A new restaurant is coming to Main Street in Vineyard Haven.
Local restaurateur Joseph Monteiro is aiming for a mid-May debut of his 9 Craft Kitchen and Bar in Vineyard Haven, at the 9 Main St. location currently occupied by Copper Anchor.
Monteiro is still working on his menu for 9, but says that it will feature Asian, Peruvian, and Italian cuisines.
Monteiro is the current owner of 19 Raw Oyster Bar and 19 Prime Cast Iron Steakhouse in Edgartown. He says that his new restaurant will stand out in Vineyard Haven. “After owning 19 Raw and 19 Prime, I felt like a restaurant of that caliber is needed in Vineyard Haven. Anything like that doesn’t exist,” Monteiro says. “I want to bring something … inspiring and elegant to the town.”
With his 40-year career in restaurants in mind, Monteiro is also looking forward to channeling his experience in new ways at 9. “I’ve done Asian, I’ve done Spanish, I’ve done Italian. I’ve done it all,” Monteiro says. “We just want to have a little bit of creativity with some of that stuff.”
The new menu will be informed by Monteiro’s other restaurants. “We want to infuse a little bit of Raw into 9, a little of Prime into 9. We want some steak, some oysters, some local fresh fish,” he says.
Monteiro is also working on a wine program and cocktail program for 9 Craft Kitchen and Bar.
Monteiro hopes to start remodeling the 130-person-capacity location when he takes over its lease on April 1. He wants 9 to have a similar design to his other restaurants, and for its patrons to feel at home. “With the kitchen and dining room remodeling, we will make it fresh, cleaner, and crisp throughout. A little bit more modern, but a little more comfortable,” he says.
According to Monteiro, his plans to open 9 originated over the winter, and somewhat suddenly. “We weren’t looking to open anything new … One thing turned into another,” he says.
9 Craft is taking over at the Copper Anchor, which is moving from Vineyard Haven.
Copper Anchor opened in 2014 as Copper Wok under Year-Round Restaurant Group owner J.B. Blau. It’s provided pan-Asian cuisine and seafood. Blau and Monteiro previously collaborated on Loft & Pizza di Napoli in Oak Bluffs.
In a statement to The MV Times, Blau wrote that Copper Anchor’s top 15 best-selling menu items, and its sushi chef, will be moving to Blau’s Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Co. in Oak Bluffs. “We feel this is the perfect time for new energy and creativity to enter the market, and for us to focus solely on our operations in Oak Bluffs,” Blau stated. Blau added that he has committed to keeping the entire Copper Anchor staff.
“I’m very proud of the work we did in Tisbury,” he stated, noting his work at Copper Anchor and the effort to deregulate alcohol in the town: “In 2013, when we signed our first lease, there was no hard alcohol, and you had to order food to get a drink. Over the next 10 years, a devoted group of us made changes that will set Tisbury up to thrive in the future.”
I was hoping we were going to have an affordable restaurant company move in there. Like the rest of the island nothing seems to be affordable for Islanders anymore and it’s all being catered to the wealthy visitor. If he brings his menu prices along with his menus from his Edgartown Restaurant, he is not looking to attract Islanders.
On the plus side the value of Islander’s real estate keeps going up.
Borrow on it and get a winter place in Florida.
If you can’t afford the Island you made a poor location decision.
The Island has always been expensive, they all are.
Your comment shows your lack of understanding of the Vineyard’s community and its past. Many islanders never “chose” to live on an expensive island. Rather, their families have been here for generations and have well established histories in the island’s past. I also strongly disagree with your comment that the island has always been expensive. That is false. Just a generation ago, someone who grew up on Martha’s Vineyard was able to secure a job and purchase or build a home. Sadly, that is no longer true. I know this as a fact from first hand experience. Those “choosing” to now purchase homes on MV at inflated prices do not make up the core of true islanders and respectfully never will.
Of course you chose where you live as an adult. Why is it that the offspring of island families that have been here for “generations” can’t seem to make ends meet yet those from other countries move here and flourish?
I have some understanding, my children were born here.
More native born islanders leave than stay.
What percentage of the kids in Island Schools parents were born here?
My Children can well afford an Island House, they have chosen elsewhere they are boat drivers, they are true Islanders.
Respectfully, you appear to have so much Island knowledge, when did you arrive?
It would be nice if something affordable and family oriented went in there. And open year round. There’s nowhere affordable local year rounders can go.
Agree in principle, but in fact, a couple of places DO offer affordable off-season specials at select times: MV Chowder Co. in OB has it’s Sunday/Monday burger or chicken sandwich plate (generous, really tasty burgers too!) for 7.99 if you get on the text list; Barn Bowl & Bistro in OB does something similar, incl. an 8.99 burger special some nights – all are off season offerings. And there’s the off-season 2-for-1 Monday night deal at Offshore Ale in OB. Others probably also out there, these are ones we use or will.
What’s considered “family/local restaurant pricing ?? The biz owners have to cover their respective overheads to keep the lights on MV restaurants have always been pricey but also run specials. They need to pick their target customer base & build
Lots of people open restaurants, it isn’t so complicated. Why not open your own affordable restaurant?
Mary, that is hysterical. Obviously you’ve never opened a restaurant and the restaurant business has one of the highest failure rates of any business. People think because they have eaten out all their lives, They know how to run a restaurant. The restaurants that do survive generally own the building as well. As landlords always want current market rates for rent, and then the restaurant owner gives up. Then another person comes along and tries and then decides they don’t wanna work for the landlord either so they give up.
“Obviously you’ve never opened a restaurant and the restaurant business has one of the highest failure rates of any business.”
That is one of the things that makes restaurants so expensive.
I have not lived on the island for many years(MVRHS) class of 1975. I would like to suggest that someone make a list of all the affordable year-round restaurants and shops, so people will know the money stays within the island communities.
I still visit the island in the summer for the day only due to high rental prices and when people ask me where I’m from.I’ll first tell them don’t go crazy it is and always will be a blue collar island,the wealth only come in the summer.