Captain Parker’s Pub

Captain Parker’s is parked alongside shopping centers off of the the main strip in Yarmouth. Scenery-wise, it can’t compete with some of the beachside fish houses on the Cape; but for those who find beauty in old barrooms, it’s a lovely and gregarious place to have a fish lunch. In fair weather, there is an outdoor patio with distant views of Plashes Brook.

For just a beer and some fish, Captain Parker’s would be a nice neighborhood bar, though not necessarily worth driving out of the way for. It’s the chowder that makes Captain Parker’s Pub an icon of American cookery. It is a hall-of-fame inductee in all three of the “triple-crown” of New England chowder cook-offs: Boston, Cape Cod, and Newport.

Captain Parker’s chowder isn’t great just because of a special recipe. The cooks take time to build flavor. They start making it fresh every day at 6:00 am to be ready for lunch. This chowder is the thickest we’ve seen and has a silver tint from rich concentration of clam liquor. It’s dotted with specks of coarse black pepper. Every bite yields tender clams and firm potatoes. Don’t bother with a cup. You need a bowl.

Little bottles of Tabasco are provided, and while it’s  usually a favorite dressing, we thought it threw off the soup’s perfect balance. We wouldn’t even add a sprinkle of black pepper or oyster crackers. The only thing this chowder needs is a spoon. If we had to find fault in it, we could caution that it may be too thick and rich for some tastes. We loved it.

Beyond chowder, there is a wide assortment of pub grub and fish house classics. The New England classic, baked scrod, isn’t a fish; it’s a dish: white fish, often cod, baked with bread crumbs. Captain Parker’s is moist, maybe even a bit underdone, with sherry aromas wafting from the buttery crumb. It is decent bar food, but we probably would have preferred just going a second round with the chowder. It’s that good.

If your group is small and you don’t have children with you, we recommend eating at the bar. It’s a jovial place with reasonably priced drinks and local flavor. Check out the collections of golf balls and patches from first responders that decorate the bar area.