David and Megan Shortt reflect on the history of their family owned and operated business as it enters its 75th year. 

David Shortt frantically grabbed a cup of hot coffee and told his staff to close the restaurant’s doors before quickly getting into his $630 black Mercury Sable and driving a loop around Dennis Port, Massachusetts to clear his head. The weather was perfect on that Fourth of July weekend in 2005, he could not have hoped for a better climate in which to re-open the restaurant he had recently become the new owner of. Yet as he drove past the quaint cottages and alongside Sea Street Beach, he felt completely overwhelmed by the decision he now faced.

Earlier that morning David Shortt stuck into the grass a small, green and white “Full Irish Breakfast” cardboard sign in front of The Wee Packet, he had hoped the sign would attract customers to his Dennis Port restaurant—he got more than he bargained for. The restaurant was unexpectedly packed to the brim with locals and vacationers alike and with his pregnant wife, Megan Shortt, off-Cape getting her master’s degree, he was left alone to handle the natural chaos of opening a restaurant. Wondering if he was in over his head, he worried he might need to close to recoup. 

“If you close now, the next time it gets tough you’re going to close again,” he said to himself. “So, I stayed open and realized that once we managed through the first weekend—there’d be no stopping us from there.”

19 years of successful business later would prove him to be correct.

Originally opened in 1949, The Wee Packet has been...