Cool Cop at Duck Creeke

Rod McCauley plays bass while John DeMasi get as much out of the once condemned Duck Creeke Tavern piano as possible. The duo are there most nights until Columbus Day.

When you're ready for Wellfleet, you'd better hope it's ready for you

By Walter Brooks

Wellfleet's Inn at Duck Creeke Tavern has always been a very cool, Lower Cape destination for the hipper gourmets seeking unusual and exceptional food, but it has also always been a place for great entertainment. The Wellfleet and Truro crowd has a decidedly New York flair, and the tavern feels a lot like one of those bistros like Zoë on Prince St. in SoHo or Alfama on Hudson St., in the West Village, the sort of local place New Yorkers try to keep for themselves.

Innkeepers Moo and Judy (Bob Morrill and Judy Pihl) are presently featuring John DeMasi and Rod McCauley in the Duck Creeke Tavern Room. John studied at Berkley School of Music in Boston, and was a member of Louis Prima's band for three years. He also played with the Artie Shaw, and Tommy Dorsey bands as well as with all the great vocalists of the era, so we're talking about a very gifted jazz musician.

But what also makes John pretty unusual is that when he retired from music he became a Massachusetts State Trooper and worked as a State Police prosecutor for decades. Now retired, he's restarted his musical career and plays wonderfully several nights a week at Duck Creeke.

The ambiance here is uniquely Lower Cape of that special sub-culture called Wellfleet.

I'm on a seafood diet; I see food, I eat it.
A menu of Ducky delights

Whenever we tire of the great food at other cape restaurants, we drive to Moo and Judy's, especially at this time of year, when most of the summer people have left, in search of new ways to prepare Cape Cod seafood.

This week it turned out to be a spicy BLUEFISH with a spicy Jamaican rub and slathered with a cooling citrus, coconut cream sauce to fight it out on your palate. It's served on Arugula. We also had Moo's SEA-BURGER,  two sea cakes baked atop toasted garlic French bread with shaved lettuce, chopped tomatoes & a spicy aioli mayonnaise

We shared the huge Spinach Salad with warmed bacon and cranberries served with sliced red onions, bleu cheese, walnuts and raspberry balsamic dressing. And the martinis are big.

The tavern has a warm, friendly feel, It's closed on Mondays, and there is always entertainment.

The window high over the bandstand at Duck Creeke Tavern in Wellfleet.