Construction to modify a deck at the Homeport restaurant in Menemsha was halted last week after the Chilmark building department found the new owners hadn’t secured a building permit.
Home Port Restaurant owners Bob and Sarah Nixon this week announced the sale of the Menemsha mainstay to Boston restaurateur Seth Woods and his business partner Eric Berke, both seasonal residents of Aquinnah. The sale price is nearly $2.6 million.
The restaurant at Chilmark’s Beach Plum Inn will open this May with a new head chef. Josh Aronie, who led the kitchen at the nearby Home Port Restaurant last summer, will oversee both restaurants this year.
Josh Aronie started his career at the Home Port restaurant in Menemsha, where he parlayed his job as a window washer into a gig as a prep cook. Three decades of restaurant experience later, he is returning to the restaurant this year as the chef.
Home Port Restaurant owner William Holtham confirmed yesterday that
he has accepted a signed offer from a private buyer for the Menemsha
pondfront property that was the subject of a recent town meeting vote.
Citing the delicate nature of real estate transactions, Mr. Holtham
said he would not reveal the potential buyer, purchase price, or any
other details until the deal is closed sometime next month.
For decades, the Home Port restaurant in Menemsha has been the
epitome of a traditional Yankee seaside restaurant, with its lobster
dinners and stunning sunset views.
On Monday night, Chilmark voters will decide whether to set aside
another Yankee tradition - frugality - and buy the Home Port
from owners Will Holtham and Madeline Moore for $3.9 million.
After a two-hour debate that weighed the future of Menemsha against the town's other priorities, Chilmark voters this week passed on an opportunity to buy the Home Port restaurant and adjoining pondfront properties for $3.9 million.
Occupying almost every available seat in the Chilmark Community Center, voters rejected a $2 million purchase of the Home Port restaurant at a special town meeting last night, flouting months of effort on the part of selectmen to acquire the Menemsha restaurant and surrounding property for public use.
As a result of last night’s vote, the longstanding Menemsha seafood restaurant will now likely go to Robert and Sarah Nixon, private buyers who signed an alternate purchase agreement with the current owners.
