Liz’s Cafe, Anybody’s Bar | Formerly Devons’s Food Bar, Devon’s Deep Sea Dive, Carreiro’s Tip for Tops’n Restaurant, Anybody’s Market
Liz’s Cafe, 31 Bradford Street. [2018, Dunlap]
The geodesic dome at left is a Covid isolation pod. [2021, Dunlap]
In its days as Devon’s Food Bar. [2016, Dunlap]
The classic Tip for Tops’n. [2009, Dunlap]
As Anybody’s Market in 1942 in a photo by John Collier. [Ben Kettlewell / Facebook / Provincetown Diaspora / 17 August 2021]
Anybody’s Market in 1942. [Salvador R. Vasques III / Facebook / My Grandfathers Provincetown / 24 July 2015]
Tip for Tops’n, with the Pilgrim Monument in the distance. [2008, Dunlap]
Tip for Tops’n had a distinctly maritime character. [2009, Dunlap]
[2009, Dunlap]
[2009, Dunlap]
Detail of an advertisement.
Tip for Tops’n was also a proudly Portuguese institution. [2008 and 2011, Dunlap]
[2009, Dunlap]
Left: A side of linguiça. [2011, Dunlap] Right: Dinner specials. [2009, Dunlap]
Place mat. [Salvador R. Vasques III / Facebook / My Provincetown Memorabilia Collection / 13 January 2019]
Guest check from the final years.
Model of F/V Silver Mink.[2009, Dunlap]
Details of the model of F/V Shirley & Roland. [2012, Dunlap]
A shad and the model of an unidentified trawler. [2012, Dunlap]
Ship models were integral to the décor at Tips. [2012, Dunlap]
This terrifyingly large lobster weighed 28 pounds. [2009, Dunlap]
Looking straight up at the 28-pounder. [2012, Dunlap]
A striped bass and a bluefin tuna flanked the kitchen pass-through. [2009, Dunlap]
The bluefin tuna in daylight. [2012, Dunlap]
Appropriately, a cod. [2009, Dunlap]
A bonefish caught by E. Scott Carreiro off Long Key, Florida. [2012, Dunlap]
[2012, Dunlap]
Nighttime quiet. [2011, Dunlap]
The end of the run for Tips. [2013, Dunlap]
Devon’s Deep Sea Dive replaced Tips. [2013, Dunlap]
Each side of Devon’s sign. [2015 and 2016, Dunlap]
As Devon’s Food Bar, the décor changed radically. [2016, Dunlap]
Liz’s Cafe opened in 2017. This is a detail of a matchbook cover.
Liz Lovati. [2021, Dunlap]
[2018 and 2019, Dunlap]
Home page of the Liz’s Cafe website in 2023. [lizscafeptown.com]
[2019, Dunlap]
[2021, Dunlap]
[2019, Dunlap]
[2019, Dunlap]
In the décor for Lovati, Ken Fulk included charming features like the old Town Crier Shop map of Cape Cod. [2019, Dunlap]
The dory bar. [2019, Dunlap]
[2019, Dunlap]
Details of the men’s room. [2019, Dunlap]
Mini geodesic domes isolated patrons so that service could continue during the Covid pandemic. [2021, Dunlap]
Even the Covid enclosures displayed imagination. [2021, Dunlap]
Partitions were also added to the dining room during Covid. [2021, Dunlap]
Liz’s Cafe paid homage to Tips for Tops’n. [2021, Dunlap]
[2019 and 2021, Dunlap]
Flippers — the author’s absolute favorite. [2021, Dunlap]
You know the joint is good; the locals eat there. Paul Mendes at left and Peter Robert Cook at right. [2019 and 2021, Dunlap]
I can smell the cup of coffee waiting for me. [2021, Dunlap]
[2022, Dunlap]
[2021, Dunlap]
From the name (“Tip of the Cape for Tops in Service”) to the nautical décor to the satisfyingly good Portuguese food, Carreiro’s Tip for Tops’n was a throwback in every sense except its popularity. Ernest L. Carreiro Sr. (1908-1961), a native of São Miguel in the Azores, ran Anybody’s Market in this building until the early 1950s, when he opened Tip. The business was acquired in 1966 by Edward C. “Babe” Carreiro (1926-2008) of New Bedford, who had skippered Jenny B, and his wife, Eva Elizabeth Grace (Cook) Carreiro (1925-2000). It passed to their sons Joseph Carreiro and Gerald E. “Jerry” Carreiro (1944-2009), whose widow, Joyce, ran the business until the end, in 2013.
Devon Ruesch renovated the property, keeping much of the décor, and reopened it as Devon’s Deep Sea Dive. A more radical redecoration produced the short-lived Devon’s Food Bar.
Liz Lovati, the proprietor of Angel Foods, 467 Commercial Street, took over the place in 2017. Ken Fulk, the owner of the Mary Heaton Vorse House, 466 Commercial Street, redesigned the restaurant as a welcoming, airy, Cape Cod diner, complete with a dory bar. It’s one of the more popular restaurants in town, appealing both to residents who have never forgotten Tip for Tops’n and well-heeled washashores who never knew it existed.
Daniel Clark wrote on 4 May 2012: Ate here many a time. Love it; especially for breakfast.
Leo Gracie wrote on 8 January 2019: Babe, Jerry, Joey — they were the best. Joyce, too. Always that smiling youthful face, ringing up sales. “Party of two. Window?”
¶ Last updated on 4 January 2023.
In memoriam
• Edward C. “Babe” Carreiro (1926-2008)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 111401658.
• Ernest L. Carreiro Sr. (1908-1961)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 128671152.
• Eva Elizabeth Grace (Cook) Carreiro (1925-2000)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 106333839.
• Gerald E. “Jerry” Carreiro (1944-2009)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 111401783.
31 Bradford Street on the Town Map, showing property lines.