Relish, the westernmost food store on Commercial Street, is especially notable for baked goods that unfailingly induce reckless temptation. The front of its signature T-shirt says simply, “Hey Cupcake.” And that’s all you need to know.
The Historic District Survey places the date of construction at 1780 (that seems way too early to me) and identifies the building as having once been the J. Nickerson Store, presumably that of Capt. Joshua Nickerson (d 1927). Nickerson was married to Angelia Freeman (±1854-1942), who was “born, lived her girlhood years and received her early education in the Long Point village” (“Old Resident Dies, Born on Point,” The Advocate, 12 March 1942). Her parents were Prince and Eliza Freeman.
In the 1930s, Marion “Bert” Perry (b ±1902) — the nephew of Capt. Marion “Bertie” Perry of Rose Dorothea fame (who lived across the street) — opened Perry’s Market here. The street number was No. 91 at the time, but that later was assigned to the house constructed on what had been an open lot, shown in the black-and-white picture below. Perry’s made it through the shortages caused by World War II, as seen in the 1943 ad below, and into the 1960s. By the early 1990s, the storefront tenant was a food store known as T. R. Scherer, highlighted by Gillian Drake in The Complete Guide to Provincetown for “freshly baked French and sourdough bread daily,” among other gourmand enticements. The market was also known as the Seaside Deli.
The artist Frank Vasello (Provincetown Artist Registry) and two partners opened Relish in 2001. “Now the sole owner, Frank makes it clear that he is not a chef but a dedicated ‘foodie’ who uses his own palette and learned skills along with those of his crew, Mark Bucholz, Nathan Butera and Robert Murphy to create the range of offerings that has made Relish so successful,” Peter F. Demers wrote for One New England (25 April 2011). Vasello is also the chairman of the town Cultural Council, in which role he has championed the creation of an AIDS memorial on the grounds of Town Hall.
The residential part of the building is called the Waterfront West Condominium.
Building Provincetown 