Through Aug. 31. The annual August Blues fishing tournament, a fundraiser for Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, invites all anglers to pursue bluefish. Prizes in boat, beach and junior categories. For more information, to register and to donate, visit augustbluesnantucket.com
Yoga on the Bandstand
7:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday, Children’s Beach Bandstand, Harborview Way. The Nantucket Office of Culture and Tourism hosts an hour of yoga on the bandstand.
Asters and Goldenrod Walk
9 a.m. Location upon registration. Nantucket Conservation Foundation plant research ecologist and botanist Kelly Omand will discuss Asteraceae, the largest flowering plant family, including asters and goldenrod. Free with registration at www.nantucketconservation.org
Island Calendar
Dance Party in the Garden
9:45 a.m. Atheneum Garden, 1 India St. Cory Morgan leads an energetic, joyfilled dance time for babies and children with songs, silly dance moves and fun challenges like Freeze Dance and the Cha-Cha Slide. Bring a blanket. Canceled in the event of inclement weather.
Behind the Seams
10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, Nantucket Whaling Museum, 13 Broad St. Organized by the Nantucket Historical Association, “Behind the Seams: Clothing and Textiles on Nantucket” presents more than 150 objects from the NHA’s costume and textile collections to tell stories of making, meaning and island identity from across Nantucket history.
Family Tours at the Whaling Museum
10:30 a.m. Nantucket Whaling Museum, 13 Broad St. These interactive, family-friendly tours led by Nantucket Historical Association guides will spark conversation, invite curiosity and engage children of all ages to explore a world of history, artifacts and art.
THURSDAY, PAGE 16
Monday,
Courtesy of Gregory Chotkowski
The month-long August Blues fishing tournament wraps up Sunday.
Billie’s brings true steakhouse flair to Nantucket
By Francesca Giangiulio fgiangiulio@inkym.com
If Nantucket was East Egg, Billie’s on Broad Street would be the Gatsby mansion. It’s fun, shiny, a little art deco and everyone is just dying to be invited inside.
“We’re filling in the blanks, offering a little bit of variety to the dining scene,” owner and co-partner Lee Lyon said.
The steakhouse opened last week in the old Dune location. The team consists of Miami restaurant execs, longtime Nantucket hospitality managers, husbands and wives. But above all, the team behind Billie’s is more than just a group of friends, they’re family.
“Being friends first was important for us because we know each other, we trust each other. I actually think friendship is the first, most important thing,” Lyon said.
Lyon comes to Nantucket after eight years as a hospitality executive and founding partner at the Miami waterfront hot spot Kiki on the River, but this isn’t foreign territory to him.
His family has been coming to Nantucket for over 40 years, and his mother owns one of the historic houses on Main Street.
Dune owner Michael Getter called Lyon a few years ago about taking over the restaurant space, but Lyon wasn’t
Let’s Eat!
ready yet. So when Getter reached out again last summer, Lyon said there was only one option.
“(Michael) was giving us one more chance before he started looking for other people to take over, so we said now’s the time,” Lyon said. Steve (Rhee) was ready for a change, Anna (Worgess-Smith) was ready for a new adventure, so it all kind of came full circle and it’s cool. We get to go back into a building that I actually grew up in, had my first drink in.”
Lyon brought on Rhee, executive chef at Kiki on the River, as co-partner and executive chef for Billie’s.
“We all respect each other, we have those open lines of communication,” Rhee said.
The two have worked together for nearly a decade and have built up that implicit trust necessary for a team opening a new restaurant.
Rhee’s wife Genie, a bartender at Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in Miami, is also on the Billie’s team.
“You spend more time in the restaurant than you do at home with your own family. It makes it a lot easier to go to work every day when you have that friendly dynamic,” she said.
Worgess-Smith, a veteran of Black-
Photo by Francesca Giangiulio
Billie’s Caesar comes in the classic steakhouse tradition, with crisp Romaine lettuce, plenty of Parmesan cheese and a pair of crostini crisps.
Photo by Francesca Giangiulio
The shrimp cocktail contains four jumbo shrimp and cocktail sauce with just the right amount of horseradish-induced bite.
Photo by Francesca Giangiulio
The Billie’s filet, cooked to a perfect medium rare.
by
Light and flaky with a crisp edge, Billie’s Faroe Island salmon is served atop a corn medley with chef Steve Rhee’s signature chimichurri sauce.
Eyed Susan’s and Proprietors Bar & Table, is the front of house manager and heads up the bar program with her husband Mark Smith.
“It really helps when you show up for work and you like the people you work with, especially in hospitality,” she said. “Not to sound cheesy, but I just have so much respect for everyone and I think that translates into how we hope people feel when they come to Billie’s, just based off mutual respect and admiration and just that familial vibe.”
The bar program is going to stick to the classics, putting fun twists on all the usual suspects like martinis, Manhattans, sours and more, Worgess-Smith said.
“You offer the best gin and the best vermouth, then the drinks are going to be perfect,” she said.
While not available yet, they are going to try to have their own Billie’s-branded canned espresso martinis. Worgess-Smith said it will be nitro cold brewstyle coffee with your choice of vodka or tequila.
“We’ve worked with canning a little bit, but we’ve not played around with it too extensively, so I’m looking forward to the trial and error part of it,” she said. “Sometimes the best mistakes turn out to be happy accidents, you know.”
On my recent visit I tried the pink vesper, a take on the classic vesper cocktail served with Kyro Pink Gin and Lillet Rosé. It’s a strong drink for sure, but I loved the light citrus and floral flavor from the Lillet and bergamot liqueur.
As a true steakhouse, Billie’s is something the island hasn’t had for a while, but the team wanted to take a new, modern, slightly Nantucket-ish approach to the design.
They completely gutted Dune to create a fresh look for their 149-seat restaurant with two floors and a year-round outdoor patio for dining.
“I think (Getter’s) happy to kind of have the reins being transferred,” said Jamie Lyon, Lee’s wife and Billie’s marketing manager. “He put in his time, 16 years in the kitchen, and he did a good job.”
Lee and Jamie met while working together at Kiki on the River. She says Rhee was her confidant and voice of reason while working there, and she naturally got to know Genie through Steve.
“We have that shared vision and giving everyone a voice is really important,” Jamie said. “It organically becomes a family, not just a friendship.”
The extensive remodel was Jamie’s
PAGE 18
Nantucket’s Primary Care Team
When you live on an island, you look out for each other.
No one feels the weight of this responsibility more than Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s primary care team. They are the orchestra leaders of your health and well-being. They’ll take care of all your routine needs such as annual physicals, vaccines and the care of common or chronic health issues. They will also guide you to a specialist if needed, on- or off-island.
Joining the team this year are Dr. Sarah Russell and Dr. David Lieberman, who are both accepting new patients. If you need a primary care provider, we’re here for you. Call 508-825-1000.
Margaret Koehm, MD; Nancy Lucchini, NP; Katie Miller, NP; Molly Harding, NP; Diane Pearl, MD; Annette Adams, NP; David Lieberman, MD; Derek Andelloux, MD; Claire Conklin, NP; Sarah Russell, MD
Photo
Francesca Giangiulio
Rigometrics charting a new musical course
Portland, Maine-based Rigometrics will bing
By Kendall Graham kgraham@inkym.com
Rigometrics recently bid farewell to Elodie.
Elodie is not a person, but she was, by all accounts, a companion.
So named by the Portland, Mainebased band, the 32-foot purple-and-white painted school bus, emblazoned with the band’s bubble-lettered logo, was the group’s touring vehicle, first bought at auction for about $600.
The trio, composed of Keenan Hendricks on vocals and piano, Josef Berger on guitar and Derek Haney on drums, logged almost 70,000 miles with Elodie across 300 gigs over four years up and down the East Coast, where they’ve done the majority of their touring.
For Hendricks, parting with the bus meant stepping into a new chapter and leaving behind a piece of the band’s identity.
“It’s definitely a transition phase,” he said of Elodie’s recent sale.
“It’s not a vehicle that’s meant for tour-
and
ing the way that we have to tour, where sometimes you’re driving 10 hours a day for multiple days in a row. It’ll be different for sure, because (Elodie) definitely was part of our identity.”
This idea of identity is still taking shape for Hendricks, Berger and Haney. Rigometrics is the first professional touring band for all three members.
“None of us has done anything like this before,” Hendricks said. “So it’s like all of our voices, I feel, have been developed through this in a lot of ways.”
Hendricks’ tenor, emphatic and dramatic, evokes the style of 1960s and 1970s classic rock and glam metal singers.
“Growing up, I did musical theater, which probably had a hand in my freedom to be a little more dramatic, so to speak,” he said.
The sound is rounded out by Berger’s groove-driven percussion and Haney’s fluid riffs, creating a mix of blues, funk
Courtesy of Rigometrics
their blues, funk
early heavy metal sound to the Gaslight Thursday, Aug. 28.
Courtesy of Rigometrics
Rigometrics is Keenan Hendricks, Josef Berger and Derek Haney.
MusACK
Two hills, two stories: Montalcino and Montepulciano
Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy.
By Peter McEachern I&M Columnist
A few years ago, well, it was 1987, and I was living in Parma, Italy, I set out to solve one of Italian wine’s most confusing riddles.
What I discovered changed everything I thought I knew about Sangiovese. It began with an embarrassing moment at a wine dinner. When the sommelier asked if I preferred “the Montepulciano from the town or the grape,” I confidently replied, “Well, that’s easy. It’s the grape grown in and around Montepulciano!”
The gentle correction that followed – that the wine from Montepulciano is made from Sangiovese, not Montepulciano grapes – sent me down a rabbit hole that would culminate in another one of my enlightening wine journeys.
Then, 30 years later, I found myself driving through the rolling hills of southern Tuscany, determined to understand once and for all the difference between these two legendary wine regions that have confounded wine lovers for generations.
Montalcino, the fortress of purity
My first glimpse of Montalcino took my breath away. Perched 20 miles south of Siena, this medieval fortress town rises from the landscape like something from a Renaissance painting.
As I wound up the narrow roads, I
Courtesy of Peter McEachern
The landscape between terraced vineyards in Montalcino, Tuscany.
Courtesy of Peter McEachern
Wine Cellar
Courtesy of Peter McEachern
Val d’Orcia with Monte Amiata in the distance.
Squam Swamp a fern-lined bastion of tranquility
By Neil Foley I&M Columnist
In the rush to experience all that summer has to offer before the school bell rings, the island is frenetic.
Energy high, fever-pitched, and the shoulder season arrives with a final resignation of carefree August days.
This is the time to breathe deeply with the seasonal changes. Get outside and fill your lungs with the lush oxygen of a forest understory or feel the heat shimmering off a sun-baked beach. Your winter self will thank you.
With all the walks across the island, I cannot stay away from this particular trail. It represents a perfect example in every season of how beautiful and captivating Nantucket can be.
Squam Swamp is the fern-lined bas -
tion upholding my ability to escape the grinding circulation of island traffic. Out Polpis Road and up Wauwinet Road I know I can find a path to walk and clear my head.
This normally wet part of the island, however, is quite parched right now. The vernal pools are empty, the water table is low and the usually flowing fresh water from Squam Brook is bone dry at the moment.
The dangerous part of this dryness comes when we inevitably get a powerful rainstorm or hurricane which can cause significant erosion and topsoil collapse events.
Photo by Neil Foley Healthy American beech leaves.
Photo by Neil Foley
The entrance to Squam Swamp in all its viney glory. Walk with Neil
The history of Nantucket’s Oldest House
By Betsy Tyler
Contributing Writer
In 1695, when 25-year-old Mary Gardner Coffin looked out the window of her house on Sunset Hill at the eastern edge of the English territory called Sherburne, her vista was wide open.
Mary lived on Sunset Hill for about 20 years. Although the date of construction of the house is not known exactly, tradition says that it was built as a wedding present in 1686, when 16-year-old Mary married 23-year-old Jethro Coffin.
Like the view from the house, the dwelling itself had a different appearance in the 17th century, although we can’t be certain exactly what it was.
It was an impressive house for its time,
two stories in height on the south-facing front facade, with a long, sloping north roof sometimes called a “catslide,” which may be an original feature.
Massive fireplaces were the dominant features of the rooms on each floor: the parlor on the west side, the hall, or great room, on the east, and the lean-to kitchen in the rear, under the low-hanging roof. Two chambers, or bedrooms, were on the second floor, with an attic above.
Physical evidence indicates that the center-chimney dwelling originally featured twin front gables that allowed light into the second-floor rooms, and from that height on the hill the Coffins and
their children could see for miles.
Mary and Jethro sold their Nantucket dwelling to Nathaniel Paddack in 1708 and moved to Mendon when Jethro inherited property there.
Although the Oldest House is closely associated with Mary and Jethro Coffin, four generations of the Paddack family lived there.
Many of them were mariners, reflecting Nantucket’s change from an agricultural to a maritime community in the 18th century.
In 1839, George Paddack sold the house out of the family to a cooper named George Turner for $300, ending 131 years of Paddack ownership.
By 1867, George and Mary Turner found another place to live, and the an-
cient nuptial dwelling of Jethro and Mary Coffin was used as a hay barn.
In 1881, two off-island members of the Coffin family purchased the Jethro Coffin house from the Turner family for $300.
Repairs were made and the house was opened up in 1886 for its 200th anniversary, then settled down for a long sleep until 1897, when it was opened in the summers as a house museum.
The house attracted a constant stream of curious visitors eager to peer into a relic of the early history of the island.
The Nantucket Historical Association purchased Jethro and Mary’s dwelling from Tristram Coffin in 1923.
Winthrop Coffin of Boston – another
Photo by Bill Hoenk
The Nantucket Historical Association’s Oldest House in 2022.
From the Museum
Photo by Neil Foley
A field of New York fern in Squam Swamp.
Walk: Fern-lined tranquility
(Continued from page 10)
Without normal sustained rain over the course of the season, the topsoil dries out, causing faster decay of organic material that serves to retain water and bind soil particles together.
One extreme rainfall, a more frequent occurrence thanks (again) to climate change, can wash out this loosely compacted soil and sand.
The effects of this are seen annually on south shore drop-offs like Sheep Pond Road, Madaket Beach and Cisco.
Walking through the woods, I check in on the health indicators of the community.
The drought makes it harder, but normal signs can still show that some trees and plants are faring better than others. Marks of fungus and rust abound from the pocked tree trunks to the spots on the understory leaves.
Red maples drink deep from their roots in saturated soil and are still thriving. Even if blown over completely, their adventitious roots anchor them again and new growth springs forth to grab light from the space in the canopy.
After years of attack from crypt gall wasps and defense from gall parasites, our black oaks are seemingly gaining resistance after losing some major limbs, battered and gnarly but fighting the good fight to remain a stalwart component of the hardwood forest.
One species is not as lucky. Beech leaf disease has affected almost 90 percent of the American beech stands on-island.
It can be seen in the dark lines across the crispy, curling leaves when you view them from below.
It is especially tragic to see some of my favorite trees on island being hit so heavily with this debilitating nematode and knowing that even these large, mature trees are not long for this world.
But as Nantucket Conservation Foundation botanist/plant ecologist Kelly Omand reminded me the other day, when forests change like this and composition shifts it gives another tree species the chance to become dominant.
It is not all doom and gloom, it is a changing of the guard that has happened many times before us and will continue many times after us.
I ponder the drought, the threats these trees face, and the scars and windfall which display the hazards that they have already weathered. When I come to marker 14 on the interpretive trail and the fork in the trail, I admire the sun sifting through the tupelo canopy and reaching the forest floor coated with New York fern.
Another season wanes and a beautiful fall display of color will soon be shown in the forest of Squam.
Neil Foley is the interpretive education coordinator and ecologist at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation.
“We Carry the Sun” a beautiful work of nonfiction
By Genevieve Frable Contributing Writer
What is the Earth without the sun? What is life? For without it, there is none. Without the sun, even the moon would not shine.
Many people do not even realize that it is, in fact, a star. Yet, it is the single most important star in our universe.
“We Carry The Sun” tells the story of the sun and our relationship to it over the centuries. Written by Tae Keller, the New York Times number-one bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning author of “When You Trap a Tiger,” and illustrated by Rachel Wada, whose work has received multiple awards, this stunning picture book intended for children is a beautiful work of nonfiction that speaks to any audience.
This book tells the story of how humans have always depended on the sun for heat and energy.
Starting all the way back when ancient people built houses that faced south to gather the sun’s rays, it continues through the early development of solar power, to its structure and uses today, while also discussing other sources of energy in brief.
It is, ultimately, the story of solar power and its historical timeline. Together the author and illustrator tell of solar’s roots, its inventors and contributors, and its impact large and small on people all over the world.
As Keller, found, there is no one person who can be considered the inventor of solar panels. Instead, she found that it was the work of many across decades that gave us the solar panels we see today in fields, on rooftops and even on small toys. The knowledge and discoveries needed to create them took place all over the world. A French mathematics teacher,
Augustin Mouchot, gathered ideas, some of them from China and centuries old, and decades later a New Yorker, Charles Fritts, created the first solar panel, then an engineer in California, Aubrey Eneas, improved it.
Maria Telkes and Eleanor Raymond used ideas from ancient Greece and the Americas to build a modern house that gathers and stores the sun’s heat.
Soon there were more inventions and developments. In areas without electricity, solar heaters warm water. NASA uses solar power to send satellites through space and solar panels became efficient and affordable enough for people to start using them to power their homes.
Wada’s illustrations are the crowning glory of this book. Her work is warm and filled with light. Nearly every page contains brilliant rays of sun that back light and silhouette every person and object, creating a ring of light that lends a dramatic and ethereal quality to the images.
The angles and proportions within the
illustrations make them eye-catching and bold, and while they flow together seamlessly, each page is unique and stunning. Often, Wada layers multiple images to tell an entire story on a single page while at the same time leaving a space for the lyrical, textual narrative.
This work of art shows us that the best inventions are not those developed by one person, but by many.
Something great was made by people on almost every continent and across
hundreds and thousands of years. The world of solar power would not be where it is today without the ingenuity of ancient peoples, scientists, engineers, architects, activists, laborers and everyday people who showed interest and asked for more.
This book also encourages us to continue working toward sustainable and clean energy and to always consider the question, as Keller writes on the final page, “What if we could do even more?”
Photo by Jenny Jimenez Tae Keller
Island Calendar
Courtesy of Nantucket Conservation Foundation
The Nantucket Conservation Foundation hosts a series of nature-related activities throughout the late summer and fall months.
(Thursday, continued from page 3)
Historic Downtown Walking Tour
10:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Nantucket Whaling Museum, 13 Broad St. Walk through historic downtown Nantucket with a museum guide and discover the unique history of the island. The tour transports visitors on a journey through Nantucket’s past and tells the story of the rise and fall of the whaling industry, the rise of tourism and the impacts the island’s economy had on social and racial development on Nantucket.
Live Music: Moon Taxi
1-2:30 p.m. Cisco Brewers, 5 Bartlett Farm Road. Nashville-based indie rock band Moon Taxi will perform. $25 cover.
How to Thrive in a World of Constant Chaos
2 p.m. Online at www.nantucketatheneum.org. Organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich, author of “Shatterproof: How to Survive in a World of Constant Chaos,” will discuss how to master the daily grind and become shatterproof in a tumultuous world. Register on calendar page of www.nantucketatheneum.org
Sconset Walking Tour
3 p.m. 1 New St., Sconset. Join Nantucket Preservation Trust executive director Mary Bergman as she shares her knowledge of this unique fishing settlement at the eastern edge of the island. The 75-minute tour focuses on the early “whale houses” as well as the village’s boom as a seaside resort and actors colony at the end of the 1800s. Tickets at nantucketpreservation.org
Live Music: Mesha Steele’s Riddim All Stars
4 p.m. Cisco Brewers, 5 Bartlett Farm Road. New York City’s reggae-pop band Mesha Steele’s Riddim All Stars will perform. Second show Friday.
Island Voices: Maritime Music and Poetry
5:30 p.m. Children’s Beach, Harborview Way. Celebrate Nantucket’s maritime traditions with an evening of sea-inspired music and poetry by island artists including shanty singers, Celtic Flow, Ripe for the Pickin’, Susan and Ray, Harvey Young and Nathaniel Philbrick, Pete Sendelbach, MaryAnn Bartlett, Heather Bennet, Chuck Gifford and more. Free.
Live Music: Jacob Butler
6 p.m. The Rose & Crown, 23 South Water St. Nantucket singer-songwriter Jacob Butler will perform.
Live Music: All Time Low
8 p.m. The Muse 44 Surfside Road. Poppunk band All Time Low will perform. Tickets at Eventbrite.com
Owl Prowl
8 p.m. Maria Mitchell Association, 4 Vestal St. Join MMA field ornithologist and I&M columnist Ginger Andrews to listen for the calls of nocturnal animals and birds and watch for owls as they begin their nightly activity. Tickets on calendar page of www.mariamitchell.org
Live Music: Rigometrics
10 p.m. Gaslight Nantucket, 3 North Union St. Portland, Maine-based rock and roll band Rigometrics will perform. 21 and over.
Friday, Aug. 29
Nature Walk: Masquetuck
8:30 a.m. Masquetuck Reservation, 15 Quaise Pasture Road. A one-mile walk through the hardwood forest that extends to West Polpis Harbor with chances
to see herons, egrets, shellfish and other inhabitants of this ecologically-rich area. Register on events page of www.nantucketconservation.org
Nature Ramble
10 a.m. Linda Loring Nature Foundation, 110 Eel Point Road. Sarah Bois, director of research and conservation leads this tour of the sandplain grasslands on the LLNF property to observe several varieties of Nantucket wildflowers. Free, but registration required on calendar page of www.llnf.org
Friday Funday
10:30 a.m. Children’s Beach Bandstand, Harborview Way. The Nantucket Office of Culture and Tourism hosts Friday Fundays through Sept. 12.
Travel Trends
4 p.m. Saltmarsh Senior Center, 81 Washington St. Luxury travel advisor Suzanne Moore discusses solo, multigenerational and group travel geared toward seniors. Call (508) 325-4181 to RSVP.
Live Music: Jacob Butler
6 p.m. The Rose & Crown, 23 South Water St. Nantucket singer-songwriter Jacob Butler will perform.
Rossini Club: The Heart of the Matter
6:30 p.m. Dreamland Theater, 17 South Water St. A curated selection of music from early 20th-century Britain, alongside works by Mahler, Shostakovitch, Berlioz and others, performed by the musicians of the Rossini Club. Second show 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets at www.nantucketdreamland.org
Live Music: Sean Lee
8-10 p.m. Rose & Crown, 23 South Water St. Nantucket singer-songwriter Sean Lee will perform. Second show Saturday.
Stargazing at the Observatory
9:30 p.m. Loines Observatory, 59 Milk St. Join professional astronomers from the Maria Mitchell Association for a guided tour of the night sky, including the moon, planets, star clusters, nebulae and more. Register on calendar page of www. mariamitchell.org
Live Music: Maxxtone
10 p.m. The Chicken Box, 6 Dave St. Springfield-based party band Maxxtone performs. Additional shows Saturday and Sunday. 21 and over. Tickets at the door.
Island Calendar
Live Music: Foggy Roots
10 p.m. Gaslight Nantucket, 3 North Union St. Nantucket’s own roots reggae band Foggy Roots will perform. 21 and over.
Saturday, Aug. 30
Nantucket Clean Team
8 a.m. Handlebar Café, 15 Washington St., and the intersection of Nobadeer Farm Road and Milestone Road. The Nantucket Clean Team meets weekly from spring through fall to clean up trash around the island. Bags and pickers provided.
Farmers & Artisans Market
8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Cambridge Street, between Federal and South Water. Sustainable Nantucket hosts a market of fresh local produce, island cottage-industry artisans and food. Weather permitting.
Historic Bike Tour
10:30 a.m. Nantucket Whaling Museum, 13 Broad St. Strap on your helmet
to explore historic locations on the periphery of town you may have missed, all while escaping the hustle and bustle of downtown Nantucket. Led by a Nantucket Historical Association guide. Approximately two hours. Tickets on calendar page of www.nha.org
NanPuppets
11 a.m. Children’s Beach, Harborview Way. Join Lizza Obremski and her puppet friends for a morning of educational entertainment for all ages. Free, but donations welcome.
Live Music: Funky Dawgz Brass Band
4 p.m. Cisco Brewers, 5 Bartlett Farm Road. Connecticut-based Funky Dawgz Brass Band plays hip hop, funk and today’s top hits with a brass twist. Second show 3 p.m. Sunday.
Dreamland Conversations: Cal Ripken Jr.
5 p.m. Dreamland Theater, 17 South Water St. Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. in conversation with Baltimore Orioles owner and Nantucket summer resident David Rubenstein. Tickets at www.nantucketdreamland.org
Outdoor Restorative Yoga
5 p.m. Location upon registration. Calming and centering restorative yoga on a Nantucket Conservation Foundation property. An hour of gentle movement, stretching and breathwork. Register on events page of www.nantucketconservation.org
Live Music: Buckle & Shake
10 p.m. Gaslight Nantucket, 3 North Union St. Nantucket’s own alt-country band Buckle & Shake will perform. 21 and over.
Love Song Karaoke
10 p.m. Rose & Crown, 23 South Water St. Bring your joy, yearning, heartbreak and everything in between to the mic.
Sunday, Aug. 31
Live Music: Julia Newman
6 p.m. The Rose & Crown, 23 South Water St. Nantucket singer-songwriter Julia Newman will perform.
SUNDAY, PAGE 23
Your island,
inbox
Eat: Billie’s brings steakhouse flair to the island with a Nantucket touch
(Continued from page 5D)
brainchild and kept Billie’s under construction for most of the summer, but it was worth it.
The first floor feels like you’re inside a classic luxury yacht: wood-paneled walls, moody lighting, parquet floors, leather barstools and teal velvet booths.
The upstairs is like a 1920s cocktail lounge with round, oversized art deco furniture, dramatic drapery and huge glass feathered chandeliers. It’s worth a trip to Billie’s just to see the redesign.
Lee said the goal was to create a space where guests felt like they could stay for hours. I can confirm: the chairs are ridiculously comfortable, and I would be happy to just lounge with a strong cocktail and good company all night long.
“A lot of places out here are more white and more nautical, it’s all very similar,” Jamie said. “So we’re trying to do something that’s absolutely our own thing, like our own identity in terms of looks and feels.”
They wanted each section of the restaurant to provide a different experience: the garden-like patio is great for lunching, the bar area is more casual and conversational and the upstairs provides a more formal dining experience.
Each space can be rented out for private events such as weddings, a task that Worgess-Smith has taken on in her role at Billie’s.
The team isn’t trying to bring Miami to Nantucket – “Miami is a different vibe, a different scene,” Lee said – but they do want to create more of a “dining experience” on island and “turn up the volume a little bit.”
“We want people to hang around and dance and sing,” he said.
Jamie said the goal is to “revamp the dining scene on Nantucket” and fill the much-needed gap of a modern, American steakhouse.
“Everyone has a need for steak, everyone loves steak,” she said. “There’s a steak on every single menu (on Nantucket) and almost 90 percent of the guests are ordering it. We just want to be a more steak-forward place. There’s plenty of people coming to the island that want to see that, so that’s what we’re trying to do and chef makes a mean steak.”
Jamie said she would “always” order Rhee’s surf and turf at Kiki on the River. At Billie’s they plan to have a “make it surf” option, so guests can add their preferred seafood to any of their steak entrees.
The core of Billie’s is classic American steakhouse (“generous portions, bold flavors, starches, your classic sauces: aux poivre, Hollandaise, shrimp cocktail.
Billie’s fries are worthy of any mainland steakhouse: soft on the inside, crisp on the outside with the skin still on for just the right rustic touch.
We’re going to stay true to that,” Rhee said, but some areas of the menu they hope to make more experimental as the restaurant gets its legs.
“I think a lot of fun that I could have with the food is really gonna come down to the various appetizers, introducing more spices, different flavor profiles, more of a balanced approach in terms of different sauces and stuff like that,” Rhee said.
Rhee is a California native raised in a Korean household, and he hopes to bring some more globally-inspired dishes to Billie’s in the future, especially on its “bridge menu” between lunch and dinner.
“We plan on opening the bar straight through, open to close,” he said. “During that time, (between lunch and dinner) what are you going to serve people when they just want a lite bite? It doesn’t always have to be traditional steakhouse items, so that’s when you could lighten up the fare a little, bring a little Asian flair, Latin flair.”
During the current soft opening, Billie’s is running a limited menu, but it plans to have the full menu available by early fall, which will include a seafood tower “as local as possible,” wagyu steaks, a California-style burger and basically everything you would expect from a clas-
filet and the Faroe Island salmon. The salmon was light and flaky with a great crisp edge. It is served on top of a corn medley and with Rhee’s chimichurri sauce. The chimichurri added a nice light heat and spiciness to the mild salmon and corn. The corn and chopped peppers brought new texture and brightness to the dish.
The filet was beautifully prepared and served with a large sprig of rosemary and flaky salt on top. It was a perfect melt-inyour-mouth medium rare.
It was almost buttery as I cut into it. I ordered a side of the house steak sauce. It was warm, comforting and had a slight tomato flavor. Eating the steak with the sauce reminded me of the beef stew my mother makes during the cold winter months.
The fries did not disappoint. Probably some of the best I’ve had in a while. Rhee promised hand-cut, never-frozen fries and you can tell he followed through. They’re soft with just a little bit of crispness on the ends. He leaves the skin on, which I think adds a nice earthy flavor, and they’re perfectly salted.
The closest thing I can compare them to is Five Guys fries – which everyone knows are ridiculously addictive and craveable – but much less greasy. I could’ve spent the whole night just snacking on the fries.
sic steakhouse.
On my visit, we started with the shrimp cocktail and Caesar salad. I like to say there are three easy ways to judge the quality of a restaurant: eggs Benedict, Caesar salad, and French fries.
Billie’s doesn’t have eggs Benedict, but they do have the latter two. The Caesar salad was the perfect size to share with a friend or dining companion. The Romaine lettuce was crisp and chopped into great bite-sized pieces.
The salad isn’t served with croutons, but it comes with two crispy, thin-sliced crostini. It was covered in a perfect layer of shredded parmigiano. There was enough for you to actually taste the nuttiness of the cheese, which I appreciated.
The dressing had a slightly different flavor than your typical Caesar, with a warmth and herbiness I really enjoyed and not too much anchovy flavor, just enough for a hint of briny saltiness.
The shrimp cocktail is served with four massive pieces of shrimp. It took at least four bites to finish each one. The cocktail sauce was very traditional, smooth and with just a hint of sharpness from the horseradish. Not enough to make your nose burn, but enough to wake you up a little bit.
For mains, we shared the eight-ounce
Desserts aren’t available yet, but the team plans to have all the steakhouse classics like chocolate cake, cherry cheesecake and maybe even banana cream pie. The pièce de rèsistance, though, is going to be the ice cream sundae dessert tower.
This dessert is inspired by Lee and Jamie’s daughter whom the restaurant is named after.
Jamie said Billie had to “grow up a little faster” because her younger brother is autistic. Her parents said she’s been so helpful to the family, so they wanted to “give an ode to her” so she’s “remembered forever.”
“For us, she’s the most important person in his life, and she’s really been taking care of him,” Lee said. “We thought it would be cool to do something nice for her, and her favorite food is steak. She’s been eating Steve’s steak since she was 3 years old.”
The dessert tower will come with a wide variety of candy (chosen by Billie) and toppings and as many bowls of ice cream as you need for your group. It’s a similar concept to the build-your-ownsundaes that I’m sure we all remember from Friendly’s back in the day.
Overall, Lee said the goal is to just
EAT, NEXT PAGE
Photo by Francesca Giangiulio
Cellar: Two hills, two stories
(Continued from page 8)
noticed something immediately: the landscape felt different here. Drier. More austere.
The vineyards seemed to bask in an intensity of light I hadn’t experienced elsewhere in Tuscany.
The proprietor at my first stop, a small family estate on the outskirts of town, explained what I was seeing.
“Montalcino has one of the warmest and driest climates in all of Tuscany,” she said, gesturing toward the imposing Mount Amiata rising 5,220 feet to the south.
“That mountain protects us from storms, but it also means our grapes ripen a full week earlier than in nearby Montepulciano.”
No visit to Montalcino would be complete without paying homage to the house that started it all. Walking into Biondi-Santi felt like entering a cathedral of wine history.
The current patriarch showed me their incredible library, La Storica, containing bottles from their 40 historic Riserva releases dating back to 1888.
“My great-great-grandfather Ferruccio believed in absolute purity,” he explained, pulling a dusty bottle from 1945, one of only four vintages they released before World War II ended.
“One hundred percent Sangiovese. Nothing else. That philosophy built Brunello.”
The tasting that followed was revelatory. The 2015 Brunello showed the house’s signature restraint: aged in massive Slavonian oak barrels that imparted no flavor, allowing the wine to develop its character slowly.
Cherry, leather and herbs unfolded in waves, with tannins that gripped but never overwhelmed. This was Sangiovese in its purest form.
Modern Masters
My next stop at Altesino revealed a different philosophy. While still respecting
tradition, they showed me how modern techniques could enhance rather than mask terroir.
Their single-vineyard Montosoli, from the famous cru site, demonstrated the incredible diversity possible within Montalcino’s borders.
“See how different the soil is here?” asked the winemaker, crumbling graywhite galestro between his fingers. “This is why we can make single-vineyard wines. Each site tells its own story.”
The Montosoli tasted like liquid earth: deeper, more mineral-driven than the Biondi-Santi, with a complexity that seemed to expand with each sip.
I began to understand why collectors pay premium prices for these wines.
The weight of regulation
At Castiglion del Bosco, the Ferragamo family’s magnificent 5,000-acre estate, I learned about Montalcino’s strict hierarchy.
The estate manager walked me through their cellars, explaining the regulations that make Brunello so special and expensive.
“Every bottle of Brunello must age at least four years before release,” he explained, showing me rows of barrels containing wines that wouldn’t see market for years. “Five years for Riserva. And it must be 100 percent Sangiovese,no exceptions. This purity comes at a cost but creates something unique in the wine world.”
Their Riserva Millecento proved the point: a wine of incredible depth and structure that seemed to improve in the glass with every passing minute.
The noble alternative
The 45-minute drive from Montalcino to Montepulciano felt like traveling between different worlds. As I climbed toward this equally stunning hilltop town, I immediately sensed a different energy.
CELLAR, PAGE 20
Eat: Steakhouse flair, island style
(Continued from page 18)
create a fun dining experience for people on Nantucket that wasn’t available to them before.
“We just want to do simple food done really well, good portions, really good martini, good wine list, and you know just keeping it simple and a great, fun experience,” he said. “A fun atmosphere to spend a whole night and hang out.”
The whole team agrees that the goal with Billie’s is to make everyone feel like they’re part of the family.
They’ve assembled their dream team of hospitality experts (who just so happen to be their friends and family) and want to share that love and community with everyone who steps through the front door.
“It’s exciting and frightening,” Jamie said. “I think we’re all very eager to provide an amazing place for everybody.”
Billie’s plans to be open through New Year’s Eve. It will close briefly for the winter and re-open in early April 2026.
The restaurant at 20 Broad St. is open seven days a week from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Reservations are available on Open Table.
Cellar: Two hills, two stories, , Montalcino and Montepulciano
(Continued from page 19)
The landscape was more lush, influenced by cooling currents from the Apennines (the spine of Italy). The vineyards seemed more approachable, less severe than Montalcino’s stark beauty.
Montepulciano, the town, is arguably more tourist-friendly than Montalcino, with its wider streets and Renaissance palaces. But as I would soon discover, the wines here tell a completely different story, one of flexibility, tradition and remarkable value.
Boscarelli: The soul of Vino Nobile
My first tasting at Boscarelli immediately revealed why this producer has a devoted following. Paola De Ferrari, part of the family that runs this historic estate, poured their classic Vino Nobile, about 80 percent Prugnolo Gentile (the local name for Sangiovese) blended with traditional Tuscan varieties.
“We could make it 100 percent Sangiovese if we wanted,” she explained, “but why would we abandon centuries of tradition? The other grapes – Canaiolo, Mammolo – add complexity and soften the wine’s edges.”
The difference was immediately apparent. While maintaining the cherry and earth character I’d grown to love in Montalcino, this wine had a rounder, more immediately approachable quality. The tannins were present but less austere, and the fruit was more generous.
Then came their Nocio, 100 percent Sangiovese from a single vineyard. This wine bridged the gap between Montepulciano’s accessibility and Montalcino’s power, showing what happens when great terroir meets thoughtful winemaking.
Poliziano: evolution in action
At Poliziano, I witnessed firsthand the evolution happening in Montepulciano. The winemaker showed me through their cellars, explaining how they moved away from the international style that dominated the 1990s and 2000s.
“For years, we thought we needed to compete with Montalcino by making bigger, more oaked wines,” he admitted. “But we realized our strength lies in elegance, not power. We’re going back to our roots.”
Their current releases proved the point. Gone were the heavy French oak flavors that once characterized some Vino Nobile. Instead, these wines showed pure fruit expression with just enough structure to age gracefully, but without requiring a decade of patience.
Avignonesi: The pioneers
My final stop at Avignonesi complet-
The golden vineyards of Tuscany.
ed the picture. This historic estate, once known for pushing boundaries, has returned to showcasing the unique character of Montepulciano’s terroir.
“The new Pieve classifications launched with the 2021 vintage,” explained the estate manager, “represent our commitment to terroir expression. Each of the 12 Pievi captures something different about our landscape.”
Tasting through their range, I understood the excitement around these new classifications. The single-Pieve wines showed remarkable distinctiveness: some mineral, others more floral, each reflecting its specific microclimate and soil composition.
Two philosophies, one grape
As I sat in a small osteria in Montepulciano that evening, comparing my notes from both regions, the differences crystallized.
Montalcino’s rigid perfection:
• 100 percent Sangiovese requirement, no exceptions
• Minimum four-year aging (six for Riserva)
• Vineyard elevation limits to ensure proper ripening
• Nearly 200 producers make about 330,000 cases annually
• Prices reflecting collector demand and limited production
Montepulciano’s flexible excellence:
• Minimum 70 percent Sangiovese, allowing traditional blending
• Two- to three-year minimum aging requirements
• New Pieve system recognizing terroir diversity
• More approachable pricing without compromising quality
The contrast between the regions’ top producers fascinated me.
Montalcino’s traditionalists like Biondi-Santi maintain century-old methods, viewing any deviation from 100 percent Sangiovese as sacrilege.
The modernists like Altesino embrace innovation while respecting the grape’s purity.
Montepulciano’s leaders like Boscarelli and Poliziano are returning to traditional Tuscan blending after a period of international experimentation, proving that sometimes moving forward means looking back.
What I learned
Standing on the walls of Montepulciano as the sun set over the Val d’Orcia, I finally understood what makes these regions special. It’s not just about the wine, it’s about philosophy.
Montalcino represents the pursuit of perfection through purity. Every regulation, every tradition, every wine serves to showcase Sangiovese in its most uncompromising form.
The result? Wines that can age for decades and command serious money require patience and understanding.
Montepulciano embodies the art of balance. Allowing blending and shorter aging produces wines that remain true to Sangiovese’s character while being more approachable and food-friendly. The new Pieve system shows they’re serious about terroir expression without abandoning flexibility.
Oh, and that Montepulciano grape that started my confusion? I finally tracked it down in Abruzzo, southeast through Umbria and Lazio, where it makes the wonderfully earthy and affordable Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.
But that’s another story entirely.
Montalcino is your destination if you’re a collector seeking wines that will appre-
ciate in value and evolve over decades. Names like Biondi-Santi, Altesino and Castiglion del Bosco represent safe bets for long-term cellaring.
But if you’re a wine enthusiast who wants exceptional quality without the premium prices – wines that sing with food and don’t require a decade of patience – Montepulciano offers incredible value.
Producers like Boscarelli, Poliziano and Avignonesi prove that accessibility doesn’t compromise quality.
Coming full circle
Today, that embarrassing dinner conversation seems like a lifetime ago. I now understand that the confusion between Montepulciano the town and Montepulciano the grape isn’t just an Italian quirk, it’s a reminder that in wine, as in life, the most important discoveries often come from admitting what we don’t know.
Both regions produce wines that rank among Tuscany’s finest, offering a different path to Sangiovese greatness. Montalcino may get the headlines and the higher prices, but Montepulciano offers something equally valuable: proof that great wine doesn’t always have to break the bank.
I’ve learned to tell that sommelier story differently now: “Actually, there are two different Montepulcianos, and both are worth knowing.”
The hills of Tuscany taught me that sometimes the best journeys begin with confusion and end with clarity, one glass at a time.
Peter McEachern is the general manager of the Nantucket Yacht Club. He has been buying wine, creating wine lists and running wine tastings since 1983. He can be reached at peter@nantucketyachtclub.org
Courtesy of Peter McEachern
The Inquirer and Mirror
is proud to support our community with media sponsorships and contributions to many island institutions and events. Over the last year we have provided more than $100,000 of media sponsorships to include:
Museum: The history of Nantucket’s Oldest House
(Continued from page 12)
off-island descendant of the original Tristram – stepped up to fund restoration of the house and his architect of choice, Alfred F. Shurrocks, began the work in 1927.
Although Shurrocks determined that the house had originally had twin front gables, a decision was made to restore the structure to its more familiar appearance and to replace 18-century double-hung sash windows with diamond-paned casements, which they felt more suited a 17th-century dwelling.
The Jethro Coffin house was designated a National Historic Landmark by the secretary of the interior in 1968.
On Oct. 1, 1987, lightning struck the house, toppling the chimney, destroying half the roof and melting the electrical wiring, causing damage that required two years (and about $1 million) to painstakingly mend.
The stalwart old structure was so solidly built that since restoration it has continued to hold firm on Sunset Hill where it tells the story of the early English settlement of Nantucket in the 17th century.
Learn more about the Oldest House by visiting the property or logging on to www.nha.org
– Excerpt from the Nantucket Historical Association Properties Guide, Oldest House by Betsy Tyler, 2015.
MUSACK: Rigometrics reshaping its sound with maturity
(Continued from page 6)
and early heavy metal.
Rigometrics will bring that high-energy blend to Nantucket tonight with a late-night set at The Gaslight.
Rigometrics played its very first gig in 2021 at Hendricks and Haney’s college graduation party. They first met while studying at the University of Southern Maine.
But according to Hendricks, Rigometrics’ true origin story began on a summer road trip.
The group was traveling around North Carolina at the time, and upon noticing a gap in a local bar’s music lineup, lightly fibbed their way into the empty slot by claiming to be an already-touring band about to release an album, and looking for a venue to play for the evening.
“We definitely pitched ourselves like we were pretty legit,” Hendricks previously told the Portland Press Herald
“The band wasn’t something that we thought was actually going to happen at that point.”
Rigometrics released its debut album, “Rig N’ Roll,” in 2022, and released live albums in 2024 and April of this year. They also added two EPs to their catalogue in 2023 and 2024.
According to Hendricks, the goal is to release a live album every year as a sort of companion to the studio versions of those songs. For him, releasing several iterations of a song may provide listeners a well-rounded display of Rigometrics’ music.
Although happy with the live album released this spring, Hendricks said the recording of the first live album was like an exercise in retrospection and refinement.
“We’re super-new to working on live bodies of work, so listening back to the first one, I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t know how
well that worked,’” he said.
“But what’s been nice is planning every year to release a live album, just to be able to say, ‘This is live, and this is studio,’ to really have a different kind of showcase of us.”
In the four years since that graduation gig, Rigometrics has had its nose to the grindstone.
The band played well over 100 shows in 2024. This year, its members have balanced touring with writing and recording their second album, aiming to finish it by the end of the year.
Over the last year and a half, Hendricks, Berger and Haney have been working on songs for that album with engineer friend Matt Perry and songwriter
and musician Dave Gutter.
They’ve been recording more frequently over the summer, with Hendricks describing the process, involving one- or two-day writing and tracking sessions, as a steadier one than earlier this year and last, in which “we’ve kind of been doing everything all at once,” he said, citing concurrent gigging, writing, recording and promotional responsibilities.
“We’re really independent in the sense that we don’t have help with distribution and we don’t have a booking agency,” Hendricks said.
Self-producing with Perry and Gutter has pushed Rigometrics’ sound in unexpected ways.
Perry’s production background is based
in electronic dance music, while Gutter is the vocalist and guitarist of the Portland-bred rock band Rustic Overtones.
“You wouldn’t think that would work, but I think it has been,” said Hendricks of Perry’s production style. “One thing that’s been different working with Matt is trying to find ways to stay locked in the groove: still getting that energy without speeding up or slowing down that’s too harsh.”
“And it’s great to have (Gutter’s) insight, where he can come in on a session and help us out with trying different things. For me, sometimes it’s using less words or something like that.”
After its Nantucket performance, a slate of shows and private gigs will follow Rigometrics into the fall. They’ll continue recording new music and will then head to the South for a run in the Charleston, S.C. area.
They will make their debut at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin next spring.
Hendricks feels especially pulled to what he describes as a unique gravity centered around Nantucket and its live music venues.
“I’m super-stoked about the show, honestly,” he said. “For me, because I was always booking all our shows, I would see Gaslight (come up) and go, ‘There are legit nationally-touring bands coming here for, like, two nights in a row, this is sick, we’ve got to find a way to get in here’.”
“It just seems like there’s something going on out there that people are really gravitating toward. So I’m really hoping that it goes well, and we’re able to make it a yearly summer thing, or even hit it multiple times in a year.”
Rigometrics performs at The Gaslight, 3 North Union St., Thursday, Aug. 28 at 10 p.m. 21 and over.
Courtesy of Rigometrics
Rigometrics with Elodie, the faithful tour bus to which they recently bid farewell.
Courtesy of Nantucket Historical Association
The Nantucket Historical Association’s Oldest House around 1900.
Sunday Night Concert: La Tulipe
6 p.m. Children’s Beach Bandstand, Harborview Way. Nantucket’s own piano and vocal duo La Tulipe will perform. Free.
Monday, Sept. 1
Labor Day
Hands on History
10:15 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday through Aug. 28. Nantucket Whaling Museum, 13 Broad St. A short presentation with visual and tactile elements connecting to Nantucket history, followed by craft-making connected to that day’s talk. Free with museum admission.
Solidarity September Rally
11:30 a.m. Nantucket Town & County Building, 16 Broad St. Indivisible Nantucket hosts this peaceful Labor Day rally to kick off Solidarity September, taking a stand for America’s working people and their families.
Island Calendar
Live Music: Rebecca Correia
8 p.m. Brotherhood of Thieves, 23 Broad St. Singer songwriter Rebecca Correia, who has opened for Natasha Bedingfield, Shawn Colvin and Livingston Taylor, will perform. Additional shows Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Tuesday, Sept. 2
A Walk Down Main Street
3 p.m. 11 Centre St. An overview of Nantucket in its heyday focusing on the portion of Main Street between the Pacific National Bank and the Civil War monument. Learn about the street’s development and the area’s early residents and architectural styles, as well as how the houses have come to symbolize the island’s whaling era. Tickets at nantucketpreservation.org.
Tuesdays with Campbell: Short-term Rentals
5:30 p.m. Nantucket Atheneum, 1 India St. An informal conversation about s hort-term rentals moderated by former Planning Board alternate member Campbell Sutton. All are welcome.
Wednesday, Sept. 3
Birding with Woody
8 a.m. Location upon registration. Nantucket Conservation Foundation trustee Woody Newell leads this two-hour birding adventure on an NCF property. Binoculars encouraged. Register on events page of www.nantucketconservation.org
Book-signing: Elin Hilderbrand
11 a.m. Mitchell’s Book Corner, 54 Main St. Best-selling island author Elin Hilderbrand will sign copies of “The Blue Book.” The first 115 people will get a ticket for the signing when they arrive in line. Line begins forming at 10 a.m. Only books purchased at Mitchell’s will be signed.
Live Music: Buckle & Shake
4-7 p.m. Cisco Brewers, 5 Bartlett Farm Road. Nantucket’s own alt-country band, Buckle & Shake will perform.
Film for Thought
7 p.m. Dreamland Theater, 17 South Water St. The Inquirer and Mirror and Dreamland present “Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Life,” a documentary exploring the life and art of the most im-
portant female artist of the 20th century. Free for Dreamland members. Tickets at www.nantucketdreamland.org
On Writing Darkly Charming Villainous Love
7 p.m. online at www.nantucketatheneum.org. Author Hannah Nicole Maehrer discusses her New York Times best-selling “Assistant to the Villain’ series. Register on the calendar page of www.nantucketatheneum.org
Thursday, Sept. 4
Sconset Walking Tour
3 p.m. 1 New St., Sconset. Join Nantucket Preservation Trust executive director Mary Bergman as she shares her knowledge of this unique fishing settlement at the eastern edge of the island. Tickets at nantucketpreservation.org
Live Music: Luffkid
4 p.m. Cisco Brewers, 5 Bartlett Farm Road. Acoustic improv artist Adam “Luffkid” Lufkin will perform. Second show Friday.
