Oh mama, is she bringing dinner back again?! Johanne Wiltshire, the chef/owner behind Mean Burgers in Provincetown’s Aqua Mall (and their year-long pop-up cousin in Wellfleet) has finally stepped out and is going to be serving dinner at her new restaurant, Diana’s in Chatham. This spot, her third, opened at the end of December for New Year’s and carried on through the top of February before closing down for a short regroup then opening for the year in April.
She and the staff, all family or the nearest thing to it, had been burning through breakfast & lunch for more than two months before the constant harangue from customers got to be too much and she decided to give the people what they want. What they wanted was Dinner service so Johanne & Crew have decided to switch up the long hours for some longer hours and instead of their 7a-5p service, now run from 7a-3p (breakfast and lunch) then opening again at 5-830p for dinner.
And she made the move with a statement: back in June, over the weekend of the 19th & 20th, Diana’s put on a Dinner and Wine Tasting for two nights to introduce themselves to their clientele in waiting. No one was disappointed. Starting the following week, they turned it up to 11 and started ripping the lid off the top of Main St with a la carte service that gives glimpses into the Dinner Tastings to come, something she’ll bring back around monthly or so.
When You’re in Your Little Room
Diana's has managed to create something special in a short amount of time — the kind of room that feels like it's been there forever, which is either a testament to the bones of the place or the warmth of the people running it. Probably both.
Oh look, some Wellfleetians on exchange, still hurt & confused about the recent split (probably blaming themselves – especially since the Gestalt center has shuttered, robbing them of a way to work that trauma out. Tough luck, that.).
The single aspect we love most about Diana’s (which is saying something since there are so many lovable aspects) is that, with Diana’s, Johanne finally has the venue to put all of the work she’s done throughout her culinary life, which goes back to the cooking awards in high school & the Montego Bay contests, to a decade of cheffing at Bayside Betsy’s … all of it on full display, at scale, scope, and high volume.
Something else the team was able to do was really dig into the decor. Their counter in Provincetown is a perfect touch of what it is; their spot in Wellfleet was always framed as a pop-up, so the sense of uncertainty around timing was precarious … this place though: there was no corner going to be left clear of fingerprints and character. They had the place draped in dropcloths and collapsed from the walls to the center of the room, they wee going to be sure this was their own from tip to toe. That starts with what you see when you walk in, what you feel when you sit down, what you hear from the speakers, and how you’re treated by the staff inside. That is to say, how does Johanne’s sister, Jamey, treat you at the table? How’s Jodi doing at the bar? How is her (well practically her) brother doing when he has to run the kitchen and take care of your food? “Very well” is the answer 3x.
Call & Response
This is the first time at one of her own establishments that Johanne is not beholden to any genre of food. Yes, when she & the fam had Mean Burgers in Wellfleet, she put some powerful items on the menu (scallops, cowboy steak bites, mussels, the show-up-early-or-it’s-gone Prime Rib) but the name on the sign always read Burgers. Now the Provincetown station can hold that mantle & Diana’s in Chatham is the landing pad for the full force of will she can turn up and launch from the menu.
She used her tasting nights to introduce her diners to her spin on local goods, so they could see them how she saw them, not how they’ve had it before. That’s why it was seafood forward: scallops, mussels, tuna … and these aren’t necessarily the dishes that are going to be on the dinner menu proper, but they are fresh and they scratch another itch that Chatham has brought to her door: the solid relationship between the business owners she’s lucky enough to be surrounded by. It’s the clothing shop across the street who come in to visit, it’s the baker who pops by on their way from one delivery to another to be sure she’s got what she needs for the day, or will pull stock on the spot to right that. Late night texts to be sure the breakfast service won’t go without, she doesn’t have an acre of storage back there so it’s fresh fruits and vege. … these are the folks that she’s not only cooking for, now she’s got a collaboration with them that will only tighten the knots that hold them together. Because it will not always be July and sunny.
After she landed on the menu, she worked with Jodi’s wine guy and he had a wine pairing back to her in no time. Then it was for real. And something to look forward to as well. Not only had Johanne not done a prix fixe menu at any point on her road to now, she’d never even been to a tasting.
The Mozart Composition
A moment here to sit with something about Johanne we’ve always found … yes, impressive but also absolutely wild; not in the, “oh I wish I could do that” way and definitely not in the “I’d do that if I was a chef,” way but in the genuine, “oh no shit, I didn’t know people could get away with that” way. She has drafted the last couple of menus she executes without eating the food. She composes without tasting the creation, without hearing the notes. And it has all been delicious, everything.
Now Johanne isn’t the most experienced chef on Cape Cod - she’s not the most experienced chef in Chatham, maybe not even on Main St but from our estimation she’s got a couple of things, let’s say three, that set her apart: first, the accumulated and acquired knowledge of what tastes how and when to put them where with whom; second, she’s apparently got no appetite to eat the food itself - something we’ve all heard chefs of every caliber talk about (though never that man in West Dennis); and finally, she’s got the brass balls (spray painted gold, green, and black) to do it. That’s some heavy trust & belief in herself … which surprises no one who knows Miss Thang.
So I guess we can consider Diana’s dinner her 5th Symphony?
(Commercial) Street Cred
As excellent as it is to have won your awards and contests and gone to school to learn your craft, everybody loves your And1 mixtape, blah blah … ultimately you gotta play in the league to see what you’re made of. So when Johanne got herself to Provincetown, she picked it up, coming off the bench at Bayside Betsy’s, working the line at breakfast under a vet named Ron Hooper (not Harper). He taught her the ins and outs of the game. Soon she was doing breakfast and lunch. More minutes.
That’s when Fanizzi’s came into the picture and she started doing dinner there. She’s hustlin, breakfast and lunch at Bayside, dinner at Fanizzi’s, learning all the shifts, learning the timing, the flow of the different courses in practice, on the floor, with live ammo!
Soon she was too valuable at Fanizzi’s so she went to work for them only. One jersey, getting after it. Then after a short hiatus to Vermont, she’s back on the strip and makes her final stand. She’s going to be at one of the spots and is figuring out the lay of the land, when … the dinner chef at Bayside Betsy’s leaves. And leaves fast, ya know? So now they’re in a pickle, she’s been playing minutes everywhere she can find them and finally preparation met opportunity and damn they hit it off.
She then stepped into the full time chef role at Bayside, doing breakfast, lunch, AND dinner (sound familiar?), keeping her own Robert Horry, Ron Hooper (Big Shot Ron) by her side and knocking out a decade on the way to her own spot. Down the end of that lane is where you’ll find the red counter and some of the best smashburgers you’ve ever had.
Her First Born & Cousin Oliver, Who Was Only Around for About a Season
That’s how Johanne wound up doing a couple years of nothing but burgers on burgers on burgers, establishing her spot as one of the very few to stay open late and feed you comfort food whenever your body was itching for it. She mastered that and, after enlisting her family to help carry the couch, had the machine finely oiled. Then it was time to pick her head up and take a look over the horizon. And the horizon stretched out down the road into Wellfleet where Hog Island had their second location.
The longest decade of her life was the year she spent in Wellfleet.
It was Mean Burgers Bar & Grille and they were dealing from the moment they opened with a party on New Year’s as the Gregorian rolled over from 2024 to 2025. It was more than live music through the cold months and the beer yard in the heat, it gave her the opportunity to work out those chops that’d been lying dormant for a little while.
She started quickly, pasta dishes, apps, soups, the aforementioned Cowboy Bites & Little Necks etc. But the secret was out when Prime Rib Thursdays hit. Then it was clear that this burger business had been an excellent way to plant her flag and fill a void (in a town of high end delicacies, sometimes you just want a double smash cheeseburger and some Mean wedges), get out on her own and take the first step in establishing her empire but it was also clear that she’d essentially been playing left-handed by confining herself to the burger menu only.
Now it’s time to step out. If Wellfleet was Johanne’s version of Larry walking into the Hawk’s arena and dropping 40 left-handed to save the right hand for the Lakers then it must be Showtime for her in Chatham.
3 meals: a packed breakfast, an excellent, well curated lunch, complete with courtesy listing of burger options (still fantastic & popular, as they will always be), but the sleeping giant of ambition has awoken and she’s adding dinner and announced it last month with a roar.
Tale of Two Towns
Johanne Wiltshire has managed to find her restaurants perfectly positioned to capture the personality of both of the towns she’s serving: Chatham & Province. Her baby, the maiden voyage, Mean Burgers in the Aqua Mall, has become the late-night spots of choice not named Spiritus. And folks waiting in that line, which will run down the hallway and spill out onto Commercial (where Jodi’s probably shepherding in the hungry and the loaded) on any night in July or August, fully represents the Pride of Ptown … in just about any way that you see the place.
Similarly, in the short time she’s been in Chatham, you will find exactly that same character of the town reflected in the diners inside. Meaning you’ll have the Sperry wearing folks visiting for the weekend seated just ahead of the landlords for the entire block who come in every morning for breakfast before heading to their business down the street or to one of their properties under construction. There’ll be the crew from the theater next door (some of the louder proponents of dinner at Diana’s) and the folks who ride down from the Outer Cape to check on the family.
And there is another of the more redeeming aspects of Diana’s - once you’ve eaten there a time or two and chat with Jamey or Divya on your way out the door, you do end up feeling like you’re at home in its own way. Johanne & Delon cook & plate right out in the open, everyone is talking across the counter and table to everyone else, there’s always activity coming from the back hallway when someone’s bringing out a sauce from the kitchen and dances with someone on the way to the bathroom.
Diana herself will be sitting at the counter with her Sour Sop, watching over her kiddos accomplishment with what has to be some real pride and appreciation for the work they all put in and the success they’re having. There’s no accident to it, Johanne, already feeling the weight of two places as the season began, only stood up taller and threw her shoulder back to add another couple of services to the task list. And nobody on the inside squawks; they just come in on time, knock out another day, and put another brick into the castle that’ll build them an empire.
Catch you at the counter. Stay outta my seat.
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