PROVINCETOWN — It’s that time of year again when Commercial Street emerges from its winter cocoon with new facades and faces.

As of earlier this week over 20 new businesses and license transfers had been recorded with the town’s licensing agent, Aaron Hobart. The list includes new eateries, the town’s first brewery, two chain stores and a slew of new people behind old businesses.

“It’s always been Claudio’s dream to own his own business,” says Kevin Moss about his husband and business partner Claudio Gervasi. They are the new owners of the East End Market at 212 Bradford St. “So when the opportunity presented itself — it just made sense.”

Like many others, Gervasi and Moss fell in love with Provincetown after vacationing here.

“Then it became, let’s buy a house and retire here,” says Gervasi. “The more we came, the more we wanted to be here full-time.”

A quick online search for a commercial kitchen was all it took to bring them from Midtown Manhattan to Provincetown’s East End.

“I did a Google search and this place came up and I said, ‘Oh, there’s a place in the East End?’ ” Gervasi says. “I had never been here. I didn’t even know it was here. We drove up for the weekend and came to look at it and said, ‘OK, are we really going to do this?’ We crunched some numbers and three months later we were handed the keys to the East End Market.”

Gervasi is offering a variety of sandwiches and prepared meals. Popular items include Gervasi’s bacon-wrapped meatloaf and his goat cheese and mushroom lasagna.

“He does amazing Italian cooking,” Moss says. Gervasi moved to the United States when he was 10 years old.

“I’m Sicilian, not Italian,” he says. “There’s a big difference.”

The store is currently open seven days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and will stay open till 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. as the season gets busier.

Another chef in town is taking her chances in the restaurant biz.

“It’s a pretty amazing story,” says Bethany Gregory, culinary director of the Soup Kitchen in Provincetown (SKIP), which is open only in winter, and owner of the new Tween the Tides in the Aquarium Mall, 207 Commercial St.

“Last summer was rough,” says Gregory of her job at another restaurant. “I was dealing with some problems and I couldn’t do much about the situation because I wasn’t the person in charge of everything. I decided that I either needed to work for myself or I was leaving town. And I voiced that at the beginning of the SKIP season, just to let people know this could potentially be my last season because of my new plan.”

It wasn’t until the former Street Eats stand in the Aquarium Mall opened up that Gregory’s plan changed.

“The season was approaching quickly and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to financially pull it off,” she says. “A lot of work needed to be done in a very short period of time.”

Overhearing her story, someone stepped up.

“One of my SKIP volunteers came forward and said, ‘If you’re sure this is what you want, and if you’re sure this is the place you want to be, I can make it happen,’ ” says Gregory, who promised not to reveal the person’s identity.

Gregory will host an introductory party for Tween the Tides from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Friday, May 17, where she will serve samples off her new menu.

“It’s essentially fast food, but made fresh,” she says.

The “interactive menu” includes homemade pita sandwiches with a choice of lamb gyro, falafel, pork souvlaki, chicken shawarma, marinated tofu and seitan (a vegetarian wheat “meat”) and over a dozen sauces and spice blends. Over half the menu offers vegan and vegetarian items.

Gregory is also bringing something new to town — a picnic basket rental service.

“It’s from an idea that I established when I lived in Philly, but it never made sense in the city,” she says. “People can rent a basket and have it delivered to their porch, or guesthouse, or we can meet them at the breakwater before they go for a hike or head to the beach.”

Each basket comes fully equipped with plates, utensils, napkins, and traditional picnic foods that customers can choose from.

Tween the Tides will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday through Sunday during the off-season and seven days a week during the busier months.

Plans for the town’s first brewery are also in the works at 141 Bradford St.

“Our goal is to be open by July,” says Erik Borg, business partner and director of sales and marketing for Provincetown Brewing Company (PBC). “We have a lot to do, but we are moving really fast.”

Founder and CEO Chris Hartley came up with the PBC idea two years ago.

“We want it to be about two things,” says Borg, “brewing quality craft beer and building community. … We want the tap room to be a really fun and lively meeting place for people. A place to enjoy a drink and friends.”

Once everything is up and running, says Borg, PBC will open at 8 a.m., serving coffee and breakfast foods. It will switch into a typical tap room in the evening.

Three best friends and first-time coffee shop owners are moving into 170 Commercial St.

Mark Shaw, Peter McBrien and Glenn Siegmund (collectively known as MPG) have taken over the former Joe’s Coffee & Café.

“We are the three musketeers,” says Siegmund, the only one of the trio currently living year-round in Provincetown.

Siegmund is the onsite manager focusing on sales and marketing, staffing, public relations, and being the friendly face of the house. Shaw is the head of operations, and McBrien handles all things related to finances.

Siegmund says the business will remain a coffee shop, but with a few new twists, including a slight rebranding of the name.

“It’s just ‘joe,’ ” says Siegmund. “Like a cup of joe.”

As the season comes full swing, joe will also offer “grab and joe” items such as ham, turkey and vegetarian sandwiches. There will also be a nonalcoholic happy hour from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. offering healthy frozen slushies with shots of lavender, wheat grass and other “immune boosting tinctures.”

The coffee shop will be open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m until June 15 and then will stay open until 7:30 p.m.

Other new businesses include the Outermost at 427 Commercial St.; the Greg Salvatori Gallery at 237 Commercial St.; and 361 Coffee & Espresso Bar at 361 Commercial St. Other license transfers include Harbor Hotel at 698 Commercial St.; the Breakwater Hotel at 716 Commercial St.; the Foxberry Inn at 29 Bradford St. Ext.; and the Bradford House Motel at 41 Bradford St. A CVS is opening at 132 Bradford St., and Lululemon is moving into 184 Commercial St.