Tern & Table
(978) 555-0163Reserve a table
Wood-paneled dining room at dusk with pendant bulbs, a hanging wooden boat, and a person silhouetted against a window

Water Street, Newburyport, Massachusetts

A short menu, a wood fire, and whatever the boats brought in.

Forty-eight seats a block up from the water. One fire does nearly all of the cooking, the menu changes when the boats and the farms change it, and dinner runs Tuesday through Sunday with brunch on Sunday.

Reserve a tableSee the menu
  • Newburyport
  • Dinner Tue–Sun, 5 to 10
  • Cooked over one fire
Close-up of orange flames burning inside a domed brick wood-fired oven

Our story

Two of us, one fire, and forty-eight chairs

Maren Holloway cooked in other people's kitchens for eleven years before she found this room. Dev Achterberg found the chairs, most of them secondhand and none of them matching. We opened in the spring of 2017 with one menu, one fire, and no second thoughts about how small it was.

Almost everything comes off a short list: three boats out of the harbor, two farms up the river, a dairy in the next county. When one of them has something good it goes on the menu that week, and when it runs out it comes off. That is the whole system, and it is why the menu is never long.

See what is on this week

Tonight, in short

Six lines off this week's menu. The rest of it, drinks included, is on the menu page.

To start

  • Oysters on ice GF$18

    Half a dozen out of the river, shallot and cider mignonette.

  • Chowder$14

    Clams, potato, cream, more black pepper than you expect.

  • Bread and butter$12

    Baked at four o'clock, cultured butter, flaky salt.

From the fire

  • The catch GFMP

    Whatever came in that morning, cooked whole over coals.

  • Roast half chicken$32

    Bread salad, pan juices, watercress.

  • Charred leeks and white beans V$28

    Salsa verde, cream, a lot of pepper.

V vegetarian · GF gluten free · MP market price, which is what the boat charged that morning.

The rest of it is on the menu.

Dinner, the drinks list, and whatever changed this week.

See the full menu

The room

Six pictures of an ordinary night. There are more, plates included, on the gallery page.

  • Round wood table set for two by a window, with glassware, cutlery, and a sheepskin-draped chair
    A table for two at the front window
  • Sunlight streaming through a large window onto a long wood dining table stacked with books
    The long table, before anybody sits at it
  • Row of pale stools beneath five hanging pendant lamps along a lit wood counter
    The bar: five lamps and eight stools
  • Wine glasses hanging upside down from an overhead rack, backlit by warm amber light
    Glasses over the bar
  • Wine glasses and a small flower on a white-clothed table beside a dark booth and a window
    The booth in the corner, which everybody asks for
  • Close-up of an ornate iron door handle and lock plate on a weathered wood door
    The front door, which sticks in August

A regular's word

  • I have had the catch about forty times and it has never once been the same fish. That is the part I would tell somebody. You sit down, you ask what came in, and whoever is on the floor tells you the name of the boat.

    CorinneMost Thursdays since 2018

Hours and directions

Fourteen Water Street, between the chandlery and the bank. Green door, no sign worth speaking of, and the dining room is level with the sidewalk.

The municipal lot on Green Street is one block up and free after six; the meters on Water Street run until eight. Call if you are running late and we will hold the table.

14 Water Street
Newburyport, MA 01950

(978) 555-0163

Open now · closes 2:00 PM

Tuesday
5:00 PM–10:00 PM
Wednesday
5:00 PM–10:00 PM
Thursday
5:00 PM–10:00 PM
Friday
5:00 PM–10:00 PM
Saturday
5:00 PM–10:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM–2:00 PM
5:00 PM–10:00 PM

Dinner Tuesday to Sunday, and brunch on Sunday from ten until two. Closed Monday.

Book a table.

A few days ahead is usually enough. For six or more, give us a week.

Request a table