Darlene Baker, general manager at Clancy’s restaurant in Dennis Port, describes herself as a “huge HGTV fan” who has followed the career of frequent HGTV show host/judge David Bromstad for years.
So, she said it was “very exciting” when she was contacted in November by producers of Bromstad’s “My Lottery Dream Home” reality show, saying they wanted to film part of an episode at Clancy’s. She was the only employee in the closed restaurant in December when the segment was filmed — under strict COVID-19 precautions — with Bromstad and a Massachusetts couple.
Now, Baker can’t wait to watch when the resulting episode airs at 8 tonight on the home-oriented cable channel.
“Hopefully, people will watch! We’re going to have all the TVs on at work,” Baker said Thursday.
"Hopefully you can tell it’s Clancy’s … (and) hopefully we’re still in it," she joked.
She’s optimistic that the scene wasn’t cut because staff at Clancy’s and The Oyster Company Raw Bar & Grille, also in Dennis Port, were notified by email this week about tonight’s debut, as was Sarah Lapsley Martin, sales associate at Kinlin Grover Real Estate in Yarmouth Port.
'My Lottery Dream House':Vacation Time at the Cape episode
The plot of “My Lottery Dream Home” is described this way on the HGTV show’s website:
“David Bromstad takes recent lottery winners on over-the-top house hunts for their new dream homes. Whether they win hundreds of thousands or hundreds of millions, lucky lottery winners everywhere are jumping headfirst into the real estate market. Will they spend all their winnings on an extravagant mansion or settle for a humble sound investment?"
Episode 7 of Season 11, due to airtonight, is called “Vacation Time at the Cape,” and those “average Americans” are a Massachusetts couple that HGTV says havebeen vacationing with their family on Cape Cod for over 30 years.
"Thanks to a scratch-off jackpot, they're buying a dream home there! David must work fast to help them snatch up their perfect place in this hot market," according to a description of the episode.
Staff at the Dennis Port restaurants were able to say filming was done there, but reveal little else. Lapsley Martin said she actually got to film a scene with Bromstad in December in which they talked about possible home listings around Cape Cod, including one of hers in Marstons Mills.
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Meeting the 'My Lottery Dream House' host
Bromstad, described by HGTV as an “ace designer, real-estate advisor, TV personality, snappy dresser, bon vivant and general purveyor of positive vibes," was the winner of the 2006 debut season of “HGTV Design Star” and was later a judge on the show. His other HGTV credits include hosting “Color Splash with David Bromstad” and “Color Splash Miami.”
“I was so excited to meet him,” Lapsley Martin said Thursday. “I was a little anxious to meet someone who’s a TV star. I (thought) ‘What if this guy is a big diva?' But he was so nice … so down to earth, and he made you feel comfortable.”
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Lapsley Martin said she had actually thought the original email query was spam and didn’t believe a TV show was asking for her help. Then she said she Googled “My Lottery Dream Home” and said, “Oh, my God!”
'What’s Good Cape Cod' the YouTube show
For the past year, Lapsley Martin has starred in the weekly “What’s Good Cape Cod” YouTube show, on which she and Katie Clancy, sales vice president for William Raveis real estate in Yarmouth Port, spotlight “a person, a place and a thing people should know about Cape Cod” for each episode (whatsgoodcc.com).
Experience on that show “definitely helped me be more comfortable when HGTV came by,” Lapsley Martin said. Filming the “Dream Home” segment “was a very cool experience. I’m honored I was asked to be on it.”
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Since the filming, she said, it’s been hard to keep her involvement a secret until this week’s email encouraged participants to spread the word on social media. Everyone did.
Lapsley Martin’s capecodproperties Instagram account includes a post (liked by 663 people as of Thursday afternoon, with 179 comments) telling people to catch the episode.
“We loved having David at our office and sending him to our listing in Marstons Mills!” read the post, which also thanks the sellers for allowing the house to be filmed.
Clancy’s Facebook page revealed the “long-kept secret” and included the hashtags #davidbromstad #hessuchaniceguy.
The Oyster Company also posted the news on social media this week, and chef/owner Greg Burns said his staff is thrilled about tonight’s episode.
“A lot of my servers love the show,” he said. Being involved “was kind of neat. … (but) I’m not sure what to expect. I don’t know if we’ll be there for 10 seconds or 10 minutes.”
Contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at kdriscoll@capecodonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @KathiSDCCT.
