Martha's Vineyard Food News

2009 is seeing a lot of changes in the world of food on Martha’s Vineyard. In Chilmark, and Menemsha 2 big changes are the Homeport Restaurant and the Menemsha Café. The Homeport is being sold to Bob and Sarah Nixon, also the owners of the Beach Plum Inn and the Menemsha Inn. They intend to maintain the current family style of the restaurant with a bent towards locally caught seafood and an extended season staying open through Colombus Day.

The big news is the Menemsha Café ( Formerly the Menemsha Deli) has been bought by Josh and Angela Aronie. Josh is best known for his 2 past restaurants, Sharky’s Cantina and The Park Corner Bistro. For those of us who live, work in or visit Menemsha regularly this is great. Josh intends to totally change the flavor of the Café offering a broader menu of affordable and delicious food for eat in and take out. With his knowledge of food and a long list of loyal fans we expect this to be the hot spot in Menemsha.

Dions in West Tisbury which burnt down at the former location of the Roadhouse has moved into the location of Pomodoro’s on Circuit Ave in Oak Bluffs. In the place of the former Roadhouse, which has been location to many different restaurants over the years, there will be a new restaurant owned by the former owners of the Sweet Life Café. This is sure to be big news for foodies who love their fine cuisine. Also notable is that Lola’s has closed and is being replaced by the Mediterranean. All in all there are big changes in the world of food on Martha’s Vineyard.

Rental trends on Martha’s Vineyard

A large portion of our business at Feiner Real estate is matching tenants up with great summer rental homes in Chilmark and Aquinnah . Over the last few years with the incremental decline of our economy there has been some notable changes which persisting year after year have become trends for. For starters, Chilmark and Aquinnah homeowners have not been raising rental rates. During the late 90’s into early 2002 rates were going up almost annually. I believe they almost doubled since 1995. Now we are seeing homeowners concerned about maximizing their occupancy and in some cases offering discounts to tenants who take longer period rentals. This is common in rentals of almost all prices and is often due to homeowners leveraging their homes during the period of prosperity. Additionally, we are seeing prospective Chilmark and Aquinnah tenants are shopping around utilizing all the various web-related tools such as the rent-by-owner websites. This growing trend has hurt the rental agencies which once serviced all the rental homes and which provided the majority of income to the agencies and brokers that serviced these homes.

Now with the latest economic news or recession, there is further pressure on Chilmark and Martha’s Vineyard homeowners to fill their vacancies and I believe we may for the first time see real erosion of rental rates in some sections of the market. Most notably will be the higher end ($6000 to $25,000 per week) as more renters bring their budgets under control trying to cut costs and be frugal. We should also see bigger discounts from owners on long term stays and increased motivation by homeowners to accommodate the needs and desires of their tenants.

Menemsha Winter Scene

Taken last week, 2/4/09 during a snowy winter day in Menemsha.

Think Summer on the Vineyard!