Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #31: Wall Crickets, Recycling Payouts, Voided Steaks, etc.

1. The other night I was trying to sleep when I heard the sound of a cricket outside my window. I figured it was close by but eventually, it got quiet so it had to have hopped away right? The next night I started hearing the cricket again but this time closer. At first, I thought it was in my wall. It turned out it was on my windowsill, but it was obscured by the towels I packed around my air conditioner so that no cool air leaked out. Once I figured that out it was game over, I peeled back one of the towels and sprayed a little Raid in there, and I haven’t heard the cricket since. Of course, the joke will likely be on me in a few weeks when I take the a/c out and a dead cricket lands on my foot.

2. I was listening to a favorite podcast of mine this week. The host was answering questions from his listeners. One question asked what the best way was to remember/honor a loved one who had passed away. The host’s answer has stuck with me ever since. He said to try to live the life that your loved one who had passed want for you. It made me step back and seriously reassess my current life.

3. I know I have mentioned it before in these blogs but I have to reiterate how much I love the downtempo music. It is like a shot of good vibes to my brain and also helps me relax, write, and think. It’s to the point that my Pandora station has at least a few dozen ‘thumbs up’ songs. I’ll put a favorite of mine at the end if you want to dip your toes in.

4. For the first time in 5 years I planned an overnight road trip. I am headed to Northern New Hampshire to stay at a place I stayed at in 2012. I can’t believe it’s been so long since I spent a night off of Cape Cod. My only hope is this return trip to Lincoln, NH goes better than the last. Oh don’t get me wrong the place I stayed was amazing, and the places I visited were as well. The only problem was that I drove all the way up there and forgot my memory card for my camera so I had to use my iPhone 3. Not exactly high quality.

Hoping to get lots of much higher-quality photos this time!

5. Being semi-smart I actually (re)signed up for AAA before my trip up to New Hampshire. I got the Plus package half-off, what a deal, $51!? Now I almost hope I blow a tire or lock my keys in my car. Almost.

6. I follow that last thought up with being semi-stupid. I scanned a steak at a supermarket and the sale price didn’t come up. I asked for help and the employee came by and voided the original scan. He then scanned the steak again and put in the sale price. I was only half paying attention and saw 2 steaks listed on the screen not realizing one had been voided. So when I asked ‘what about that steak?’ he calmly said ‘I just voided it you’re all set sir.’ I hung my head and apologized before leaving. The steak was good by the way, to end the story on a happy note.

7. When out for a run on the bike trail I was getting passed by, and then passing, a mother and her young daughter who was probably 7 on their bikes a few times. The daughter seemed really nervous when getting to road crossings and her mother had to coax her across. After seeing this once it was happening again at another crossing and instead of running past I slowed down and looked at the daughter and said ‘don’t worry I’ll walk across with you too.’ She slowly followed her mother across and I was on my way. It doesn’t take much effort to be a compassionate human.

8. I take my bottles to the supermarket to recycle them. I typically take a few weeks to fill a trash bag with plastic liter bottles. Each time I go I end up leaving with about $1.25 on a receipt. Rather than go right into the store and cash it I try to wait until I have a less embarrassing amount to get. This week I took roughly 4 months' worth of recycling receipts into the supermarket to cash in. My total? A whopping $14.10. What is my plan for it? This is the only time I will buy scratch tickets. I’ll likely lose on them all, but hey it’s basically free money so whatever.

9. With 3 full days of vacation coming up I am well aware of, and prepared for, needing to hit the gym hard upon my return to Cape Cod. I plan on driving a lot and taking tons of photos and videos. One thing I don’t plan on doing is any formal exercise. That coupled with ‘enjoying’ the restaurants of each area I visit means it’ll be running and weights aplenty starting next weekend.

10. A highlight of the week for me was recording a foolish video filled with inside jokes for my oldest friend while on a run on the bike trail. Part of it consisted of me angrily yelling at a butterfly for not staying still to allow me to get a photo. Too bad the people going by while I filmed didn’t get the memo that it was a joke, I looked like I needed to be sent to the nut house.

David Arkenstone - Falling Stars

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Dorsie's Steak House, West Yarmouth

    This legendary establishment along the high-traffic Route 28 in Yarmouth had a dedication to great entertainment and terrific food. Its status as a place to be was in part thanks to the tireless efforts of its larger-than-life owner. For nearly two decades, George “Dorsie” Carey ran his eponymous steak house in two separate locations along Route 28, creating buzz around town with his entertainment and cuisine. 

    Carey had come to the Cape from Dorchester. And no, this was not how he got the nickname Dorsie. That nickname was bestowed on him by his niece while they were living in the same three-story building in the historic Boston neighborhood. She could not pronounce the name George, and as it usually came out “Dorsie,” the name stuck with him. Carey had another nickname that became the name of a restaurant—“Handlebar Harry”—due to his handlebar mustache. He opened Handlebar Harry’s in Plymouth with his wife, Louise Houston, in 1991.

Dorsie's when it was still the Gay Nineties.

    Dorsie’s began as a much smaller restaurant located at 183 Route 28 in West Yarmouth, near the iconic Mill Hill Club in 1974. Business took off over the next few years. The landlord of the property decided after the 1978 season to increase the rent for the property by 400 percent, from $8,500 per month to $35,000. This shocking increase set off a chain reaction that ended up taking Dorsie’s to new heights.

    Carey searched all along Route 28, from Hyannis to Bass River, in the hopes of finding a new location. One of his regular customers at the restaurant was, in fact, the owner of an establishment called the Gay Nineties located half a mile away on Route 28. After hearing of Carey’s plight, the owner sold the Gay Nineties building to him on a handshake. On the night of July 3, 1979, Carey, his staff, close friends, and some of the Yarmouth Police worked through the night and moved all of the equipment from the original Dorsie’s down the street and into its new home.

Inside Dorsie's

    “We were opened July Fourth,” Carey proudly reflected, “although there was no food service until July Fifth.”

    The hard work of finding the new location paid off.

    The new, larger Dorsie’s had a lot more space for patrons and entertainment. There were three unique function rooms at this location. There was the Cranberry Room, which was located over the main dining room. It was totally self-contained and seated 60 people. There was the Nineties Room, which had an 1890s motif as a nod to the former Gay Nineties Restaurant. This sat 200 people. Finally, there was the Waterwheel Room, which was the primary function room. It sat an impressive 350 people and was complete with its own banquet kitchen.

    There was always something going on as far as entertainment went at Dorsie’s, including an up-and-coming Jay Leno plying his trade in the Waterwheel Room. Leno had been contracted to play another legendary establishment in West Dennis called the Golden Anchor. However, that place was sold before he could perform, so Leno’s contract was given to Dorsie’s. He was given the gate while the restaurant kept what the bar brought in.

The front entrance

    Diane Dexter, who played piano and sang at Dorsie’s starting in 1981, has fond memories of her time playing there as well as the man behind it all.

    “I worked in their main lounge on a grand piano as a solo act,” she recalled, “playing and singing standards and pop/folk/country/rock songs that were popular at the time.”

    Dexter also recalls the Dorsieland Ragtime Review, a Dixieland band that played in the Gay Nineties Room and was a very popular attraction. As for Carey himself, Dexter remembered that he was “always very good with people.”

    The one thing that put Dorsie’s over the top was its affordably priced food. The establishment did a tremendous liquor business, which Carey wisely reinvested in his menu. Marinated steak tips, steak teriyaki, and prime rib were the biggest sellers, made even better by the fact that the meat would be cut and cooked at the Pit, right out in the dining room. Customers could watch while their food was prepared before their eyes. It only added to the uniqueness of Dorsie’s.

    After years of successfully running his mid-Cape complex, Carey yearned for a change. He got that chance when Cordage Park in Plymouth, which converted buildings into a mall in the 1980s, came calling. Carey sold Dorsie’s in 1990, and it became a Lambert’s Farm Market. In 1991, Carey opened Handlebar Harry’s, which became the anchor of the mall. It was tremendously popular in its own right and ran until 2003.

    Today, George “Dorsie” Carey is retired, but even more than thirty years after Dorsie’s closed its doors, he still has people coming up to him and wanting to reminisce about those good old days. As of 2022, Antiques Center of Yarmouth stands where Dorsie’s once did.

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Previous Blog Posts:

Cape Cod History - The First Cape Cod Canals

Searching for the Lady of the Dunes

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