Each month, we visit a new food spot thanks to the folks at Surprenant, Beneski & Nunes, an estate & elder planning law firm who wanted to shine a spotlight on all of the hardworking folks working in the restaurant world. This month, that meant a visit to Loafy Lark, a hidden gem in Wareham...
Tucked away on Cranberry Highway in East Wareham is a little breakfast place that blew our socks off. Sure, you can get pancakes, waffles and egg bennies like at most breakfast joints. BUT you can also get versions with a twist of Thai flair. The Thai Panang Benedict, for example, gives you an explosion of flavor and protein: chicken, lime, basil along with the panang curry hollandaise sauce, all sitting atop an English muffin made in-house.
That in itself would be worth a visit. But then you learn the pedigree of the food. Owners Tyson and Faye Wardwell are both seasoned chefs with longtime cooking experience in the most award winning restaurants in Boston: Chickadee, Oleana, Row 34, and Asta.
They approach breakfast with the same high end cut-no-corners approach. Take their chicken and waffles with honey butter and hot honey. All are made from scratch. But more than that. The fried chicken, the crunchiest you’ve ever had, is a three-day process. On the first day, they trim and brine the chicken thighs overnight. On day two, they soak the chicken overnight in buttermilk. On day three, they par fry the chicken. The second fry when it’s ready to come to your table is what kicks it over the edge to crispy deliciousness. The dish is amazing. You could eat it for breakfast, for dinner, for your last meal and be happy.
That kind of care and attention goes into everything they make. The Japanese pumpkin waffles are not made with pumpkin puree from a can. Oh, no. They are made from fresh Japanese pumpkins. The pork, like the chicken, goes through a 3 day nurturing process of seasoning, roasting and resting before it makes it to your plate.
The 350 pounds of potatoes they go through each week? All cut by hand for home fries. The kimchi? The mango habanero hot sauce? The salsa verde? The maple butter sauce? All made from scratch.
“We love to eat,” says Faye. “And we want you to eat what we love to eat.”
Tyson and Faye were just looking to open a breakfast and lunch spot they could open far away from Boston traffic, with enough time to take in a round of golf after lunch service and maybe take some time off in the winter for snowboarding. We’re lucky they found the South Coast. Open since February, they’ve already got a devoted following. The line is out the door on Sunday mornings.
But if there’s a line, don’t hesitate. It’s worth the wait. And Faye’s breakfast philosophy is important to keep in mind: “you start your day nice,” she says, “it’ll be nice all day.”
Loafy Lark, 3103 Cranberry Highway, East Wareham.
Photography by Liam Connor Photography.
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Last post in the series: Eat Gnarly Market in Tiverton is a special place. Joel and Ester Bishop bought the space to be a commercial kitchen and cook prepared meals to go from the cuts of meat they weren't selling much. Then Ester realized that people could have an experience and eat right there. Read more here.