Island to Island: The Sugar Shack

By Julian Wise - July 19, 2007

Reminiscent of the casual tin-roof meal shacks of the Caribbean, The Sugar Shack, an informal restaurant new to the Oak Bluffs harbor, fuses a breezy Island feel with fresh-cooked Island fare in a setting of art, pottery, and potted palm fronds.

While Martha’s Vineyard might seem an unusual place to transplant Caribbean cuisine due to its image as a salty New England community, Chef Edward Lattanzio believes the Vineyard and his restaurant make a good fit. "Caribbean cuisine is local ingredients and fresh seafood which the Vineyard is as well,” he explains. "It is also an area attracting of sailors — many Vineyard locals who vacation in the Caribbean — so it offers a nice change from New England style seafood.”

Mr. Lattanzio and his wife Kathe, who manages the restaurant, are the creative forces behind The Sugar Shack. The couple, who met on the Vineyard and were married at the Captain Fisher House in Edgartown in October, 1993, have worked together in restaurants or as private chefs over the years, although The Sugar Shack is their first time working as a manager and chef team.

"This profession is hard to leave out of your personal life,” says Mr. Lattanzio. "It takes a lot of commitment and hard work which usually means long hours. If we don’t work together we hardly see each other. I won’t say it’s always peaceful, but we do know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and are always there to back each other.”

They have lived on the Island for the past 16 years, spending the past five shuttling back and forth between Martha’s Vineyard and Florida. Mr. Lattanzio’s culinary experiences include working for a large catering firm in Florida, cooking in Virginia and Tennessee, and working at local kitchens like The Daggett House, Savoir Faire, and the Edgartown Yacht Club. For The Sugar Shack, he draws upon the two years he lived in St. John’s and the local influences he absorbed, including jerking meat and infusing dishes with jams and sauces.

"A lot of people have a perception of what ingredients cooks use in the Caribbean,” Kathe says. "What they actually do use is whatever they can find because supplies are limited.”

At The Sugar Shack, diners can choose from an assortment of appetizers such as tasty conch fritters with a remoulade sauce, curried mussels poached in a sweet curry and coconut broth, and rasta shrimp cocktail. The salads, which also take on a Caribbean flavor, include a grilled spiced shrimp salad, and a pull-out-all-the-stops Caribbean cobb salad with avocado, chicken, grated cheese, fresh vegetables, and mango slices. Entrees include pan-seared Atlantic salmon, grilled curried tofu, center-cut sirloin steak chimmichurri, and margarita shrimp served over a bed of rice and green beans in a tangy sauce.

The drink menu features a full range of favorites with such daunting names as The Painkiller, made with Pusser’s Rum; Dark and Stormy, a concoction of Gosling’s rum and ginger beer; and Bushwhackers, made with rum, creme de coco, and coconut.

Julian Wise is a frequent contributor to The Times.