Celebrate New Year's Eve at Dunbar House Tea Room and more fun happening on Cape Cod

If you’re looking for a nice and simple way to start the New Year, the Dunbar House Tea Room is hosting two celebrations that might pique your interest. If not, you can find other New Year events listed here in CapeWeek.

On New Year's Eve, celebrate over glasses of Champagne and a four-course dinner crafted by Chef Patrick Hurley. Dinner includes Island Creek Oysters and Popcorn Oysters on the half shell, seared Yellow Tuna Loin, Fried Braised Beef Short Ribs and a Chocolate Tart.

"He's just brought a lot of really great dinners, four-course dinners, to our area," Kate Wolstenholme, owner of Dunbar House Tea Room. said. "So I kind of let him do whatever he likes and the people love it."

Dinner is paired with a Champagne tasting of three champagnes, along with a full bar.

"The champagne kind of really brings it to another level," Wolstenholme said.

On New Year's Day, brunch is the order of the day — well, the order of two days as it'll also be served on New Year's Eve. While the Dunbar House Tea Room does offer brunch every Sunday, this New Year's Day event is bringing out the Big English Breakfast, which is only served on New Year's Day and Father's Day. Plus a Bloody Mary flight is on the menu featuring four kinds of Bloody Mary, with recipes created by Wolstenholme.

"They're really all different," she said. "One's a Japanese style. One's bacon. They're really fun to try."

Reservations for the Dunbar House Tea Room's New Year's Eve Dinner and New Year's Brunch can be made online at www.thedunbarhouse.com/. The Dunbar House Tea Room is located at 1 Water St. in Sandwich.

Other things happening on Cape Cod

Rowland Scherman photos on display at Eastham Public Library

Throughout January the Eastham Public Library will be exhibiting a collection of photographer Rowland Scherman’s Civil Rights photos, presented by the Friends of the Eastham Public Library.

Selections include several photographs of Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington as well as many other prominent Civil Rights leaders.

The library will also screen “Eye On The 60s: The Iconic Photography of Rowland Scherman” at 1 p.m. on Jan. 6 followed by a Q&A session with award-winning photographer and producer Chris Szwedo.

The documentary screening and exhibit are free to the public. The Eastham Public Library is located at 190 Samoset Road in Eastham.

Great Pond Gallery exhibits selection of Walter Dorrell oil paintings

Walter Dorrell, a long-time oil painter, will have a selection of works on display at the Great Pond Gallery in Wellfleet as part of the Wellfleet Council on Aging's monthly exhibitions.

"I am very pleased to have a show at this fine venue, just down the street from where we have lived since 1982, invited and curated by Robert Rindler, assisted by James Connors," Dorrell wrote in a statement for the exhibition.

Since moving to the Cape in 1977, Dorrell took to capturing the "Cape Light" and the Cape's natural wonders through his oil painting, especially outdoor plein air painting. When winter's bitter chill replaced summer's heat, Dorrell would continue to paint focusing on indoor still lifes rather than outdoor nature scenes. This exhibition aims to show Dorrell's artistic career, featuring some newer nature landscapes in an abstract style.

"These paintings are explorations, really, landscape reduced to its color elements, seeing if I can still convey the excitement I feel when painting them," Dorrell wrote. "It’s a way of looking into the future, I suppose, hoping things will turn out ok."

Paintings will be on display through January with a reception for the artist and his work from 2 to 4 p.m. on Jan. 7. The Great Pond Gallery in the Wellfleet Adult Community Center is located at 715 Old King's Highway. The Gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

'In the Whale' Dinner and a Movie

“In the Whale,” the documentary film from David Abel about Michael Packard’s fateful escape from the mouth of a humpback whale, comes to the Redfield Auditorium on Jan. 6 as part of the Woods Hole Film Festival’s dinner and a movie series. A Q&A with Abel will follow the screening.

Showtime for “In the Whale” is 7 p.m. on Jan. 6. Tickets for the show are $16 for general admission, $10 for students and military. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.goelevent.com/WoodsHoleFilmFest/e/InTheWhale/.

Gil Newton talks in Chatham about 'Discovering Cape Cod Shoreline'

The Chatham Marconi Maritime Center hosts author, marine and environmental science teacher and native Cape Codder Gil Newton for a talk about his book “Discovering the Cape Cod Shoreline.”

During the talk, audience members will learn about the marine plants and animals that inhabit the shoreline and the environments in which they live.

The event is at 7 p.m. on Jan. 4 and participants can attend in person or via Zoom. Registration is $10 per person attending online or virtually. To register and for more information visit www.ChathamMarconi.org/speakerseries/.

Call For Art at Falmouth Art Center

The Falmouth Art Center is looking for submissions to its January exhibition “Brrr!”

“Brrr!” pays homage to the bitter cold of January and is looking to feature works that highlight the loss of daylight, longer nights, seeking escape in warm indoor spaces and the winter light on the land.

The show is open to all artists. One piece can be submitted per artist and all mediums are accepted. Entry is $10 for Falmouth Art Center members, $15 for non-members. All works must be received by Jan. 2 and a reception will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Jan. 5.

For more information visit https://falmouthart.org/call-for-art-hermann-gallery/. For exhibition guidelines visit https://falmouthart.org/exhibition-guidelines/.

Snow Cinema at Snow Library

Get cozy in the Snow Library as its Snow Cinema series presents “Barbie” on Jan. 3.

At 2 p.m. each Wednesday until Jan. 31, enjoy a free screening at the library of some of the year’s most popular movies. Other famous flicks of the month include “Oppenheimer” on Jan. 10 and “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I” on Jan. 31.

The Snow Library is located at 67 Main St. in Orleans.

Inflatable Gray Whale in Brewster

Learn more about the Gray Whale at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History during its Inflatable Gray Whale Walk Through from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Dec. 29.

The whale, funded by the Bilezikian Family Foundation, gives children the chance to discover more information about these magnificent creatures during their trip to the museum.

The walk-through is included with museum admission. The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History is located at 869 Main St. in Brewster.

Racial Justice Falmouth begins new book discussion for January

Start the new year off with a new book to read as Racial Justice Falmouth launches a new book discussion, starting Jan. 24 and focusing on “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future” by Robert P. Jones.

At 6 p.m. on each fourth Wednesday of every month in 2024, the group will host a Zoom discussion of the book of the month.

In “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future,” Jones puts forth the idea that America’s current political trajectory of following a white Christian nationalism began as early as 1493 — the year Christopher Columbus landed on American soil. Jones explains how the “Doctrine of Discovery,” a set of legal and religious documents, was used as justification for the killing and enslavement of any non-white, non-Christian peoples, for stealing the land of Native American tribes and other acts of white Christian colonialism, according to a press release from Racial Justice Falmouth.

Copies of “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future” are available at Eight Cousins bookstore in Falmouth or Footprints Cafe and Bookstore in New Bedford. To register for the Zoom discussion, email racialjusticefalmouth@gmail.com. For more information, visit www.racialjusticefalmouth.org/.

Frankie Rowley is Entertainment and Things To Do Reporter at the Cape Cod Times. Email her at FRowley@capecodonline.com

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Best Bets this week on Cape Cod