Beach Plum Inn & Restauraunt — Hotel in Chilmark

The Saltwater Challenge.||Our September visit happened to coincide with an annual charity event that the Beach Plum has been doing largely on its own for a decade: while the island celebrates its fishing derby, the inn sponsors nearly a dozen veterans who had been wounded, and their families, for a 48-hour plus stay and fishing excursions...meals, transportation, activities, gifts (including letters of greeting and gratitude from local schoolkids). You name it. Quietly and without self-aggrandizing acclaim. For the vets, the lobby is lined with handmade welcome signs, piles of fresh-made cookies and saltwater taffy.||On the first night, at the welcome dinner, a man who had been pinned down under gunfire and grievously wounded in Afghanistan hugged the man who had saved him that day...and whom he hadn't seen since.||Seriously, in the face of heart-cracking moments like these, after seeing these vets and their kids laughing and looking relaxed, you're gonna bitch about your overpriced omelet--which helps pay for the Challenge??||The Beach Plum's largesse, warmth, sensitivity and thoughtfulness was remarkable and we felt, by sheer happenstance, privileged to bear witness to this stunning event.||Early one morning a vet who was gazing at the view greeted me by saying, "Just another day in Paradise!"||All that said:||We were there to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and couldn't have been happier with our choice. Our Morning Glory cottage was simple and yet perfect, with everything we needed...light, airy, super-clean. I'm a noise nut...and the inn and grounds were very quiet. The views, as you know, are lovely. ||We got excellent advice: walk down their beach patch, order a Sunset Special lobster takeout meal from Menemsha Fish House (or Larsens), and join the crowd on the beach to celebrate the evening spectacle, applauding when the sun goes down. Walk back to your cottage.||We thought the breakfasts were ample and delicious, and didn't mind paying. ||The property is large and ambling, with lots of quiet places to plop, stop, gaze, read. ||And the staff?? I can't imagine where those who have complained were staying...certainly not at the same inn we were. We found everyone to be incredibly enthusiastic, thoughtful, fun and helpful...all the more surprising given how tired they must have been, having come through the nonstop July/August tourist onslaught.||||Shout out to Mo, Macarena, Rachel and, of course, Sarah. Apologies to those whose names I didn't catch.||And...

Enjoyed our stay at Beach Plum and agree with much that has been said here about it. Beautiful, quiet location with great views of the Sound and excellent breakfasts on the lovely patio. Quirky service and house issues detracted some, but still overall a special place. Evelyn’s house, a small cottage, was a perfect space for the five of us and allowed us to cook a couple of meals with fish purchased from Menemsha Harbor, with a stunning sunset view, right from our dinner table. Enjoyed the farm presence, with cows visiting in the morning and roosters to wake us up. The accommodations were a bit more rustic than anticipated. Charming and functional, but this cottage is not air conditioned and it got quite uncomfortable during the day and into the early evening (I assume rooms in the Inn do have A/C). Perhaps inevitable for the setting, but we encountered a lot of ants in the house. And there were lots of little maintenance items that should have been checked out and corrected before the season began. Staff was friendly, but most seemed new and unknowledgeable (where to eat out, where to get groceries, where/how to use pass for island’s most beautiful beach). Virginia, at Menemsha Inn, was very helpful by phone, in advance of our stay, but the connection between Beach Plum and Menemsha is unclear and we did not find the same level of helpfulness from the Beach Plum staff. All were friendly, but it would have been nice to get more, and more accurate, guidance. Judging from the breakfasts (not included in room price), the dinners at Beach Plum are probably quite nice. Unfortunately, we were surprised to find that they were not yet serving dinner during the first week of July. Beach Plum could and should be a 5-star, but falls a...

I really felt disappointed by this stay. The location of the hotel is lovely. However, the management is exceptionally lacking. The carbon monoxide alarm went off for a long time in the middle of night and woke up the whole hotel until the manager/staff drove over to shut it off (one of the other guests kindly called them) -- no communication about it, no apologies the next day. The room above dropped a glass that shattered outside our porch door. I asked the front desk to pleas clean up the glass shards in the morning, and at 8pm it was still not taken care of. Just an accident waiting to happen. There were cockroaches in our bathroom at night. There were a number of other issues (e.g., the fridge was broken and froze all of our food solid -- we had to throw many items away). For the price, I'd expect much more. On top of all this, there was an issue about how much we were charged that I needed to resolve with the manager, that we raised multiple times. She said she would follow up, and never did. In the end I was told to email her, but my multiple emails about reaching her have all been ignored -- literally no response. They advertise themselves also as a "top" MV wedding venue, and I can't possibly imagine anyone having success with holding a wedding here, given all the communication mishaps and poor attention to detail. I think this hotel has potential, but I would not recommend it...