Chatham Dining

Every summer on the Cape, we celebrate birthdays of my husband’s family at the Chatham Bars Inn. This is a gorgeous old inn, dating back to 1914, with a wrap-around porch for drinks, and an elegant dining room (jackets required!) with a lovely ocean view.

I find the formal dining room a little too, well—formal—and much prefer Chatham Bars’ more laid-back beachhouse restaurant just across the Shore Road.

That’s where we went this year and had a sumptuous buffet of mussels (I can’t get enough), swordfish, and risotto. And—oh—the desserts: tiny apricot tarts, mini cannoli, strawberries with crème fraiche.

So what did I wear? Comme toujours, I like to subvert native style, and donned a short coral tunic with brown bugle beading around the neckline (by Michael Kors), stone-colored shorts cut to show off my pumped quads from the great hill jogging (yes, I have leg vanity too), and my Chie Mihara gray sandals.

Hippie/boho luxe, if I had to attach a label.