Blue Flag Capital Seeks To Open Private Beachside Hotel Restaurant To The Public
JohnCarl McGrady •
In 2023, a proposal from the Beachside hotel’s new owners, Blue Flag Capital, to create a new 70-seat restaurant generated pushback from the community. The restaurant was ultimately approved by Nantucket’s Planning Board, but with the condition that it remain private, open only to the hotel’s guests. Now, three years later, as Blue Flag Capital seeks to expand footprint of the Beachside, it is also trying to open that restaurant up to the public.
“The Applicant believes that the Beachside has been well received by its neighbors and the broader community. Visitors were delighted by the design and happy with the choice to gear the hotel to families,” Blue Flag’s application submitted to the Planning Board reads in part. “The restaurant has been popular with hotel guests…opening the restaurant to the public would prove to be an amenity for the neighborhood where visitors could enjoy a relaxed meal in a beautiful setting close to home.”
The application will be heard by the Planning Board on August 10th. When the restaurant first came before the Board, some Planning Board members said they would have actually preferred for it to be open to the public, but criticism from neighbors motivated the Beachside to keep it restricted to guests only. Now, that could be changing.
The decision to open up the restaurant is part of a new round of changes at the 30 North Beach Street Beachside property, which was purchased by Blue Flag Capital for around $38 million in 2021.
Blue Flag is also replacing an existing 1,422-square-foot hotel building on the site with a much larger 3,575-square-foot structure, a significant increase in ground cover. Those plans have been approved by the Planning Board and Historic District Commission.
Representatives of Blue Flag declined to comment or provide any reasoning for the proposed changes.
Two years after buying the property, Blue Flag made a first round of improvements, including the restaurant and an expanded pool with a children’s area.