Jon Dempster, founder, in the Deadrise kitchen.

Our story

From the dish pit to the Eastern Shore.

Jon Dempster grew up in Rockport, Massachusetts, a fishing town on the North Shore, and started in restaurants in 1995. The years that followed ran through kitchens, dining rooms and bars from Seattle to Boston to Los Angeles, each one a lesson in what makes a place worth coming back to: good food, a warm welcome, and a team that looks out for each other.

In 2009 Jon signed on as crew aboard the Arvor, a Scottish-built boat whose teak hull was harvested by elephants in what is now Myanmar. The plan was a winter living aboard in Tortola. But the boat had just changed hands, and when those plans fell through, Graeme Bisdee stepped in and sailed her, with Jon aboard, home to Cape Charles instead. Graeme is now one of Jon’s dearest friends, and without him, none of what follows would have happened. A job behind the bar at Kelly’s Gingernut Pub on Mason Avenue, run by Gene and Colleen Kelly, turned a stopover into a home.

With a push from harbor master Smitty Dize, Jon and his longtime friend and fellow Rockport native Mike Doyle opened The Shanty on the marina in 2012. They built it around a few simple commitments: great hospitality, local seafood, and giving back to the town that made their dream come true. Those values still guide every one of our places.

The friendship outlasted the voyage. Today Graeme is Jon’s business partner and co-founder in The Shanty, Deadrise and E&O Pub.

In 2025 the story came full circle, when the team bought Kelly’s — the pub where it all began on the Shore — and reopened it as E&O.

1. 2009
   Jon arrives in Cape Charles.
2. 2012
   The Shanty opens.
3. 2012
   Brown Dog Ice Cream opens, founded by Miriam Januese.
4. 2016
   Deadrise Italian Kitchen opens.
5. 2023
   Brown Dog Ice Cream joins CCRG.
6. 2025
   E&O Pub opens.