Josh Santiago, Erin Maas Santiago, Caitlin Maas, Ed Maas, Ryan Maas, Megan Maas Kaser, Logan Maas
A five-dollar bill, signed and framed, hangs on the wall above the concierge desk at the Orleans Inn. For the Maas family, it's a reminder of how the inn almost didn't make it and of the clientele who saved it.
After pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a year into seemingly endless renovations, the Maas family re-opened the storied inn on May 15, 1997. The late Herbert Harrison, owner of nearby Nauset Fish and Lobster, had insisted that he be the inn's first customer. That day, he ordered a gin and tonic from the bar, pulled out a $20 bill to pay for the drink, and gave it to Ed's son Ryan, the bartender at the time. But Ryan didn't even have change in the drawer. He gave Harrison the drink on the house. Scrawling his signature on the currency, Harrison left the five dollars as a tip.
Today, 12 years later, Ed and Ryan can laugh as they tell this story because for them times have changed for the better. Mere months into 2009, business is up 20% over the same time last year. On the busiest summer days, it's not unusual to have 500 guests, and on a couple of occasions there have been up to 1,000 at the Route 6A waterfront inn. The inn's 11 guest rooms are often booked two years in advance. The Orleans Inn is regularly on the top-ten best lists of regional magazines and Web sites. And with four of the Maas children and a son-in-law at the helm, the backbone of family is certain to support the inn for years to come.
Since its original construction in 1875 as a home for Captain Aaron Snow and his family, the Orleans Inn has had a rich history. The building has been by turns a boarding house, a rowdy brothel, and a resort hotel that drew celebrities in the 1940s and 1950s. (Ed chronicles the inn's full history in his book, Orleans Inn: A Cape Cod Legend.) But sometime around the late 1980s, the inn fell into disrepair and went into foreclosure.
Florida residents and parents of eight children, Ed Maas, a hospital administrator and healthcare consultant, and his wife, Laurie, a nurse, spent a lot of time on the Cape. Laurie had vacationed in Orleans with her family every summer since she was a child--she had even attended nursing school at Cape Cod Hospital--while Ed made his first trip in 1972, the year the couple wed. By 1985, they had purchased a summer home in East Orleans in for their burgeoning family. They drove by the Orleans Inn countless times. In May 1996, Ed heard that the sale of the inn had fallen through. He called the realtor, who said as they walked through the boarded-up tavern that renovations could be completed by next season. Seconds later, a chunk of plaster fell out of the ceiling. Nonetheless, Ed put down the deposit that day without telling anyone, and he soon bought the inn for $405,000. The rest of the family, he says, "thought I was crazy."
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At the time, Ed had no interest in running a restaurant; whether or not the building was demolished, the value of the waterfront property on Town Cove could be put in a trust for his children. But Ryan, the family's second-oldest son, then fresh out of high school, saw the building's potential. Ryan and his parents reached an agreement: he would live in the family's summer house while overseeing repairs, but they required that he enroll at Cape Cod Community College.
The restoration period was long and unexpectedly costly. "It was a good day when you'd have only three or four disasters," Ryan says. As for the $200,000 the realtor said would be needed to renovate the inn? "I spent that in the first month." The family replaced the roof, fixed the siding and shingling, and repaired the plumbing. They went through four chefs in the first two years of business. But the strength of the family kept the inn afloat. At first, Ed and Ryan ran the inn on their own, often working 16-hour days. Week after week, twin sisters Erin and Megan commuted from Johnson & Wales University in Providence to work long weekends at the inn. "It was really inspiring to see how the family handled it," Ed says. "There's no question they got me through it."
While Ed and Laurie share innkeeper duties, it is mainly the children who oversee the inn today. Megan, 29, takes care of public relations, while Erin, also 29, manages the restaurant. Eight years ago, Josh Santiago came to visit Erin, then his girlfriend. "Ed just gave me a tray and was like, 'Here, can you help me clear the table?" Josh, now 31 and married to Erin, says. "That was the start of it." Today, Josh manages the bar and interviews prospective employees. Logan, 18, has helped out around the inn since he was five. The rest of the Maas children--Shawn, Shannon, Brandon, and Caitlin--have also pitched in occasionally. When the family received the Cape and Islands United Way's 2008 Citizen of the Year Award for their work with the organization, the award had to be renamed the Citizens of the Year Award.
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Ryan, 31, is the head chef, and his award-winning food has been the inn's primary draw since the beginning. The Snow Dining Room seats 100, and another 60 can fit in the tavern In warm weather, the inn opens its outdoor deck to accommodate 250. "The recipe for success is just taking care of the masses, not the classes," Ryan says. The dress code is intentionally casual. "Erin was saying the other day . . . someone could be eating filet mignon at one table, another [group] could be celebrating a 25th wedding anniversary, and another table could have just come from an Orleans Cardinals game for burgers and beer," Ryan says, "and everyone feels comfortable." The kitchen's forte is seafood; the crabmeat-stuffed salmon is a customer favorite.
For the Maas children, the inn is much more than a place of employment. Eldest daughter Shannon was married at the inn six years ago; Megan married her husband, Bill Kaser, last June; Josh and Erin were wed in September; and Ryan married his wife, Kim, last November. The staff books between 20 and 30 weddings each year. Many of the weddings, including the Maas girls', have taken place at the historic, town-owned windmill on the adjacent lot. After the ceremony, the party moves back to the inn's special function room.
For all intents and purposes, Ryan, Megan, Josh, and Erin have taken over the inn. "They are so knowledgeable and competent that I don't have to be here anymore," Ed says. And the family's inclination toward hospitality might be genetic: Connor, the four-year-old first grandson of the clan, greets inn guests when he comes up from Florida on vacation. The bonds and strength of the Maas family are as much a part of the Orleans Inn as anything else. Through the bad times and the good.
Jeff Harder is associate editor at Cape Cod Life Publications. Eliott Grover, a former intern for Cape Cod Life, contributed to this story.
