Tag: Maine restaurants

Coastal Cuisine: Eating Around

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Seafood, especially lobster rolls and fried haddock, is served everywhere in Maine, but there is a lot of other good food to be had too. For my friends and those who might be traveling to this coast, here are some of the places we’ve most enjoyed in the greater Boothbay region.

Harborside Tavern (Boothbay Harbor)

A familiar location with new owners and chef, this second floor space with its maple tables and chairs has outside seating on the screened porch overlooking the water and inside tables and a large square bar.  The quesadilla was one of the best I’ve ever had and their ribs and cole slaw also from the tavern menu were also very good.  From the entree listing, the halibut with steamed spinach on a bed of tomato risotto was both pretty and tasty.

Ports of Italy (Boothbay Harbor)

For something other than pizza, this longtime Italian favorite delivers consistently delicious fare.  Many of the pastas are homemade and their veal piccata served with julienned vegetables is an excellent rendition.  Located on the second floor, there are tables both inside and on their screened porch.  No view so either seating is acceptable.

Thistle Inn (Boothbay Harbor)

Up the hill from the waterfront, the Thistle Inn (dating from 1861) might at first seem more appropriate for winter than summer with its dim interior and cozy bar area.  But, they have lovely tables on their side porch and, in good weather, this is the place to be!  My favorites here include their butter poached lobster in pastry appetizer and the salmon entree. In my experience, you won’t go wrong whatever you choose.  And you can even arrange to stay overnight!

Newagen Seaside Inn (Southport Island)

This longtime resort is the scene of many weekend weddings, but also has a most attractive dining room–bar area, semi-circular porch and outside deck, all overlooking a broad lawn sloping down to the water.  The menu is nicely varied and includes everything from beef sliders to stuffed halibut to lobster and lobster rolls, chicken, and flatbreads.  I’m partial to their firecracker shrimp appetizer and recently, an herb crusted swordfish with mushroom risotto.  It’s open for lunch and dinner and can accommodate families with kids.

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Squire Tarbox Inn (Wiscasset)

This historic inn (originally built in 1763 with an 1820 addition) is in the country on Westport Island outside Wiscasset. It would be a cozy place in the cold weather with its fireplaces and dark wood.  In the summer, their screened porch is the place to be with a view out to the garden. The chef and co-owner is Swiss and his veal in a mushroom cream sauce served over rosti potatoes is tasty comfort food, no matter what the season. The house salad is fresh greens and includes a tangle of julienned celariac in a mustardy mayonnaise. Other entrees include lamb, duck breast, halibut and a seductive vichyssoise.  This is relaxed fine dining!

Francine (Camden)

This small mainly French restaurant just off the main drag is cozy and comfortable with very good food.  The halibut I had was perfectly cooked and attractively served with spinach and a few walnuts.  Others in our group raved about the corn soup and the lamb.

Hot Suppa (Portland)

Beyond the art museum and in an area less frequented by tourists, this little place is a haven for breakfast and lunch, although they also serve dinner.  We went for lunch and were surprised that it was packed so we had a 20 minute wait for a booth.  Definitely worth the wait!  Everything was delicious from the French egg scramble with cheese (and other additions you choose) to the corned beef hash to the eggs Benedict and the cole slaw.  Both the breakfast and lunch menus are available at lunchtime, hence cole slaw with my eggs!

 

Header photo by JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maine Musings: Restaurants & Reading

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LAZY DAYS

Being in Maine promotes being lazy—watching the lobster boats circling to check their traps, observing the patterns of sun and shadow on the garden lilies, letting the hours slink by without any pressure. It’s also getting together with friends, shopping at the weekly farmers’ market, and exploring new venues.

This week we returned to Portland for lunch at the Blue Spoon with new Florida friends. The café is small and serves good food that is more interesting than the usual sandwiches and burgers. It’s located on Munjoy Hill in a section of the city we hadn’t previously discovered. After lunch we walked down the hill to the waterfront and strolled along the Eastern Promenade. Stately old frame houses with widows’ walks and porches line the opposite side of the promenade, several with condo for sale signs. A tempting prospect.

We also had dinner at the Newagen Inn, the place we came to stay twenty-five years ago for the first of our annual visits. The inn has changed over the years and become more elegant—the latest addition an impressive portico and re-worked entrance drive. What hasn’t changed, however, is its lovely location on the point of land known as Cape Newagen. The casual restaurant has a cozy bar area and a porch-like section with big windows perfect for admiring the view to the sea. You can also sit outdoors on a wrap around porch with umbrella tables. We all enjoyed the excellent halibut on a bed of risotto studded with sundried tomatoes and greens. The chef, a tall young woman in a ball cap, came out to chat and enthusiastically shared her plans for future menus.

BEACH READS

With the relaxed pace of these weeks comes the desire to indulge in good stories, novels that are absorbing with convincing characters and a strong narrative arc. Here are two I read this week, one definitely better than the other.

Haven Lake by Holly Robinson. This novelist is also a ghost writer and she was new to me. Set in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, this is a novel of complicated family dynamics—an estranged mother and daughter (both adults and the mother a sheep farmer), an unhappy teenager, and a surgeon fiancé who seems obsessed with his work. Add to this a mystery about two deaths that occurred twenty years ago and you have an intriguing slew of emotions. I thought the portrait of 15 year old Dylan was especially well drawn.

Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes. I like Moyes’ work and thought Me Before You was an exceptional novel due to its subject matter. I also enjoyed The Last Letter from Your Lover. This novel is one of her earliest and it shows. It isn’t as tightly constructed and, to my lights, could have used more focus and more editing. That said, it’s set in Australia at a hotel that attracts tourists who come to see the whales and the dolphins on Silver Bay. When a developer has plans to build a new hotel and retail complex, there is immediate conflict between the outside firm and the local whalesavers and environmentalists.