The half-block space on Duncan St. in Gloucester, that to the unschooled looks like a basement entrance to the CVS around the corner on Main St., has always been a restaurant to love. For years it was The Glass Sailboat, where everyone in Gloucester, from the fish piers to Bass Rocks, stopped in for good coffee, a homemade muffin, and maybe some homeopathic remedies from the Common Crow across the room. The place grew up a little, got liquor and music, and became the Sunny Day Cafe. While people mourned the old Sailboat, The Cafe was accepted in a community that doesn’t even like its vacant lots to change.
This underground space – the street windows open down into the dining room – has for years served artists, musicians, fisherman, house painters, everyone from Gloucester’s lawless to Gloucester’s lawyers, because the food – whether its coffee and great sandwiches or now Alchemy’s Bistro Fare – has for some reason always been great and the mood a little edgy, a little untoward, a little underground. Click to continue »
