dott has been the co-owner of the Lamb and Lion Inn in Barnstable since 1999.  Before moving to Cape Cod, he and his partner Ali Pitcher owned and operated a fourdiamond Relais and Chateaux property in New York’s Hudson Valley, which featured a locally-driven menu. Tom promotes culinary adventures to inn guests and won an Eddy Award for Feature-length Editorial in 2007, as well as Best Editorial-Short in 2010 and is a two-time runner up. Tom’s past articles can be found at www.ediblecapecod.com.