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A Brother and Sister's 'Captain's Bounty' in Rockport

By Christopher Bowden


Perhaps it was old fashioned Yankee ingenuity that kept Tim Demakis' Captain's Bounty motor inn in Rockport from tumbling into the sea during the recent Nor'easter which swamped much of the North Shore. The ocean which commands sold out rooms here from June until the end of October was threatening to turn the hotel into pieces of driftwood.

As the famous fishing shack, Motif number one with its festooning array of lobster buoys at the end of Rockport's pier, had once been nearly destroyed by an ocean storm. Captain's Bounty, located directly at sea level seemed a likely candidate for destruction in this almost perfect storm.

But, in the midst of the wind and rain which slashed against the Bounty's office windows, Tim seemed unperturbed and he knew the reason why. "When the previous owner built the hotel in 1968," he explains "the construction workers laid the foundation with 75,000 cement cinder blocks. With a mooring like that, this hotel won't be going anywhere."

So, rather than sandbagging, like his Granite street neighbors whose road was closed as national guard  trucks dealt with the impending flooding, Demakis, who traded a law career for hospitality, greeted and checked in guests in the comfort of his second story crow's nest perch.

Being the requisite businessman but, without the briefcase, Tim also assessed his own equally integral building blocks, that of a new off site restaurant, Beach Street Bistro, which he opened this year with his sister Debbie. He also talked of the people who make the place go. Maureen at the front desk and what Tim describes as "the hotel miracle of having all of the chamber maids back."

With all of the synchronized success at the Captain's Bounty, Tim's collaboration with his sister Debbie seemed like a good gambit, particularly since this woman, who shows up for fourteen hour work days in chef's apparel, is an executive Chef who has worked and traveled internationally. A posting at the Captain's Bounty points the way to gourmet food for the guests, "Beach Street Bistro. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. One hundred yards to the right."

Standing behind the range in her chef white, Debbie tells the story of being on tour in Ireland and "at one of the inns, the chef didn't show up so I told them that I was a chef and from there I filled in for the weekend. I don't know if that stint counts on my resume or not."

Locally, Debbie gave up her four year position as Head Chef at the Annisquam Yacht Club to open the Bistro with her brother. What she brings to the table is a Julia Child flair for creating and presenting food. One of Debbie's asparagus, cheddar and spinach omelets isn't just served on a plate. She creates a whole aesthetic of greens and sliced fruit looking too artistic to eat, centered with an exotic flower.

The Demakis' both acknowledge that there are risks to opening a restaurant, which if it lags could detract from the hotel's profit margin, since Tim is co-investor. "The number of restaurants which make it for more than a few years is rare" Tim observes. "In fact, at this site there have been four or five restaurants over the past twenty years."

The Beach Street Bistro is in an old fishing shack with a dramatic outlook onto the ocean at Front Beach. The interior is airy with pale yellow walls extending up to a pitched cathedral ceiling. A couch like inglenook opens onto vistas of the ocean and outside an open flag billows in the wind like an aspect of informal paradise.

Early in the morning, the restaurant is quietly busy and it already looks like it has been a staple for Rockport visitors and residents for many years. In the Bistro, the patter of jazz strangely commingles with the ironically cheerful gloominess of the day. The rains of the Nor'easter are gnashing at the windows. But, the colorful flag billowing outside indicates the Demakis' ease with the sea and its caprices.

Debbie routinely puts in from dawn to dusk preparing everything from muffins to gourmet dinners. Tim periodically drops by, offering encouragement. But, he also acerbically pragmatic, "Debbie is my sister and I want this to work for her, but I am an investor, too."

He also notes that Debbie has gone out on a precarious limb, leaving her post at the Yacht Club to prepare weekly menus and run the independent business. But, a tin of muffins on the shelf and an array of beautifully arranged flowers shows the personalized touch which make the restaurant with its unparalleled ocean views seem like an exotic but unpretentious home, maybe her own.

Robert Frost wrote of "The Road Not Taken", and the essence of that poem apply to Tim and Debbie. Tim left a profitable law career to run a seasonal hotel and Debbie has set many iconoclastic precedents on her own, but usually under the umbrella of an employer.

As a chef, Debbie also set precedents as a woman. "In 1972, I was in the second class of women to graduate from the Culinary Institute of America" Debbie says. "That was a precedent setter because the world of chefs was dominated by men." She worked in a variety of local restaurants and traveled abroad to Italy, Spain and Ireland to learn the nuances of food preparation.

Debbie is both local and iconoclastic in the way she lives here on the North Shore. She has an apartment in an old boat yard, where she says the only noise you hear are the fishing boat going out early in the morning. "As I would go out in the morning one of the fisherman would say to me, 'another day in paradise' ", Debbie said with a laugh.

Although the summer season is just beginning, it would seem for Tim and Debbie, that their places in Rockport do represent another day in paradise. And, Debbie says with a smile, "That's what life is supposed to be about and that is why we are in this business."

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