Beach Plum Inn

The Hotel

Beach Plum Inn sits on a Menemsha clifftop at 50 Beach Plum Lane — the small working-fishing village in the up-island town of Chilmark, on the northwest coast of MV where Vineyard Sound meets the Atlantic at Gay Head. The property has held the Beach Plum Inn name and operated continuously since the 1890s; current ownership Sarah Nevin and Bobby Nevin acquired the property in 2007 and restored it as an 11-key luxury inn with chef Sarah Waldman (the New England-based chef who has held the Beach Plum kitchen since 2018) running the in-house restaurant. The property is the only luxury hotel on the up-island Menemsha-and-Aquinnah coast — the entire stretch from West Tisbury through Chilmark to Aquinnah holds only this one luxury operation.

The 11 keys are spread across the restored 1890s main building plus a small carriage-house annex. Each key is individually decorated by Sarah Nevin with the property's signature Menemsha-coastal restraint vocabulary — restored period furniture, hand-loomed New England wool textiles, custom-made driftwood lighting, and the deliberate decision to keep the cottage-and-clifftop heritage character. The Standard Rooms (22 sqm) and Premium Rooms (28 sqm) are the entry-tier categories; the named Beach Plum Suite (45 sqm — top-floor of the main building with private balcony facing Vineyard Sound and the property's only direct sunset-sightline bath) is the milestone unit. The Carriage House Suite (single 50-sqm unit, the only standalone unit on the property) is the highest-tier category.

Operationally Beach Plum Inn runs the smallest-luxury MV scale at the Menemsha-coastal register. The Beach Plum Restaurant — the in-house fine-dining venue — runs chef Sarah Waldman's contemporary-American kitchen at the highest standard on MV after Bettini at Harbor View. Waldman's seven-course tasting menu sources directly from the Menemsha working-fishing harbour 50 metres downhill from the property (the only MV luxury kitchen with structural same-day catch-to-table sourcing) and from up-island MV farms (Beetlebung Farm in Chilmark, Allen Farm Sheep & Wool in Chilmark, Mermaid Farm & Dairy in Chilmark) for the structural Menemsha-Chilmark-coastal register. The wine cellar runs about 150 bins with the strongest MV-vintage list anywhere on the island. The Beach Plum Bar runs the cocktail-and-Bourbon programme.

What structurally distinguishes Beach Plum Inn from every other MV luxury option is the up-island Menemsha-coastal position combined with the smallest-property scale and the Sarah-Waldman-kitchen anchor. The property's clifftop position gives the most-photographed Menemsha-sunset view in MV (the Menemsha-and-Aquinnah coast is the only stretch of MV with unobstructed Vineyard Sound sunset visibility); the 11-key footprint gives the smallest-luxury scale on the island; and the Sarah-Waldman-restaurant anchor gives the property its structural daily-routine asset. The 35-minute drive from Edgartown means Beach Plum is structurally a destination property rather than a base property — the most-considered MV anniversary or honeymoon two-or-three-night stay that pairs with an Edgartown or Vineyard Haven base. For an MV anniversary stay that wants the smallest-luxury Menemsha-coastal register, a literary solo retreat that uses the working-fishing-village position as the daily anchor, or a two-property MV stay that pairs Beach Plum with The Charlotte Inn Edgartown, Beach Plum Inn is the most-considered up-island choice.

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