You Can't Buy Magic: The Story Behind The Seal Pub & Café

There are restaurants you visit for the food. There are places you go for a drink. And then there are places that somehow become part of the fabric of a community.

In Harwich Center, The Seal Pub & Café has become one of those places.

It is the creation of Bob Young, Mike Scott and Josh Winston, three partners whose different backgrounds and experiences came together to create something that has grown far beyond the coffee shop and breakfast spot they first envisioned.

Today, The Seal is a café and breakfast spot, a pub, a restaurant, a place for craft cocktails and fresh espresso, a home for music and events, and a gathering place that is open every day from 6 a.m. until 1 a.m.

But The Seal wasn't exactly what its owners originally envisioned.

Its story includes a longtime Harwich family, three men with very different backgrounds, a rescued dog named Bayou, an unexpected pizza concept, a pandemic that arrived only weeks after opening, teenagers who grew into skilled employees, and a community that helped shape the business along the way.

Cape Cod Livin' sat down with Bob Young and Josh Winston to talk about how it all began, the people behind The Seal, and what has made the restaurant such an important part of Harwich Center.

From Breakfast Sandwiches to The Seal

Cape Cod Livin': Let's start at the beginning. How did The Seal come about?

Josh Winston: I'm a native of Harwich. My family goes back generations on my dad's side. The family history goes back to 1627, so Harwich has always been home to me.

I grew up here, went away to college in Washington, D.C., where I met Mike, and eventually spent about a decade working as Director of Tourism for Visit Fort Lauderdale, which is where we met Bob. I later became the tourism chief for National Harbor in Maryland.

Bob Young: Josh, Mike and I would sit around the kitchen table in Oxon Hill, Maryland, talking about business and what we could do. I had a background in real estate and had owned businesses before, including a coffee shop in California and a nightclub in Florida. I also used to roast my own coffee, so I was always partial to the coffee and café side of things.

I saw the restaurant property for sale in Harwich and said to Josh, "Isn't this by your dad's?"

And that was really the beginning of the conversation.

I remember sitting at Josh's table with him and Mike and saying, "What are we going to do with it?" I looked at Mike and said, "Breakfast sandwiches to start."

The original idea was really a little breakfast and sandwich shop.

Josh Winston: I was actually planning to continue working in tourism. I was interviewing with TripAdvisor at the time.

Then COVID hit and the department I was interviewing for was eliminated. So, almost by default, I ended up working at The Seal as my primary job.

Little did I know how much tourism this job would demand.

Mike's Kitchen

Cape Cod Livin': Tell me about Mike Scott's role in all of this.

Josh Winston: Mike has a very strong culinary background.

He was the executive chef for the University of Nebraska Alumni Club, where he cooked for some of their top football coaches. He then went on to build his career with Cheesecake Factory and Brinker International, opening restaurants around the country.

He brought a tremendous amount of culinary experience to The Seal.

Bob Young: And Mike's baking has become a big draw of its own.

The cheesecakes and other baked goods he makes have really become part of what people come to The Seal for.

Then Came COVID

Cape Cod Livin': You opened in February 2020. A few weeks later, the world changed.

Bob Young: We opened the bar on February 7, 2020. We had a great first night. People were excited to see the place open.

And then everything shut down.

Cape Cod Livin': What was it like trying to run a brand-new business during that time?

Bob Young: We never actually closed.

We had to operate under all kinds of restrictions. At one point it was one person in, one person out. We were serving coffee and later were able to offer drinks to go. There wasn't always a consistent answer about what you were allowed to do.

Josh Winston: And then something really unexpected happened.

People were desperate to get out of the house.

The rules around COVID became so strict that we almost became like a speakeasy.

We were definitely pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable at the time. People were meeting up at The Seal, and it wasn't necessarily known to everybody that that's what was happening — but that's what was happening.

It was a strange time, but it was also when a lot of the community started forming around the place.

Bob Young: Harwich Center was pretty depressed when we first opened. But the pandemic changed the traffic patterns, and it gave us an opportunity to be seen in a way that normally might not have happened.

I also worked through the Massachusetts Restaurant Association to get a grant to upgrade Main Street and the crosswalks.

We wanted to be part of improving the center of town, not just operating a business in it.

The Kids Who Grew Up at The Seal

Cape Cod Livin': One of the things that really stood out to me was what happened with the young people who started working there.

Josh Winston: We hired a lot of kids during that period who suddenly had very little to do because school was happening online.

Some of those kids were eighth-graders going into their freshman year. Now they're in college, and many of them still come back and work with us.

It became much more than just a job. Their parents would come in and watch their kids working their first jobs. They learned things, they grew, and they became part of the community.

Bob Young: We could teach them things, but they taught us just as much.

They taught Josh social media. They taught me about Cape Cod. Every day was a new learning process.

And some of these kids really grew into their jobs. Someone might start out working in the kitchen and eventually become a craft cocktail bartender, taking on more responsibility as they learned and developed.

Josh Winston: Mike has been a huge part of that.

He's an excellent trainer, especially in the kitchen, and the kids really follow his lead.

More Than Pizza

Cape Cod Livin': The pizza has become one of the things people associate with The Seal, but it sounds like that wasn't necessarily the plan.

Josh Winston: It wasn't.

We inherited these huge pizza ovens when we bought the business, but we didn't really have a pizza concept.

Then we hired Bobby, who was a bread maker from Bulgaria. He was very particular about the dough and insisted that it be made fresh every day.

He helped develop the dough and the crust we use today.

Bob Young: We make all our own dough.

Josh Winston: But pizza was never supposed to define us.

I grew up on George's Pizza. I loved Spiro and Yanni, and I didn't want to go head-to-head with something that was already such an important part of my childhood.

So our pizza became its own thing.

But pizza is only one piece of The Seal.

The pub, craft cocktails, fresh espresso, music, outdoor deck and café offerings have all become part of the experience.

The Dog Behind The Name

Cape Cod Livin': There's also a great story behind the name The Seal.

Josh Winston: The story begins long before the restaurant opened, with a homeless puppy in Mobile, Alabama.

Bayou was a black-and-spotted puppy who had been living without a home and spending his days around a local Krystal Burger, hoping for scraps and perhaps someone to take him home.

During a particularly bad hurricane, a man rescued the puppy and gave him a new home. He named him Bayou, eventually bringing him to Harwich.

And that's when Bayou gave The Seal its future name. When Bayou swam in the ocean, he would bob his head in and out of the water, looking remarkably like a seal.

Bob Young: When we were trying to come up with a name for the restaurant, it just seemed perfect.

So The Seal was named after Bayou.

The story is particularly fitting considering how central dogs have been to the owners' lives. The owners have shared that they had four dogs — Gia, Milania, Tanner and Bayou — and enjoyed taking them on daily runs along Red River Beach and Nantucket Sound.

A Place Where Everyone Belongs

Cape Cod Livin': One of the things that struck me during our conversation was how diverse the crowd at The Seal is. Was that intentional?

Bob Young: Very much so.

From the beginning, Mike and I wanted The Seal to be a place where women could walk in by themselves or with friends and feel completely safe and comfortable. That was important to me.

Josh Winston: And that idea naturally grew into something even bigger.

We wanted it to be a comfortable place for anybody. We never wanted it to feel exclusive or like it belonged to one particular group.

People from all different backgrounds come in here — professionals, longtime Cape residents, college students, families and visitors.

Somehow they all end up sharing the same room, and that's become one of my favorite things about The Seal.

Cape Cod Livin': I've always thought of The Seal as a little bit of a Cheers.

Josh Winston: It really has become that.

That's one of the things that was completely unexpected.

Pride, Music and Community

That sense of inclusiveness has also carried into The Seal's events, including Pride.

The owners have consistently wanted The Seal to be a place where people can come together, have fun and be themselves. Music and live entertainment have become an important part of that identity, with events providing another way for the community to gather.

The result is a place that doesn't fit neatly into one category.

You can come in early for fresh espresso and breakfast, stop by later for lunch or dinner, catch some music, sit on the deck, or settle in for a craft cocktail at night.

And they're open every day, from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., 365 days a year — including holidays.

When the Community Steps In

Cape Cod Livin': You mentioned that the community has actually helped you run the business at times.

Bob Young: Absolutely.

We made a decision early on that consistency was important. We wanted people to know that if they came to The Seal, we'd be open.

Six in the morning until one in the morning. Seven days a week.

Christmas, Thanksgiving, holidays — we're here.

There were times when we'd get slammed unexpectedly, and our customers would step in and help.

I remember our neighbors and close friends, Cathy and Mike McKeen, helping us on Thanksgiving, bussing tables and doing dishes.

We've even rebuilt the bar with people standing around drinking.

It became a community effort.

Josh Winston: You get this feeling that people really want you to succeed.

Bob Young: You can't buy magic.

And this created some magic.

The Heartbeat of Harwich Center

Perhaps the most interesting thing about The Seal isn't the pizza, the cocktails, the espresso, the music or even the food.

It's the people.

A business that began with an idea for a small breakfast and coffee shop survived an extraordinary opening, found an unexpected path through the pandemic, gave local teenagers their first jobs and watched many of those kids grow into experienced employees.

It became a place where parents watched their children learn to work, where customers became friends, where people showed up to help when the owners needed them, and where people from remarkably different backgrounds could sit down together in a truly authentic way, in a place they call home.

Bob Young, Josh Winston and Mike Scott may have opened the doors, but the story of The Seal has clearly been written by the people who walked through them.

And perhaps that's what makes the place so difficult to define.

It's a café.

It's a pub.

It's a restaurant.

It's a music venue.

It's a place for a cup of coffee at 6 in the morning and a craft cocktail late at night.

It's a place where a rescued dog named Bayou inspired the name.

But somewhere along the way, it became something else, too.

It became part of the community.

And as Bob put it, you can't buy magic.