Between February and June, two bakeries opened on County Road in Mattapoisett and one long-running restaurant closed. Ropewalk Plaza at 33 County Road lost Walrus & Captain after nearly eight years. In the same plaza, a Fall River pastry chef opened a cafe in the old Poi Market space. Then a bakery that had been working out of a shared kitchen in Fairhaven moved into a storefront at 81 County Road.
Both businesses that opened this year are pastry counters, and both started somewhere else on the South Coast. The one business still to come is the Salty Dog Tavern and Lounge, and its license requests point to a different kind of use for the plaza.
| Date | What happened on County Road |
|---|---|
| Late January 2026 | Walrus & Captain announces it will close at 33 County Road |
| February 28, 2026 | Walrus & Captain's announced final day |
| Spring 2026 | Eden Cafe and Bakery opens in the former Poi Market space at Ropewalk Plaza |
| May 12, 2026 | Select Board agenda lists a hearing on Salty Dog Tavern license applications |
| June 2026 | Sweet Art moves from Fairhaven to 81 County Road |
| September 24, 2026 | Standard-Times reports the Salty Dog is aiming for a late-fall opening |
The closing that started the year
The Walrus & Captain announcement was short. The owners posted on Facebook on a Thursday in late January, and The Standard-Times reported their words: "After almost eight years, the time has come for a shift. The Walrus will officially close its doors on February 28." The paper gave no further reason, and none has been reported since. That left the restaurant space at Ropewalk Plaza empty as spring began.
A walk-in refrigerator brought Eden to Ropewalk
Spring brought the plaza's first new tenant. Vanessa Dossantos of Fall River opened Eden Cafe and Bakery in the space Poi Market used to occupy. Sippican Week's June 4 profile says she trained at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Boston and was pastry chef at Hotel Viking in Newport before going out on her own.
Sippican also reported why she chose this space. Dossantos wanted to lease a unit that already had a walk-in refrigerator so she would not have to buy one. The owners of the Ropewalk building reached out to her, and she opened her renovated cafe within four months. The space already had the equipment she needed, and that is what got her to open in a single season.
Her menu is mainly French-inspired pastries, with some Italian and Brazilian items. It changes every week, though five to seven pastries stay the same. Her own favorite to make and eat is Brazilian flan. In that same Sippican interview, she said why the cafe has caught on:
"I think a lot of people say that we fill a void because there were no coffee shops with seating, so I think [opening] has been a positive thing."
Sippican called it Eden Cafe and Bakery. When the Standard-Times photographed the shop in July, it used the name Eden Coffee & Bakery, so look for either name on the sign.
Sweet Art's busiest mornings are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
The second new bakery is farther along County Road. Brittney and DeAndre Gibau run Sweet Art, which previously operated as a made-to-order bakery in a shared kitchen in Fairhaven. Sippican reported in late June that it had moved to 81 County Road that month.
Sweet Art carries cookies and cupcakes. What sets it apart is its line of trompe l'oeil pastries, which are made to look like the fruit or ingredient that flavors them. Each one is layers of mousse, cake and fruit filling, dipped in chocolate and decorated to match. Six flavors are on the menu:
- Banana
- Cocoa bean
- Mango
- Passionfruit
- Raspberry
- Strawberry
The fruit pastries are sold on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Gibau told Sippican that mornings are always busy and those three days are the busiest. The shop also makes "dot cakes," which are single-serving cakes dipped in nonpareils, and it worked Dubai chocolate into its desserts when that was popular. Sippican's article doesn't list store hours, so check the shop's own channels before you go.
Both bakers came from elsewhere on the South Coast
Both of this year's openings were owners moving in from other South Coast communities. Dossantos lives in Fall River and spent part of her career in Newport. Sweet Art moved from a shared Fairhaven kitchen into a storefront of its own. Gibau told Sippican she sees the shop "bringing something different to the community, not just to Mattapoisett but honestly the South Coast area in general."
The result is that County Road now has two pastry counters that it did not have a year ago, and both are built around coffee and baked goods. Eden's own explanation for its success is that it gave the town a coffee shop with seating. Sweet Art's busiest days are its fruit-pastry mornings. Neither business does what Walrus & Captain's space will do next.
What the Salty Dog's license requests say about 33 County Road at night
The Salty Dog Tavern and Lounge is working on the former Walrus & Captain space. The Standard-Times reported on Sept. 24 that the unit in Ropewalk Plaza is getting a complete makeover and that owner Tracey White and his team are aiming for a late-fall opening. That is a goal, not an announced date. The report gave no menu or hours.
Town records show more of the plan. The Mattapoisett Select Board's May 12, 2026 agenda listed a public hearing on applications from Salty Dog Ventures, LLC, doing business as Salty Dog Tavern, for three licenses:
- An all-alcohol license
- A common victualler's license
- An entertainment license
An agenda only shows what was scheduled. It doesn't record what the board decided, and no outcome for the hearing has been published in the sources available. Still, the applications show what the business intends. A full liquor license plus an entertainment license describes a different use of the plaza from the two coffee-and-pastry counters that opened nearby this year. Once the Salty Dog opens, Ropewalk Plaza would have a morning cafe and a tavern under the same 33 County Road address.
The rest of the fall calendar
Until the tavern opens, Mattapoisett's biggest gatherings this fall are daytime events, and they are in the village, not on Route 6.
Saturday, Oct. 17 has two. At 10:30 a.m., the Mattapoisett Free Public Library at 7 Barstow St. holds a children's Halloween party with storyteller Rona Leventhal and crafts, according to Sippican. At noon, the Mattapoisett Lions start their Fall Free Family Fun Festival at Shipyard Park, which runs until 4 p.m. with hayrides, face painting and other activities. The rain date is Oct. 24. The library party ends before the festival begins, so families can go to both.
Evening programming in the village picks up late in the season. The Inn at Shipyard Park has booked an acoustic set by Sara Achorn for Friday, Nov. 27 at 8 p.m., the night after Thanksgiving. If the Salty Dog meets its late-fall target, it would open in the same weeks.
One more change is coming from the Marion side. MassDOT's project record shows the shared-use path segment from the Mattapoisett town line to Point Road in Marion was advertised for construction bids as of Aug. 15, 2026, with construction planned for Autumn 2026. No completion date is listed. Mattapoisett's own next section, the Depot Street to North Street path known as Phase 2A, is in preliminary design, and construction is not planned until Summer 2031.
If you own a commercial or mixed-use building on Route 6, this year's openings show how much a unit's existing equipment and a fast fit-out can affect a vacancy. Zach Midwood works with owners on tenant transitions, renovation budgets and dispositions across the South Coast. Book an appointment to talk through what a turnover means for your property.
