I did enjoy my dinner here. Service was from our waitress was great. The host who greeted us was a bit on the Emo side when we walked in....like a hipster. Pizza was good, but a little too small for the price charged, and seemed a bit skimpy. Meatballs were great, but like the size of the Swedish meatballs at Ikea....kind of small. Wine list was fantastic as well.... read more

We were are large party of 9 and they happily accommodated us. We tried several appetizers (meat balls, bread, beans & Greens) and they were all fabulous. Salads were large enough for a meal and tasted great. Pizza was delicious. Excellent service. read more

Great service, delicious food, nice atmosphere. The meatballs were crazy good. They source locally, which I like and support (and know I will pay more for). The Chicory Caesar salad with endive lettuce was one-of-a-kind - and very good. The house made rigatoni with locally farmed chicken was wonderful. I hear good things about their pizza, so will head back and give that a shot. This is not a $$/person restaurant, rather $$$. read more

Nice place with pleasant atmosphere. Pizza was good crispy and light crust. A little heavy on the garlic and red pepper flakes on everything. Should just bring it on the side as well as grated cheese. I hate continuously asking for things that should be a given. read more

Ok, so the whole vibe of the place is very hip and well put together. The Home-made meatballs were super good. The roasted carrots and cauliflower tasted amazing. But the pizza was just blah, we ordered two different ones and they both just tasted bland and mediocre. Which was super disappointing because I had really high expectations. The service was pretty good, except for a few mix ups with drinks, overall everything came out pretty fast. The employees are attractive and young which fit the vibe. I do want to come back and try the pizza again because I am hoping that it was just an off day and the next time I go in it will taste delicious. read more

This is the place to go for fresh from the farm salads, wonderful fish and oysters and wood oven pizza. The staff is super friendly and chill, the atmosphere is cozy. It can get busy so just relax and enjoy the excellent creative cocktails. This place would do well in any major city across the country so I'm thrilled it's here in Gloucester. Deserts are top notch too. A first class place in Gloucester. read more

Dollar oysters for the first hour of business is a fantastic idea. Also, the bar tenders are really good at what they do. They make excellent drinks, know the wine list well, and tend to you when you need it, but leave you alone when you dont. Pizza's are bomb. Recently tried their home made almond ice cream and it was delicious as well. I also LOVE the fact that this restaurant and bar does NOT have a TV. What an amazing phenomenon! I love it. The bar decor is also very interesting and looks like a blend of an old tavern that has been modernized and an apothecary shop. read more

My three favorite food groups - shellfish, pizza, and cocktails - and an excellent presentation on all fronts here. Enjoyed a perfect Manhattan, briny Wellfleets, some roasted shishito peppers, and a perfect pizza with sausage and onions. Cozy dining room, classic New England decor, very cool shell studded countertops. Love this place! read more

This place is ALL hype. If you're looking for an overpriced yet super trendy place to go in which you can over pay grossly for something that you could easily buy elsewhere at a reasonable price- THIS IS IT! Had the meatballs- delicious, however @ 13$, I CANNOT justify spending 6.50 on ONE MEATBALL! Absolutely absurd. The other apps included almonds, olives, tomatoes, etc. nothing of substance. I love light fare, but charging rediculous prices for something you're spending pennies for in bulk and calling it an appetizer is ridiculous. Saw right through the bullshit. The 1$ oyster deal is actually a great deal- poorly shucked as one other reviewer stated but that was at least worth the while. Neopolitana pizza was good- anchovies, capers, olives, sort of a pizza's answer to a puttanesca... however at 20$ and 10" diameter- we felt utterly ripped off. Especially considering it was very doughy & all of the ingredients were inexpensive. 80$ + tip and I'm still starving... also service was poor. read more

4.5 stars. Loved this place. My favorite location in Gloucester so far. The Prosciutto Pizza was lovely looking, but it actually took a bit of a back seat to the simpler sausage and red sauce pizza. Top notch red sauce. Excellent crust: they make it thin, and there was a bit of a carbon taste at places, yet no signs of burning, and it was the right amount of chewy at the same time. Pretty good cocktails, and some nice beers... my favorite was from the always awesome Grimm (a mild sour with a pineapple explosion). Good oyster selection. And yeah, um, I'm still a dude, but the hostesses and waitstaff were 100% 5 star babes. I know, I'm a bad man. read more

We have visited their sister restaurant; The Market, and were very impressed. Based on that experience we arranged a visit to Short and Main..."Short and Main, you are not The Market". Very disappointing experience. First, I have been a restaurant General Manager for 25 years, so I have some idea of what I'm talking about. Our server was obviously new. Not just to Short and Main but to serving in general, she did not know the menu and had absolutely no knowledge of wine and spirits. An establishment the level of this may need to hire servers that will be new to their establishment, but for the price, one can (and does) expect a server who is skilled at the position. I attempted to order a gin and tonic, double in a tall glass with Bombay Sapphire. She informed me they do not carry Bombay Sapphire, and attempts to offer alternatives but can not remember what they are. She pulls out a folded sheet of paper, unfolds it and then repeatedly rotates it trying to locate the gin list. I finally take the paper from her to expedite the process and find... " If they order Tanquerey or Bombay, offer Brooklyn or Junipero." I asked if they had Hendrick's and she said they did not, so I order the Brooklyn but I am informed they can't do a double in a tall glass. The drink was horrible. I did not finish it. While looking behind the bar I see a bottle of Hendrick's gin which she said they don't have. For those who don't work in the industry; A double in a tall glass is basically two cocktails in a tall glass, it is not an extra strong drink. It is standard to offer a double in a tall for $3 or $4 more than the base drink as a discount for ordering two drinks. To add insult to injury, on our receipt, we were charged a dollar for tonic water in the gin and tonic. 25 years in the restaurant business, I have never encountered charging for a soda mixer in a cocktail! The Pizza had high quality ingredients but were made with aesthetics in mind rather than actually eating them. We had full slices of prosciutto spread over multiple slices of pizza and full leaves of arugula that spanned across slices. The result being, when you pulled a slice of pizza, all the toppings would be removed from the remaining slices. A few judicious cuts or tears of the toppings would have improved our dining experience immensely. We visited on a Tuesday night, our dinner took over two hours! Two hours for a pizza and cocktails with a server who is not trained or qualified, is unacceptable service. Do not stop here unless you're more concerned with style than substance. It's apparent they are counting on the tourist draw of Gloucester to bring a steady stream of guests and more time has been devoted to the aesthetic than to providing high quality food. To say we were disappointed is an understatement! read more

We only had the oysters, but they were great. Loved the vibe inside. Very cool. I'm not sure why they don't [subtly] cross-promote (i.e., mention) this place at The Market Restaurant and vice versa. We only found out it existed randomly, and we would've gone sooner had we known! read more

Good quality craft cocktails, nothing on the menu is bad and the pizza is awesome. Prices are fair for what you get but definitely not a place for a cheap night out. read more

In case it's relevant, I think this is the first time I have posted an online restaurant review. Anyway, went to Short and Main last night after hearing about it from a friend. We were excited to try it out and really wanted to love it, but unfortunately, our experience was mixed. We were seated right away at the bar overlooking the open kitchen. It took a while to get our drink orders in, when we also ordered some oysters and clams from the raw bar. When our shellfish was served, my drink still hadn't come, even though the people next to us who were seated about 5 minutes after us had been served their drinks. I asked our waiter about the drink and he got defensive saying that he had put the order in, but then went over to the bar and it had been sitting there for a while. These things happen but the thing was that the waiter wasn't busy and just forgot to check on the drink, so his bad. It didn't help that he spilled some on me when he put it down in front of me. So without going into too much detail, there were other issues with the waiter, which always puts a damper on a restaurant meal. The food was delicious though. The oysters were great. My wife had the halibut ceviche which was awesome. She also had some broccoli rabe and turnip thing which wasn't to her liking - she said she felt like a cow chewing its cud. I had the sausage pizza which was great. The drink I ordered - some variation on a margarita, was nasty though. Some may like it, but I don't think so... We will definitely be back, and hopefully will get a different waiter. We were able to watch the kitchen staff work their craft from where we were sitting, and they clearly take pride in their work and have a strong commitment to quality. They deserve better waitstaff! read more

Atmosphere was good, food was good but we had a party of 10 people and a toddler and they said the wait was about 40 minutes!! Not!! We waited for over an hour and my baby was getting fussy and tired and he started screaming because he was hungry. Then they sat us down and spilt us into two groups! Host forgot our menus and the server was not even expecting us and did his best to serve us. Our other party, since we were split into two the server failed to tell them that they'd ran out of clams after everyone was already done eating, so my aunt didn't get to eat her dinner. Again the pizza was good, crust was burnt. Better service next time and get a somebody to clean the tables!! There were two tables open and no one cleaned it for about 15 minutes!! service sucks!! read more

I usually like this place, good pizza and good drinks. However, last night I was quite disappointed. 1) Poor planning. We had just started enjoying the appetizers when our pizzas and main courses arrived. I HATE when that happens. 2) An appetizer with two large meatballs and plenty of sauce was served with just 1 thin slice of pizza dough. When we asked for more "bread" we were said that the dish comes only with one slice. Ridiculous considering that, overall, it's not a cheap restaurant. Also, keep in mind that pizza is their main focus so they should serve plenty of cheap-to-make dough in lieu of bread... 3) What place on earth serves anchovies as an appetizer without bread??? Try to eat 5 or 6 very salty anchovies with olive oil and hot peppers without any bread.... Insane. Impossibile. Same answer: no bread! 4) For both the meatballs and the anchovies we had to order one other appetizer called Pizza Bianco. Total rip-off for $6. It was a burned, plain pizza dough (which probably cost 0.50/0.75 cents to make), with just a scent of olive oil, very little of thinly sliced onions and a scant dust of parmigiano which would fall off when you picked a slice from the plate... I truly hope management will take notes from this review to improve things as I really like dining there! read more

We recently had our sons rehearsal dinner at Short and Main. It was the perfect venue. We had a buffet dinner upstairs .Perfect setting. We were able to decorate with whatever we wanted and the staff couldn't of been more accommodating. Kim the events coordinator was a pleasure to work with. The food was delicious. For the main entrée the chef did deep fried chicken and a delicious haddock dish, Along with pizzas and lovely fresh vegetables.. The butter cake with fresh whipped cream and strawberries .Delicious ! So fresh and there was certainly plenty of it. They even boxed up the left overs that got eaten in the early hours after the wedding! ( 3 am) I would highly recommend this restaurant when your in Gloucester. Thank You. Every one had a great time at the rehearsal dinner. read more

Not so good. Missed the dollar oyster special by 10 minutes :( Pizza was overpriced and not good. Mushroom pizza was covered with too much olive oil and the pancetta, pineapple on just didn't work. Tuna tar tar was good... Place was overcrowded and not enough wait staff. No air conditioning.... we are having a heatwave right now. Waitress was annoyed that I wanted ice for my water and annoyed when my wife asked for salt... Overall, they are trying hard to be trendy but missed the mark for me. read more

This review is very late! Thank you Short & Main, the oysters, salad & pizza are all amazingly delicious! The pizza is some of the best in the area. We'll be back next time we're in town. read more

We got there right at 5:00 PM when it opened and it filled up fast. We ordered two pizza's; the ingredients were fresh, excellent flavor and the crust was perfect. The appetizers were well done and I especially liked the homemade breads. Service gets a little busy and things come out of the kitchen as they are ready, but overall it was a a very good experience read more

This is one of our favorite restaurants in town. The oysters and pizza are wonderful and you really can't beat the ambiance. One night we got a pizza that was cold (they were extremely busy) and without hesitation the bartender took it away from us, got us another, took it off the bill and gave us a complimentary liqueur that we had asked about. Wonderful service and amazing food. read more

3.5 stars is what I'd give if I could. We got there about 6:30 or so on a Sat. and after a minute, were able to grab 2 seats at the bar. Loved the bartender, guy w/ brown hair and some beard action. Super nice, knows what he's doing, was very patient with the woman next to us asking 12 million questions. And patient with me asking about the watermelon cocktail that was no longer on the menu but suggested something w/ rum and fresh strawberry juice and basil. When I said it needed some more basil taste to it, he tweaked it just right and it was great. The food was fine, many items different from the online menu. Not many choices so know that going in and since I'm not big on raw oysters, it was even more limited. Their chicory salad is a take on a Caesar but we really missed any anchovie or garlic taste to it and I personally didn't care for chicory here. The pancetta and red pepper pizza came recommended and it was good but needed salt and didn't blow me away but again, it was all fine. Good size for 2. The room is pleasant and the vibe at the bar was nice so if I spent more time in the area, I'd go again. read more

Go here! Went here for my sister's bachelorette party. Had communicated in advance on social media with staff. They let us know a private party was booked till 10 but to come on over after. I cannot speak highly enough of the staff. Drinks were strong, delicious, and fairly priced. Music was great but not so loud you still couldn't sit down and have a conversation. Our party varied in ages 20s 30s and mother of the bride, and we all had a wonderful time. I can't wait to bring my friends back. read more

Have been here at least half a dozen times and they always get it right. One of the best new standouts of the Gloucester scene. They roast a whole pig and make porchetta, meatballs and other tasty piggy things...the pizzas are very good, oysters are cold and clean. very nice craft cocktails, tap beers, salads are crispy and inventive. Had a spectacular veal carpaccio - daring and done just right, even for the uninitiated. Lots of local farm to table options including stuff from Aprilla Farms in Essex. And that pig is from Vermont. The place does get crowded and is often loud but that is the price of success. I'd go a fifth star if they could better control the chaos when the place is jamming but I am definitely a fan. Glad the Serendipity Group has some competition as well. read more

Amazing meal. Stumbled in after a long day at Good Harbor Beach 1$ oysters within the first hour of opening - delicious. Pizza was recommended - and worth the calorie splurge. The overall winner was the thinly sliced raw scallop appetizer. Heaven. read more

Pizza, oysters, and beer. Could you ask for a better trifecta?!? It's a hidden gem! Highly recommend.

Reminded me of being back in Umbria, Italy. Great selection of Neapolitan foods, including seafood and flatbread. Will be back.

Really super pizza! Very thin crust, great salads and interesting cocktails along with craft beers. Only downside is lack of A/C. They are quick with bottled water, though. Definitely going back! read more

My husband and I had dinner there last night. We love the atmosphere and the drinks. The hostess was great and very accommodating! The server how ever wasn't very personable and didn't even introduce herself. She took our order and came over once to check on us after our meal arrived and didnt ask if I wanted another glass of wine. I had mentioned we were celebrating our Anniversary and all we got is a "oh ok", no congrats. The prosciutto pizza was a pizza with a salad on top. My husband only ate half of it and mentioned this to the server (just for critiquing purposes) but all she said was again "oh ok". read more

Atmosphere:~ Clean, friendly, West-end neighborhood cafe feel. Open dining. Staff: ~Attentive, professional, knowledgeable of dishes being served. Food: ~Wide selection of fresh oysters and tasty clams on the half-shell. ~Great specialty seafood salads and scrumptious pizza. Drinks: ~Full bar. read more

Went there for oysters at 5 during their first and last special where the first and last hours are shuck for a buck oysters! Had a dozen and a half they were fantastic. The drinks were creative and tasty I had an old fashioned it was the best I've had and my wife had and my wife had the high tea and did not stop talking about how great it was. We then ordered one of their fantastic pizzas can't remember the name of it buy it was the perfect amount of sauce and cheese. Great place and amazing food we will definitely be going back! read more

I came here after a referral from one of my coworkers and I was not disappointed. We sat at a quant table by the window and ordered our meal in stages. We started with the meatballs and a salad which were both delicious followed by two pizzas which were also great. The only thing I would say is that the portion sizes were a bit small but the service and the food did not disappoint. read more

I rarely ever write a review, but this restaurant is worth it. When you're on vacation in a seaside town, the standard fare of fried seafood and baked haddock can get really tiresome. This restaurant gives you a feeling that you are still in vacation with some seafood offerings, but offer freshly made pizza and fresh ingredients not necessarily found in other restaurants. We had the raw oysters, tuna crudo, baked haddock (nothing like your standard fare - moist and buttery, without the gross mayonnaise and ritz cracker topping in other places), and freshly baked pizza (the kids had the cheese pizza and jersey girl), and 1 of each of the desserts (peach nectarine tart and blueberry cake). Everything was delicious - clearly made from scratch. Kids also ordered the housemade ginger lime soda that was amazing. Go here, you won't regret it! read more

Stumbled upon this great pizza place! The deviled eggs with caviar were so amazing, their oysters are incredibly fresh and the staff is great and extremely friendly. Great experience. Great food. Thank you for a great birthday dinner! read more

My wife and I visited this place a few months ago, and It's all true. Go for the Oysters, nice environment (Yes, can be a little loud sometimes), but never the less good enough to enjoy some quite company. Not too big, not too small. Waitress was so polite and nice! Not a cheap date though. read more

We visited on a Saturday night w a group of 4. Place was nice inside, not that busy. Generally, the menu was oysters, appetizers, and wood pizza. Overall, service was good - friendly and attentive, refilling my water about 50 times - that night equaling the number of glasses of wine I drank. We had a number of bottles of Italian wine, all of which were described fairly well by the waitress. I wasn't that impressed with them (I like full bodied reds). We shared 3 pizzas between the 4 of us, which was plenty (took 1/2 pizza home) along w 2 appetizers of meatballs. Generally the pizzas were fine - nice thin crust and layer of ingredients. -sausage w mozzarella: disappointing, very little sausage or flavor -mushroom: fair -prosciutto: really good The meatballs were big, came in a pair, well seasoned, very flavorful, and in a good, tasty sauce - really liked them, and I'm quite picky about meatballs. Solid meal. read more

Best place we found on Cape Ann. Had a big salad, jersey girl pizza, toasted almonds, mezcal drink ... All really really tasty and nice ambiance. Far superior to their other establishment Market, across Cape Ann. read more

The atmosphere is hip. Neil young was the music playing on a Thursday night. The place filled up fast. Our waitress was knowledgeable and friendly. We ordered pizza. Thin crust yet chewy. Not my favorite, but ok. They seem to have red pepper and onions on many of the pizza choices, if not all, which was not very appealing to me. A spicy pizza is interesting, I guess. We split dessert, tiramisu, which was not bad. It was very rich & creamy. Kind of pricy, but I'll go back. read more

This restaurant sucks. Let me explain why. (1) our waitress was a moron. She took our order and that's about it. The male bartender thinks he is chemical engineer and you should bow to him for a drink. I ordered a pizza and it came with a huge salad on top of it. Totally rediculous! I ordered the apple crisp and it sucked. It was sour and the apple wasn't cooked enough. I told the waitress just to let her know that I thought the food wasn't really good. She just said ok and walked off. I will never go back again. They have their heads so far up their ass it's not even funny. What a joke. read more

Excellent alternative to the fish shacks dotting the Cape Ann coast. The pizza here is excellent -- the wood-fired oven creates the perfect charred crust, both chewy and well-seasoned. Definitely check out the oyster list, which features a great selection of local New England varieties and pairs well with one of the expertly crafted cocktails. read more