View, menu draw diners to a smaller Flying Bridge

Sitting on the deck at The Flying Bridge Restaurant, watching boats bob gently in Falmouth Harbor under a blue sky studded with puffy white clouds, it’s easy to see why people are willing to wait an hour to eat here.

“We don’t take reservations. It’s first-come, first-served. So we always have a waiting list. It’s a nice spot. People wander around and we call them when we have a table,” says owner Bill Zammer.

With six feet needed between tables this summer to meet COVID-19-related social-distancing requirements, seating capacity outdoors and inside is down to about 225 of the usual 600 seats for lunch and dinner.

That reduced seating and the time required to give each table and chair a thorough cleaning does mean longer-than-normal wait times, Zammer says. But the kitchen has streamlined some procedures to get meals out faster once people are seated.

Stuart E. Cote, who has worked at The Flying Bridge for 29 years and as executive chef for the last 24, elaborates on how they've done it.

“Some dishes require six pans for the various ingredients. We call that a six-pick. So in streamlining, we aim to create dishes that are a two- or three-pick with ingredients that can be prepared ahead and heated in one pan while you saute the fish or meat in another.”

Cote points to new preparations of salmon and haddock dishes.

“The salmon dish has hummus, basil oil, roasted red peppers, roasted tomatoes, grilled artichokes, toasted pine nuts and fresh spinach. You just have to sear the salmon and assemble the dish. It’s delicious but it’s pretty quick,” he says.

The seared haddock is served with haricots verts (thin French green beans), tzatziki (yogurt-and-spices) sauce, pea shoots and edible flowers.

The chef adds, “Anything that can be prepared ahead without affecting the quality, that’s what we’re doing.”

Favorites like seafood stew remain on the menu, though Cote says he stopped serving seafood paella because the imported Spanish rice he likes to use to make it has gotten very expensive and preparing the dish is labor-intensive.

Cote says he is running the kitchen — sometimes 600 to 700 dinners a night — with a smaller staff this year, 12 to 15 people compared to the usual 24 to 26.

Zammer says he was surprised that he was unable to hire as many local servers as he hoped because people didn’t want to take the jobs.

With 50 wedding receptions postponed until next year, Zammer says, he could put dining tables on the upstairs enclosed porch normally used for events like receptions or rehearsal dinners. He's not doing that on a regular basis, he says, because he doesn’t want to add more work for the staff he has — or add to the serving time — by running food upstairs.

“And people really want to sit out on the deck or under the tent,” he writes in a text. “In inclement weather, we will utilize the upstairs.”

While diners this summer will notice the staff wearing masks, individually bagged utensils and rolls, and other safety precautions, they're unlikely to realize that employees' temperatures are taken at the start of each shift to ensure they're not sick and that kitchen workers now take several shorter breaks rather than one long one. Cote says that schedule allows them to go outside and get fresh air more often during a shift of cooking and washing dishes in the masks.

“If I had my druthers, I would have gone to sleep this April and woken up next April,” says Zammer about the changes, worries about illness and reduced business due to the pandemic.

“The reason I’m open is to keep my employees working and because the public wants its restaurants. I stay open to maintain my place,” says Zammer, who also owns Clancy’s in Dennis Port.

Zammer is not just philosophizing about a community’s need for restaurants, he’s looking at the numbers. When he sees dozens of names on the waiting list at the end of the night, he knows people have been putting their names in at several restaurants and going to the one that calls them first.

“And that’s fine because we always have people waiting,” Zammer says. “People want to eat out.”

The Flying Bridge Restaurant

220 Scranton Ave, Falmouth

508-548-2700; flyingbridgerestaurant.com

Hours: Open daily 1130 a.m. to 8 p.m.