ABOUT US

Our Founder and North Star,
Napi Van Dereck

Napi was was born in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1932. He was better known by his nickname Napi which, legend has it, was given to him by his grandfather who thought the world needed a new Napoleon. 

Napi grew up and spent most of his life around artists and other creatives in Provincetown, the art colony with roots that go back to the days of Eugene O’Neil. His own father was an early modernist painter and a professor of art. A photograph of Napi hanging in his office shows him as a naked little boy intently watching his father at work. All of this instilled in Napi a deep curiosity and passion for the arts. He became an avid collector with an interest in works by local and underrepresented artists, and particularly women artists. 

Napi met his wife Helen in the summer of 1955. Together they opened an antiques shop on a land that housed a string of auto-garages. Two years later, when the couple decided to enter the restaurant business, Napi, began construction himself. Along the way, he enlisted the support of friends and talented townspeople including Jackson Lambert, Mike Bagley, Bob Baker, and many others. Using reclaimed and salvaged materials, skill and imagination were active partners in the construction. Discarded lumber from a salvage yard in Quincy provided quantities of yellow pine torn out of old factories in Boston. Refinished and given a second life, today's building gradually took shape. Esoteric antiques and local artwork became integral parts of the restaurant. Napi's vision, from the outset, was that the restaurant represent the town and the creative people who lived and worked here. A collector of close to 300 world-class paintings, his restaurant would be his own work of art.

Our dining rooms provide a visual feast of significant local art and craftsmanship. Among them are Conrad Malicoat’s unique brick mural, sculptures by Al Davis, cartoons from the pen of Howie Schneider, fine paintings by John Whorf, Sal Del Deo, George Yater, Frank Milby, and many more. Decades of the aesthetic tradition that has made Provincetown famous as a home for the arts are in full display here.

If Napi created the architecture and décor, it was Helen who built the menu incorporating Cape Cod dishes with a Mediterranean flair. We’re honored to feature some of the original dishes including the award winning Portuguese Kale Soup, New England Clam Chowder, and some other Mediterranean favorites. 

Napi was known to take his seat at the end of the bar each evening for his usual martini and chat with friends and patrons. His spirit along with his collaborative creation with Helen, known as the “most unusual restaurant in Provincetown,” endures and thrives today. We are honored
and proud to play an active part in upholding
that tradition.