Rare Vintage Menu from the Opera House Restaurant on Nantucket, circa 1960s

Rare Vintage Menu from the Opera House Restaurant on Nantucket, circa 1960s. The beloved and fondly missed Opera House was the iconic restaurant owned and operated by Gwen Gaillard on South Water Street. While “quirkily” casual, it was the first elegant restaurant on Nantucket Island and forever changed the island’s culinary and social scene.

Gwen Gaillard was a New York socialite who moved to Nantucket and truly became a part of the fiber of Nantucket. She was a gourmand and a connoisseur; she owned an antiques shop on island for many years, and the Opera House was renowned for its crazy and eclectic decor of antiques (for instance the phone booth was an 18th Century Sedan Chair). The missing Cigar Store Indian that once stood at its front remains one of the island’s enduring mysteries. Her cookbook “Recipes, With Love” was published in 1966, illustrated by noted Nantucket artist Roy Bailey, and is still highly sought. Her head chef was Lucien van Vyve, another beloved island artist. Gwen was the founder of the famous and highly regarded Opera House Cup Regatta, the first yacht race for classic all-wooden hulled vessels.

The menu remains in excellent condition and has been conservation mounted in a contemporary frame.

Measures: 21-3/8 in H x 13 in W