Shopping

Antiques/Collectibles

Brewster's stretch of Route 6A offers the best antiquing on the entire Cape. Die-hards would do well to stop at every intriguing shop; you never know what you might find. There are several consistent standouts.

Deborah Rita, proprietor of Countryside Antiques, 2052 Main St./Rte. 6A (tel. 508/896-1444), roams the world in search of stylish furnishings, mostly old, though age -- and price -- are evidently no object.

Mark Lawrence Fine Period Antiques, 1050 Main St./Rte. 6A (tel. 508/896-8381), is the place to look for formal furniture, lighting, clocks, silver, and paintings.

Arts & Crafts

Clayton Calderwood's Clayworks, 3820 Main St. (Rte. 6A), Brewster (tel. 508/255-4937), is always worth a stop, if only to marvel at the famous mammoth urns. There's also a world of functional ware here like bowls, pots, and lamps, in porcelain, stoneware, and terra cotta.

At The Spectrum, 369 Rte. 6A, about 1 mile east of the Dennis border (tel. 800/221-2472 or 508/385-3322), you'll find the kind of crafts that gave crafts a good name: fun stuff, with a certain irony to it, but unmistakably chic. In 1966, two young RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) grads opened shop in a rural schoolhouse. Bob Libby and Addison Pratt now oversee six stores: three on the Cape and islands (the other branches are in Hyannis and on Nantucket), and one each in Newport, Troy (Mich.), and Palm Beach. Their taste is top-of-the-line, as you'll see in a quick tour of this split-level, country-modern shop.

Collectors from around the world converge at Sydenstricker Glass, 420 Main St., Brewster (tel. 508/385-3272; www.sydenstricker.com), in which a kiln-fired process developed in the mid-1960s that uses concepts from the art of enameling yields unique glassware, especially dishes and stemware.

Gifts/Home Decor

Though quite a bit spiffier than a "real" general store, The Brewster Store, 1935 Main St./Rte. 6A, in the center of town (tel. 508/896-3744), an 1866 survivor -- fashioned from an 1852 Universalist church -- is a fun place to shop for sundries and catch up on local gossip. The wares are mostly tourist-oriented these days but include some handy kitchen gear (cobalt glassware, for example) and beach paraphernalia. Give the kids a couple of dimes to feed the Nickelodeon piano machine, and relax on a sunny church pew out front as you pore over the local paper.

You don't have to be a foodie -- though it helps -- to go gaga over the exhaustive collection of culinary paraphernalia, from esoteric instruments to foodstuffs, at The Cook Shop, 1091 Rte. 6A, about 1 1/2 miles west of the town center (tel. 508/896-7698). If you're stuck cooking up a practical yet unusual house gift, look no further.

An Internet Cafe & Herb Shop

Stop at Great Cape Herbs, 2624 Main St./Rte. 6A (about 2 miles east of town center) in Brewster (tel. 508/896-5900), to pick up all manner of herbs or to use the Internet. This is one of the few places on the Cape that provides computers and Internet access on Sundays. The store is open daily in summer.

Seafood

Breakwater Fish and Lobster at 235 Underpass Rd. in Brewster (tel. 508/896-7080) stocks the freshest fish in town and also sells smoked fish.