American Seasons

To my mind, American Seasons
is one of Nantucket's finest restaurants. It is not all that formal: no white tablecloths, and kind of dark (try to get a table near a window to make reading the menu easier). The cengtral conceit of this restautant is food prepared in the styles of the four corners of the US: New England, the South, the Southwest and the Pacific Coast. In each category there are appetizers and entrees. However, they are not cheap. Appetizers can be $15 and the entrees up to $42. Last night, we had a tomato/beet salad, a Southern Fried Quail, Veal chop with sweetbreads and a rib-eye steak with mashed potatoes. All were excellent, although the rib-eye was a bit more tender than the veal chop. The mashed potatoes were whipped with plenty of butter, so they had a really rich taste.

They served bread and even seconds on the bread. The salt-crusted baguette was superb. However, the bread did not come until after the first course was delivered. This seemed to happen at other tables, too and ought to be corrected.

The desserts were a strawberry tart with ricotta and a "Flying Elvis," which was a dense chocolate cake with bananas and peanut sauce. The tart was the better of the two. We highly recommend American Seasons, but with drinks the bill came to $172.