Restaurants
In Good Company
- By: Kathleen Fleury
On any given summer evening, Maine’s midcoast region offers an enviable range of fine dining options — up until a certain strike of the clock. The witching hour for most restaurants in the area tends to be a strict 9 p.m. Then the ovens turn off, patrons drive home, and the late dinner diner is oft disappointed.
Fuel
- By: Kathleen Fleury
Stepping into Fuel from the stony sidewalks of Lisbon Street, you feel as though you could be in Boston or New York. The posh design inside, with its prominent bar, red walls, and Parisian posters, immedi-ately conjures the ambiance of a big-city eatery, a sharp break from Lewiston’s reputation as lacking the trendy bars and restaurants of nearby Portland.
Fuel — both the feel and the food — might just change that reputation.
Eve's at the Garden
- By: Kathleen Fleury
The Portland Harbor Hotel, which has served as a buttress to the bustling Wharf Street for the past six years, feels like a serene sanctuary inside. Ascend its grand staircase to the lobby and to the adjacent cove of Eve’s at the Garden. There it behooves you to have a seat in a comfy circular booth or tuck yourself away in the enclosed outdoor patio and appreciate Eve’s for what it is: a typical hotel restaurant with atypically fine food.
Massimo’s Cucina Italiana
- By: Kathleen Fleury
Photo Courtesy of Massimo's
Saint Ambrose said it best in 387 A.D.: When in Rome, do as the Romans do. While Mainers might not be able to experience a walk through the Colosseum or gaze at the Sistine Chapel, thanks to a new restaurant in Bangor we can do at least one thing like the Romans: eat.
Natalie's
- By: Kathy Gunst
The bartender offers you a seat on a stunning red cushioned bar chair. The room is a reproduction of a 1900s Rive Gauche Paris bistro, and the gleaming bar is accented with hundred-year-old French tiles. You’re wondering what the perfect drink would be for this setting when the bartender passionately begins telling you about his specialty, Prohibition-style drinks — the Kentucky Speedbump, the Jamaican Daisy. Your companion offers a challenge: can he make a Negroni? No problem.
Evangeline
- By: Kathy Gunst
- Photography by: Jeff Scher
It has become a cliché to say that a restaurant reminds you of Paris. But Erik Desjarlais has done such a wonderful job evoking a Parisian bistro at his new restaurant Evangeline on State Street in downtown Portland, that it would be remiss not to make comparisons. The huge glass window offers great views of Longfellow Square. Below the logo on the window is a picture of a pig and the inscription “Maison Fondée En 2008.” The ceilings are high, behind the bar nests an eclectic assortment of mirrors, and a huge black chalkboard announces the daily specials.
Stripers
- By: Kathy Gunst
- Photography by: Jeff Scher
I didn’t mean to be rude, but when chef James Taylor walked into the dining room at Stripers Waterside Restaurant in Kennebunkport, I blurted out, “How old are you?” Taylor, dressed in a gleaming white chef’s jacket, stumbled. “I’m . . . sometimes I forget. Ah, yes. Just had my twenty-fifth birthday.”
Newcastle Publick House
- By: Virginia M. Wright
- Photography by: Jeff Scher
A pub is a different animal in England than the United States. While the American variety emphasizes drink, the British pub is the heart of the community, a place where friends and families celebrate new jobs, play games, and catch up on gossip over a meal and a pint.
That’s the spirit that the Newcastle Publick House aims to capture in the nineteenth-century Newcastle Square building just above Damariscotta village. Happily it parts from the English tradition when it comes to the menu, though. The food here is good. Really good.
Five-O Shore Road
- By: Michaela Cavallaro
On fine summer nights, you can spot Five-0 Shore Road without a glance at the street numbers: Just look for the line of folks gathered on the sidewalk waiting to get in. Some are waiting for a spot on the patio, where they'll enjoy appetizers, drinks, and some of Ogunquit's best people watching. Others pine for a seat in Five-0's chic dining room, where the floor-to-ceiling windows are flung open when the weather permits and the buttery yellow walls make even the gloomiest day bright.
Cafe This Way
- By: Kim Ridley
The trick to finding a great dinner in a resort town is avoiding three basic tourist traps: the lobster bib scene, the eateries that cash in on scenic views by serving mediocre food, and the outrageously expensive places that max out the credit card. One of the best ways to steer clear of these traps in Bar Harbor is to follow a funky little turquoise sign on Mount Desert Street to Cafe This Way, which serves fresh and lively fare beloved by locals and visitors alike.
