Michael Shay’s Rib and Seafood House
This is the breakfast club for a who’s who of old Provincetown. (Try the flippers and linguiça. You won’t have to eat again until tomorrow.) How did they arrive at “Michael Shay’s”? The name ought to be Santos, after the family that’s run the restaurants on this site since 1948, when Basil P. Santos and his wife, Gloria E. (Silva) Santos, opened the Captain’s Galley. In 1954, it became an orange-roofed Howard Johnson’s franchise, but prided itself as being a “rather unusual link” in the chain.
By the early ’80s, the HoJo connection was played down in favor of Basil’s Place restaurant (or simply, Basil’s) and the Greenery bar, later the Buttery Bar & Grille. More recently, it’s been Michael Shay’s Rib and Seafood House; said to be the largest restaurant in town, with 234 seats. Basil and Gloria’s son Michael W. Santos is one of the owners and his wife, Shay Santos, runs the place. And that’s how they arrived at Michael Shay’s.
Building Provincetown 