Download PDF – Profile from 2023 Greater Cape Ann Guide & Directory
One of the greatest pleasures while traveling is dining out. Actually, it’s a necessity—three meals per day of indulging your senses with abandon; a freedom that only being outside of your normal routine can provide. And yet we still want to feel at home and relax while enjoying exceptional food, gracious service, and not having to clear the table. It’s also a well-known fact, and so important to remember when you’re making dining plans, that vacation calories do not count. As you peruse the menu at Oliver’s Harbor, remember we had this talk.
Oliver’s exists to be your dining room-away-from-home; its history reflecting a dedication to cuisine and hospitality. Rose and Gervanio Miranda moved from Minas Gerais, Brazil to Boston, MA, in 1998, seeking a new life for their growing family. Their young daughter Johayne joined a year later. Her parents worked in Boston restaurants, training in French cuisine. The family then moved to Cape Ann and Rose and Gervanio worked in a Gloucester restaurant for 22 years before realizing their dream of having their own establishment. “And they embraced it,” Johayne, now 26 and the general manager, explains with pride and admiration. “I am the oldest. I got most of the responsibility which is great. From the bar to the dining room to the host station, it’s all run by family.” Oliveira is Rose’s maiden name, her children’s middle name and the inspiration for the restaurant’s name, shortened for ease.
Oliver’s menu is a fusion of Brazilian, American, French, and Italian cuisines, comprised of family recipes and new twists on traditional favorites that Rose and Gervanio have perfected over the years. “We have sushi, pizza, homemade pastas. Our specialty would have to be our homemade pasta. My Dad takes charge and makes all our homemade ravioli, linguini. It is the freshest you’ll find.”
Oliver’s opened in February of 2020, not the most desirable time to debut a restaurant, and yet it prevailed. “This was our first business and many friends gave us moral support, even during COVID. Without the Gloucester community, and the locals that come here often, we wouldn’t have survived. That’s the beauty of Gloucester.” At Oliver’s, you are dining with extended family. “We want people to feel comfortable,” says Johayne. “And that they are never out of place or underdressed or overdressed. Our cuisine really brings that out, too. We have steaks [and offer] a fancier dinner but we also have pizzas and chicken fingers for kids, too. It’s inclusive.
“From the minute you walk in, we try to be as friendly and open as we can. The chefs are the owners. They are in the kitchen 24/7, inspecting every dish that goes out. My Dad has a saying that the first impression of the food is with your eyes. You taste it with your eyes. And he’ll tell you that his secret ingredient is love. He tells everyone that so there’s a lot of love that goes around the restaurant and into the food. From our family to every customer.”
From easy-going salads to creative appetizers (spicy pan-seared tuna, popcorn scallops) to signature entrees (filet mignon, organic chicken, lobster carbonara and sweet potato ravioli) to vegetarian options and children’s favorites, the menu is painstakingly inclusive, mindful of all palates. Oliver’s also offers a full bar with wines from across the globe. An aspiring sommelier, Johayne and her mother curate the wine list personally, aiming for diversity of taste and price point. Her favorite? “The Chateauneuf. French wines are close to my heart.”
Open year-round from 11:30 a.m. to close at 10:30 p.m., every day, is an extraordinary commitment. What is the experience of working with family, all day every day? At least six family members make it happen, including siblings, aunts, and cousins. “We all love it!,” Johayne exclaims. “Having a restaurant is never easy but we always come together to face the challenges. Together we figure it out.”
