Franklin Cafe Cape Ann

After the annoying surprise that Alchemy closed without notifying reservation holders, this place was extraordinary. Excellent cocktails (Moscow Mule with Bourbon Gimlet with pear vodka). Very fresh Wellfleet oysters. Creamy, chunky lobster ravioli. Surprisingly good, eclectic, and affordable wine list. Great bread pudding. Friendly, knowledgeable, attentive, and discrete wait staff.

I’m always looking for those secret local restaurants with creative fresh food. Hands down this is it! Look no further. Great atmosphere to come with friends or date night. So many unique amazing, delicious food combinations. Plus the staff is super friendly and just plain wonderful. I love this place and will come back to Gloucester just to come eat here!

Pork dumplings are excellent, fries amazing. Atmosphere is great, service prompt.

My husband and I hosted a rehearsal dinner for our son and his wife in August. The space upstairs was perfect. Maria was professional, knowledgeable and pleasant. She answered emails promptly. Our guest commented during the dinner about how good the food was and also after, suggesting when they are back in Boston they will be going the the South End Franklin for the Hanger steak. Maria took care of every detail. It was a pleasure planning the party and we had a wonderful event. Highly recommend!

Good food, service was great. I had the Chicken Primavera and it was delicious, good size portions too. Definitely recommend!

Four for 6:30 reservations last night.
Ahi Tuna was excellent
Hanger steak was tasty but tough, fries thin tasty,
Would not recommend
Drinks on the small portion but well prepared.
Limited selection of gin
Service: outstanding, waiter name Joe attentive great job.
Noise: made mistake of requesting window first floor,
Other side of band, headache when left.
Overall, will not rush back!

This is a GREAT restaurant for pleasing many type of palates. My family has people on diets, people who don’t eat meat, people who can’t eat spicy food, people who try to go low-​cal, etc. So it is often hard to find a restaurant that pleases everyone. BUT THIS IS THE PLACE. Excellent food and great variety. As a vegetarian, I was ever so happy to see a FULL vegetarian menu (I had the vegetable ragu which was delicious) and lots of tasty salads (I had the baby arugula salad, also very good). My mom had the semi-​boneless chicken, which she said was very tender. My dad had fish, which he seemed to enjoy. We had some awesome drinks and shared a very tasty dessert. Service was prompt, courteous, and attentive as well. All in all, a great restaurant! I highly recommend it.

We stayed in Gloucester for a week and this was by far the best place we ate.
The good:
— good drinks
— nice atmosphere — gastropub
— good menu selection — after a week in Gloucester/​rockport, there’s only so much fried seafood and lobster rolls one could take. This was a nice change up.
— I had the clam chowder which was very tasty
— for my entrée I had the cod with oyster mushrooms in a tasty sauce (almost like a light teriyaki) — delicious!
The bad:
— nothing I can recall
Thumbs up. A must-​stop in Gloucester if you want the whole package — food, atmosphere, service

Great food. Hummus stater tasty. Hanger steak superb. Pan seared halibut awesome with tasty mashed. Grilled swordfish steak over spinach superb. Nice molten chocolate cake with vanilla. Delish.

I love the Franklin. They serve food late and have a great vegan/​vegetarian/​gluten free menus. Friendly staff Andy nice atmosphere. Two thumbs up!

Love it! Great food, friendly service. Our go to place for a nice meal. $$$ …we did wish that they changed the menu more often. There are limited dishes available & with frequent visits this left us eating the same meal several times. Our favorite is the haddock & often would get 1 meal to split which they accommodate.
Good wine selection.

LOVE AT FIRST BITE — - ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE
Franklin Café opens at five o’clock so we went to Halibut Point State Park to build up and appetite. I’m glad we did. I called to make a reservation but I was told if we are there when they open, I would be seated. So, sure enough… seated with no problem. I noticed the customers that came in after us sat at the bar. I was happy with our seats.
They brought bread with Hummus and it was terrific. The Raw Oysters were nice and cold and delicious! We like crackers with our Raw Oysters so they brought some crust-ini’s and they were perfect. I read on Unilocal about the Marinated Grilled Calamari and the reviews were right… different, delicious and ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!
We shared a Pan Seared Cod dinner so we could try their Brussel Sprouts, Chive Mash, and a side order of Mushroom Risotto (comes with the Filet). They were very accommodating. Everything we had was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!
Thank you Franklin Café staff for a ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE evening!

Went for dinner last night and, for the first time, sat upstairs. Much less noise — which we loved– and more space among the tables so generally a more pleasant experience. Only complaint: chairs need to be re-​cushioned for comfort.
Food and drink as good as always. Service was good. Big surprise: there’s a great second bar upstairs! Who knew?!

Mussels — Yum
Arugula salad –Yum
Salmon w blood orange Burre blanc — YUM
Lamb stew –Yum
Service was excellent
We will be back soon!

We went for dinner on Friday night, without a reservation, and were promptly seated in their upstairs dining room. I ordered the baked haddock special and my companion had the chicken with apple cider reduction and butternut squash risotto. This was by far the best baked haddock that I have ever had — the breading was crunchy, the fish cooked perfectly, and the spicing divine. The haddock was served on a bed of heavenly chive mashed potatoes along with green beans. The only slight negative about my meal was that the green beans could have been cooked another minute longer — they were squeaky.
The service was very good and the upstairs diningroom is comfortable and stylish.
On our way out in the downstairs diningroom the jazz trio was playing. While the music was very good, I am glad that we ate upstairs where it was quieter. If one were at the downstairs bar, the music would have been most enjoyable.
Great place! I will be back.

Franklin’s surprised us… we just weren’t expecting it to be this good… the reviews are good, but the restaurant is worthy of better reviews in our humble opinion.
There was actually nothing we didn’t like… the service was attentive, the food was fabulous and we were never without drinks :-)
Really great place to eat and would most definitely recommend — we will be coming back!

I cannot return here quickly enough… Nice place, nice downtown setting, great full bar, interesting and varied menu, and very good service.
We arrived Friday to find a 1.5 hour wait but the host offered their last reservation for the following evening (which we took). Nice touch. Window table was ready for us when we arrived (no «go have a seat at the bar» routine). Server was always at the ready, patient when we were hesitant and got the timing right. Nice drinks at a reasonable price (up drinks under $ 10.00), nice lamb appetizer, fresh bread and hummus to every table and the two entees (cod off the menu and halibut off the specials) were outstanding. Great, taste, great presentation. Would have been better had the server told us the halibut costs more than the filet mignon, but I have to get past that and with therapy and time I will.
Do it up right and this can run to $ 150.00 for two… but it is worth every penny.

Definitely one of the best restaurants on cape ann! The food is AMAZING. Maria, the owner, helped me organize and execute the rehearsal dinner before my wedding. They have a private room upstairs that accomodated all 34 guests. We had our own bar and servers and everything ran smoothly. We had a 3 course menu caesar salad, choice btw steak frites, lemon chicken or chili soy glazed salmon and orange crème caramel for dessert. Everything was perfect!
I went back with a friend saturday night because i was craving the steak frites and the food wad incredible once again. We also tried a salmon sushi roll and the blackened catfish. Yum! Joe, marias brother, was our server and took really good care of us :)
I cannot wait to go back!

The food was alright but the service was terrible beyond belief. Our waiter didn’t stop by our table very often and we shelled out for apps, drinks, and a dessert… I have even been a waitress at one point so I completely understand the struggle.
But he never checked in on us and my husband who has issues with swallowing (dysphasia) needs to have his drink refilled pretty regularly. Unfortunately it never got refilled even when we tried waving our waiter down.
At the end of the night we left a 20% tip which we feel was deserved since we didn’t get very good service. But the waiter ran after us into the street and demanded to know why a bigger tip wasn’t given.
It was appalling and honestly made me wonder why they allow their servers to do this to their customers. Never again franklin café. Never again. The entitlement of this kid was unbelievable. No food is worth this service.

Hits the spot!
The Franklin Café is located on Main Street in Gloucester. It’s a great spot to grab dinner when visiting Gloucester or Rockport. Main St. in Gloucester is full of fun stores and restaurants. The Franklin definitely adds to the fun atmosphere. The ambiance of the Franklin is dark wood and fun for groups or a date night.
The last time my wife and I visited the Franklin, we had Duxbury Bay oysters that were excellent. Fresh, fullbodied, and served with delicious cocktail sauce and mignonette. For her meal, my wife had delicious halibut that was fresh and generously portioned. I had the hanger steak which was well-​seasoned with herbed butter and a heaping portion of perfected cooked french fries. The steak was flavorful and lean. For dessert we had fantastic bread pudding.
Prices at the Franklin Café are reasonable. The bar stocks most anything you can think of and their cocktails are terrific.
There’s a reason we stop by the Franklin every time we visit Rockport!