More readers than ever took our annual Readers’ Choice poll this year. First, they nominated their favorites in a write-in round, with the top five vote-getters in each category becoming finalists. Then, some 15,000 Down East readers and fans picked the winners in a final round this summer. Surf the results in more than 50 categories below, along with a few picks from our editors and contributors!
FOOD & DRINK
BURGER
The bourbon burger at Timberwolves, with owner Michael Stiggle’s housemade bourbon-barbecue sauce, cheddar, bacon, and onions. Photographed by Kevin Bennett.
Nosh
Portland
FINALISTS
Black Cow
Portland
Cowbell
Lewiston, Biddeford,
Scarborough
Frank’s Restaurant & Pub
Lisbon Falls
OUR PICKS
A spiffy little roadhouse on Mars Hill’s otherwise sleepy Main Street, Timberwolves serves up respectable barbecue and an absolute gut bomb of a burger, with a half-pound of beef, ground fresh daily, and a rotating slate of sometimes over-the-top fixings: chili, mac and cheese, smoked gouda and apples, kimchi and Swiss, etc. Served with hand-cut fries and often a side of chatter from ebullient owner Michael Stiggle, who renovated a former five-and-dime to open the place in 2017. — Brian Kevin, editor in chief
The outstanding Kobe beef burger at M.C. Perkins Cove began on the menu at co-owners Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier’s old restaurant, the four-star Arrows, and migrated to their more casual Ogunquit waterfront spot. At $26, it has a fine-dining price tag, but the rich, earthy patty dissolves on your tongue like butter, and I never regret the splurge. — Alexandra Hall, contributor
FOOD TRUCK
Chef-owner Tai Choo has been running Brunswick’s Taco the Town food truck since 2016. Photographed by Benjamin Williamson.
Taco the Town
Brunswick
FINALISTS
Bite Into Maine
Portland
Hoss & Mary’s
Wells
MacDaddy’s Seafood & Tots
Lisbon
Pinky D’s
Auburn
OUR PICKS
The name means unity and togetherness, an apt description for a food truck run by Lewiston’s Isuken Co-op, which serves snacks like sambusas, flaky and fried pastries filled with diced vegetables, spices, and chicken, beef, or fish. Since the wheels of this rehabbed truck (a former hot-dog wagon) hit the road in 2018, fans have lined up for traditional dishes made with organic ingredients grown by Somali-Bantu farmers. Isuken’s a mainstay at the Lewiston Farmers’ Market — check Facebook for appearances at other markets and festivals. — Mary Pols, contributor
DOUGHNUT
Holy Donut
Portland, Scarborough
FINALISTS
Congdon’s Doughnuts
Wells
Frosty’s Donuts
Various locations
The Italian Baker
Lewiston
Tony’s Donut Shop
Portland
PIZZA
Portland Pie Company
Various locations
FINALISTS
Coals Portland
Portland
Cushnoc Brewing Co.
Augusta
Otto Pizza
Portland, South Portland,
Yarmouth, Saco
Pat’s Pizza
Various locations
CANDY
Wilbur’s of Maine
Freeport, Brunswick
FINALISTS
Harbor Candy Shop
Ogunquit
Haven’s Candies
Westbrook
Len Libby Candies
Scarborough
Scrummy Afters
Hallowell
APPLE ORCHARD
Rocky Ridge Orchards
Bowdoin
FINALISTS
Libby & Son U-Picks
Limerick
Ricker Hill Orchards
Turner
Thompson’s Orchards
New Gloucester
Wallingford’s Orchard
Auburn
MARKET FOR SEAFOOD
Harbor Fish Market
Portland
FINALISTS
Cantrell’s Seafood
Topsham
Free Range Fish & Lobster
Portland
Jess’s Market
Rockland
Pinkham’s Gourmet Market
Boothbay Harbor
NEW RESTAURANT
Water Street Bar and Grill
Wiscasset
FINALISTS
Coals Portland
Portland
The Garrison
Yarmouth
Portage Tap House
Oquossoc
State Lunch
Augusta
LOBSTER POUND
Five Islands Lobster Co.
Georgetown
FINALISTS
Bayley’s Lobster Pound
Scarborough
Muscongus Bay Lobster Company
Round Pond
Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound
Trenton
Young’s Lobster Pound
Belfast
BREAKFAST
Becky’s
Portland
FINALISTS
Blueberries
Topsham
Congdon’s
Wells
Mae’s Cafe
Bath
Palace Diner
Biddeford
BAKERY
Wild Oats
Brunswick
FINALISTS
Italian Bakery
Lewiston
Scratch Baking
Portland
Standard Baking
Portland
Sweet Cakes Bake Shop
Lisbon
OUR PICKS
Like a lot of people, I barely left my house back in April. I did, however, drive three hours round-trip to get a half-dozen croissants and a loaf of bread the size of my torso from Tinder Hearth, the 13-year-old wood-fired bakery run out of a Brooksville farmhouse. The croissants we ate in the car. The bread — a miche, or a French rustic sourdough — we sliced and froze, and it’s been a source of great comfort in the months since. — Jesse Ellison, contributing editor
There’s a lot to love about downtown Bangor’s Tea & Tarts. The tarts themselves are amazing, buttery little pastry cups with fillings like lemon curd, peanut-butter mousse, and cream cheese and ricotta with spicy blueberry jam. You can try a few with a flight and wash them down with one of 30 different tea varieties, served hot or cold. But the cozy café also has other baked goods and sumptuous sandwiches (my go-tos include the caprese grilled cheese and the cheese Danish with peach-and-jalapeño jam) and (in non-COVID times) a cute kids area with books and toys and a recurring storytime. — Melanie Brooks, contributor
CHOCOLATE
Wilbur’s of Maine
Freeport, Brunswick
FINALISTS
Bixby & Co.
Rockland
Black Dinah
Westbrook
Haven’s
Westbrook, Portland
Len Libby Candies
Scarborough
OUR PICKS
I recently stopped by Monica’s Chocolates, in Lubec, to find owner Monica Elliot in her shop’s doorway, joking with a party of chocoholics that she didn’t have enough sweets to satisfy them. As if. Elliot is in her kitchen daily, churning out huge quantities of her handcrafted bonbons, truffles, and more. Her sea-life–inspired, chocolate-covered caramels are among my faves: sand dollars filled with cashews, sea cucumbers with peanut butter, sea urchins with toffee and a milk-syrup filling Elliot learned to make in her native Peru. The self-taught chocolatier immigrated to Lubec 20 years ago and started her business on a shoestring; today, her shop welcomes hundreds on a typical summer day. — Joyce Kryszak, contributor
LOBSTER ROLL
Red’s Eats
Wiscasset
FINALISTS
Bite Into Maine
Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough,
Portland
Bob’s Clam Hut
Kittery
The Clam Shack
Kennebunk
McLoons Lobster Shack
Spruce Head Island
A perennial Best of Maine winner, Red’s Eats, in Wiscasset, is in its 83rd season and known for its gargantuan lobster rolls. Photographed by Benjamin Williamson.
HARD CIDER
Ricker Hill Hard Cider
Turner
FINALISTS
Kennebec Cider Co.
Winthrop
Norumbega Cidery
New Gloucester
Urban Farm Fermentory
Portland
Whaleback Farm Cider
Lincolnville
OUR PICKS
Bent Bough Cider released its first blend in 2018, a tart and funky collaboration with Rocky Ground Cider, which started in 2013. These last few years, the two cider makers — from Waldo and Newburgh, respectively — have bottled some of Maine’s most nuanced, interesting sips, dry and unfiltered ciders that just might convert you if you’re accustomed to the cloyingly sweet stuff. Both use foraged wild apples — Bent Bough entirely, Rocky Ground with a mix of heirloom orchard varietals — and both allow wild yeasts to do the work of fermentation. Wine lovers call it terroir, and it means these small-batch ciders taste like Maine. — Will Grunewald, senior editor
BAR
King Eider’s Pub
Damariscotta
FINALISTS
Craft Brew Underground
Auburn
Ebenezer’s Pub
Lovell
Mixers Nightclub & Lounge
Sabattus
Old Vines Wine Bar
Kennebunk
OUR PICKS
When friends set us up, we agreed to a date, but the place had to be perfect: Intimate enough for conversation, lively enough to minimize awkward pauses. Shared plates, clever cocktails. Old Vines Wine Bar, in Kennebunk, checked all boxes, and we lingered for hours over pork belly and big pours of Nebbiolo. We’ve since been back more times than we can count, marking changes in seasons from aperol spritzes to black Manhattans. This summer, Old Vines has hosted socially distanced music on its huge patio and shared video recipes for its signature drinks. Soon, I hope, we’ll be back at our favorite window table. Until then, it’s take-out negronis and charcuterie in the house we now share. — Kathryn Miles, contributing editor
DINER
Moody’s Diner
Waldoboro
FINALISTS
A1 Diner
Gardiner
Becky’s Diner
Portland
Maine Diner
Wells
Palace Diner
Biddeford
COFFEE SHOP
Coffee by Design
Portland, Freeport
FINALISTS
Aroma Joe’s
Various locations
Bard Coffee
Portland
Café Crème
Bath
Little Dog
Brunswick
COFFEE ROASTER
Wicked Joe Organic Coffees
Topsham
FINALISTS
Carrabassett Coffee Company
Kingfield
Coffee by Design
Portland
Rock City Coffee
Rockland
Tandem Coffee Roasters
Portland
BREWERY
Allagash Brewing Company
Portland
FINALISTS
Baxter Brewing Co.
Lewiston
Bissell Brothers Brewing
Portland, Milo
Lone Pine Brewing Company
Portland, Gorham
Maine Beer Company
Freeport
WINERY
Cellardoor Winery
Lincolnville, Portland
FINALISTS
Bartlett Maine Estate Winery
Gouldsboro
Dragonfly Farm & Winery
Stetson
DISTILLERY
Cold River
Freeport
FINALISTS
Batson River Brewing & Distilling
Kennebunkport
Hardshore Distilling Company
Portland
Maine Craft Distilling
Portland
Split Rock Distilling
Newcastle
TAPROOM
Readers love Flight Deck’s roomy, café-ish taproom, with its bay doors opening onto a big patio, at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. Photographed by Benjamin Williamson.
Flight Deck Brewing
Brunswick
FINALISTS
Allagash Brewing Company
Portland
Maine Beer Company
Freeport
Oxbow Brewing Company
Newcastle, Portland, Oxford
Side by Each Brewing Co.
Auburn
OUR PICKS
For as long as I’ve been drinking Maine beer, my favorite brewery has been Allagash (readers’ perennial pick). These days, it’s a dead tie with Oxbow Brewing Company, home-based in Newcastle. Each has a terrific flagship — Allagash White, Oxbow Farmhouse Pale — and an ever-expanding universe of subtle saisons, bold sours, and complex barrel-aged ales. Both have stay-awhile taprooms too, but Bissell Brothers Brewing claims my favorite spot to linger over a draft, at its satellite location in little Milo, from whence the brothers hail. Barnwood and industrial design meet in a former snowmobile dealership with a sprawling patio in a quiet, lovely stretch of the state. Pour me another. — Will Grunewald, senior editor
ICE CREAM
It’s the dog days of summer — only appropriate to grab a cone from Pugnuts, in Surry. There’s luscious gelato too. Photographed by Michael D. Wilson.
Fielder’s Choice
Various locations
FINALISTS
Beals
Scarborough, Portland,
South Portland
Gelato Fiasco
Brunswick, Portland
Gifford’s
Various locations
Round Top
Damariscotta
OUR PICKS
How many small shops make A+ ice cream, gelato, and sorbet, all under one roof? At least one. Pugnuts Ice Cream Shop is a cheery former 1800s general store just uphill from Surry’s town wharf — a scenic spot to stroll with a cone. Yes, the owners are nuts about pugs. My go-to is the made-to-order ice-cream sandwich, with vanilla or coffee between chocolate pug-face cookies. Don’t sleep on the arboreal flavors of the “north woods collection”: birch bark, maple walnut, and oak with whiskey sauce. — Will Grunewald
It’s open year-round, but I still look forward to my first summer cone at Liberty’s John’s Ice Cream Factory. The offerings, churned in house, range from classics like strawberry, vanilla, and a notably crumb-packed cookies-and-cream to more offbeat flavors, like apple crisp, peppermint anise, and chocolate orange peel. Even the brownies in the eponymous sundaes are homemade. John Ascrizzi has been making ice cream at his Route 3 shop for more than 20 years, and his scoops, floats, and cute, thin-wafered ice-cream sandwiches taste even better after a day at Lake St. George State Park, a mile down the road. — Frances Killea, contributor
SHOPPING & LIFESTYLE
TOY STORE
Island Treasure Toys
Yarmouth, Freeport, Bath
FINALISTS
Daytrip Jr.
Kennebunkport
Kennebunk Toy Company
Kennebunk
Out on a Whimsy
Belfast
Treehouse Toys
Portland
Run, don’t walk, to Island Treasure Toys, readers’ pick for playthings. Photographed by Kari Herer.
BOOKSTORE
Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops
Various locations
FINALISTS
Gulf of Maine Books
Brunswick
Left Bank Books
Belfast
Longfellow Books
Portland
Print: A Bookstore
Portland
SHOE STORE
Lamey Wellehan
Various locations
FINALISTS
Colburn Shoe Store
Belfast
Curtis Family Shoes
Ellsworth, Blue Hill
Fleet Feet
Brunswick
Selby Shoes
South Portland
BARGAIN STORE
Renys
Various locations
FINALISTS
Big Al’s Super Values
Wiscasset
Estilo
Brunswick
GearME
Freeport
Marden’s
Various locations
OUR PICKS
I’m not much of a shopper, but I always get a pep in my step when I’m buying outdoor gear, excited about my next adventure. Pricey new gear can be a gamble, though — you often don’t know how well it fits or functions until you’ve tested it in the field, thereby rendering it nonreturnable. So I love Freeport’s GearME consignment shop, which Emily Kirkton opened in 2018 after a decade of managing Outdoor Discovery School programs for L.L.Bean. You can save on everything from skis to kayaks, rent gear, and give your own gently used stuff a second life by consigning it for cash or store credit (so you can buy more gear!). — Jennifer Van Allen, branded content editor
SPA
River’s Edge Spa
and Salon
Kennebunk
FINALISTS
Athlete’s Touch
Portland
Lucinda’s Day Spa
Falmouth
Nine Stones
Portland
Soakology
Portland
OUR PICKS
So many spas usher patrons into dim, candlelit rooms in the name of relaxation. Then there’s the Spa at Cliff House, where guests relax before their treatments in the Seaside Sanctuary, a huge chamber with golden light flooding in through floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the ocean and rocky shore below. The rest of the spa’s 9,000 square feet of saunas, steam rooms, and treatment spaces feel similarly inspired by the resort’s natural surroundings, with treatments that incorporate sea salt and rose petals — a nod to the wild beach roses growing along the dunes outside. — Alexandra Hall, contributor
Come for the treatments, stay for the view at the Spa at Cliff House. Photographs courtesy of Cliff House.
CAR DEALER, USED
Lee Auto Malls
Various locations
FINALISTS
Crafts Cars
Lisbon
Charlie’s Motor Mall
Augusta
Goodwin Chevrolet Buick
Oxford
Norm’s Used Cars
Wiscasset
CAR DEALER, NEW
Lee Auto Malls
Various locations
FINALISTS
Charlie’s Motor Mall
Augusta
Evergreen Subaru
Auburn
Patriot Subaru
Saco
Prime Motor Group
Various locations
PET STORE
Pet Pantry
Freeport
FINALISTS
Loyal Biscuit Co.
Various locations
Reigning Cats & Dogs
Kennebunk
Wags & Whiskers
Bath
GIFT SHOP
Lisa-Marie’s Made in Maine
Portland/Bath
FINALISTS
Daytrip Society
Kennebunkport
EllieAnna Gift Shop
Lewiston/Freeport
Home Ingredients
Kennebunkport
Wyler’s
Brunswick
OUR PICKS
What makes a gift shop more than just the sum of inventory? Imaginative variety, like at Brambles, in downtown Belfast, where shelves groan with a funky jumble of antique, animal-shaped door hooks, Victorian birdcages, intricately embroidered pillows, and statues of raku blue jays, modernist bunnies, and more. Less quirky but equally inspired is the trove of artful scores at Boothbay Harbor’s AE Home. Ceramicist Alison Evans’s crystalline-cast pieces include gleaming plates and huge bowls shaped like oysters and sea urchins. They’re sold alongside everything from feather-soft cashmere sweaters and hand-dipped candles to exquisite black-and-white Maine landscape photos. — Alexandra Hall, contributor
WOMEN’S BOUTIQUE
Women of Substance
Damariscotta
FINALISTS
Coyote Moon
Belfast
Eastcraeft
Lisbon Falls
House of Logan
Bath
Sasha Lee’s Romance Boutique
Lewiston
OUR PICKS
In Rockland, impeccably curated Daughters is the rare shop where the proprietor seems as likely to talk you out of buying something as into it. Owner Ariel Birke encourages her customers to buy only those items they’ll want to wear like a uniform. She has exquisite taste and a sharp eye for what suits, and during the pandemic, she started a concierge service, dropping bags of hand-selected items off at the homes of local clients with a stern warning: only keep what you absolutely have to have. — Jesse Ellison, contributing editor
YOGA STUDIO
Freeport Yoga
Freeport
FINALISTS
Crow Point Yoga
Boothbay Harbor
The Daily Sweat
Kennebunk
Greener Postures
Portland
Good Seeds Yoga
Gardiner
GYM/FITNESS CENTER
Rangeley Health and Wellness
Rangeley
FINALISTS
Jibe Cycling Studio
Portland
Quest Fitness
Kennebunk
Spurling Fitness
Kennebunk
OUR PICKS: POTPOURRI
In a state where the mom-and-pop general store is still a revered institution, your favorite local business may well be an unclassifiable shop with a motley mix of merchandise. I’m known to hold down a stool at Rockport’s 47 West, a top-notch espresso bar that is also a gift shop that is also a bookstore with a superb selection of cookbooks and (what do you know?) indie graphic novels and manga. Also, the pastry display, full of spectacularly decadent cookies, can go toe-to-toe with any bakery in Maine. On the more proletarian side, shout out to Gott’s Store, in Southwest Harbor, fresh off its 75th anniversary. In a year when takeout is king, the fourth-generation family market has been a go-to for Mount Desert Islanders (and savvy tourists) out to grab good pizza, sandwiches, or a surprisingly tasty lobster roll on the cheap. Plus gas, groceries, and an ice-cream counter (and it opens at 3:30 a.m.). — Brian Kevin, editor in chief
I love the creak of the 19th-century wood floors at Machias River General, in downtown Machias. And I love how co-owner Gina Finn highlights Maine makers and farmers on the store’s shelves. A dance teacher at nearby Washington Academy, Finn took over the former Machias Hardware last year, together with her husband and another couple. It’s a kitchen store and specialty market — selling cast iron, snazzy cutlery, bulk spices, Maine-roasted coffee, local eggs, and so on — but it’s also a place to grab outdoor essentials, like Maine-tied fishing flies in the summer and ice-fishing tackle in the winter. Plus, old-school penny candy — I’m a sucker for candy buttons and Bazooka gum. — Jennifer Hazard, contributor
TRAVEL & PLAY
MARINA
Dolphin Marina
Harpswell
FINALISTS
DiMillo’s Marina
Portland
Moose Landing Marina
Naples
Paul’s Marina
Brunswick
Spring Point Marina
South Portland
More than just moorings: Famed for its lobster stew and blueberry muffins,
reader fave Dolphin Marina has lawn dining with Casco Bay views. Photographed by Benjamin Williamson.
SKI MOUNTAIN
Sugarloaf
Carrabassett Valley
FINALISTS
Black Mountain of Maine
Rumford
Lost Valley
Auburn
Shawnee Peak
Bridgton
Sunday River
Newry
BOAT CRUISE/
EXCURSION
Hardy Boat Cruises
New Harbor
FINALISTS
Casco Bay Lines Mailboat
Portland
Rangeley Region Lake Cruises
Rangeley
Schooner Alert
Bailey Island
HOTEL/RESORT
Samoset Resort
Rockport
FINALISTS
Boothbay Harbor Oceanside Golf Resort
Boothbay Harbor
Harraseeket Inn
Freeport
Quisisana Resort
Lovell
Spruce Point Inn
Boothbay Harbor
GOLF COURSE
Samoset Resort
Rockport
FINALISTS
Boothbay Harbor Country Club
Boothbay
Cape Arundel Golf Club
Kennebunkport
Poland Spring Resort
Poland
Sugarloaf
Carrabassett Valley
OUR PICKS
One of the coolest courses I’ve played in Maine is the Bath Golf Club, where I paid all of $20 to walk an 18-hole course originally designed in 1932 by renowned golf architect Wayne Stiles. The course is full of memorable holes, playing over and around water, exposed rock, and long, wispy grass. My favorite spot might be the 11th tee shot, over a hill covered by a stone outcropping, with the potential to shoot a ball in any direction. Surrounded by woods, marsh, and low hills, it’s an exciting, budget-friendly course in a tranquil location. — Desi Isaacson, contributor
B&B/
INN
Brunswick Inn
Brunswick
FINALISTS
Harraseeket Inn
Freeport
Newagen Seaside Inn
Southport
Spruce Point Inn
Boothbay Harbor
Squire Tarbox Inn
Wiscasset
OUR PICKS
If god really is, as they say, in the details, then the seven simple cottages and four suites at Aragosta at Goose Cove may be heaven on earth. The vintage cottages feel airy, with their white draperies and linens, and little touches include exposed wooden beams, local art on the walls, and vases of fresh flowers grown by owner Devin Finnegan, who is both the acclaimed chef at the Aragosta restaurant and a certified master gardener. Step out into an intoxicating swirl of pines, salt air, and ocean views, spend the day hiking moss-covered trails and lounging on a private beach, fall asleep at night to the sound of distant fog signals. — Alexandra Hall, contributor
ARTS & CULTURE
PRIVATE SCHOOL, ELEMENTARY
Thornton Academy
Saco
FINALISTS
St. Brigid School
Portland
Maine Coast Waldorf School
Freeport
North Yarmouth Academy
Yarmouth
Waynflete School
Portland
PRIVATE SCHOOL, SECONDARY
Thornton Academy
Saco
FINALISTS
Cheverus High School
Portland
Lincoln Academy
Newcastle
North Yarmouth Academy
Yarmouth
Waynflete School
Portland
OUR PICKS: THE WEB
Big year for podcasts, with more people tuning in as part of their non-commute routine and more producers (perhaps with extra free time) launching shows. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Fish + Game Changers debuted in February, pre-pandemic, but it’s been a comfort listen. Host Katie Yates, DIFW’s public outreach specialist, has a not-quite-whispered, old-school-NPR delivery (think SNL’s old Delicious Dish spoof). Her conversations — with women biologists in one series, K9 partner wardens in the next, and Sebago Lake watershed experts in the most recent — are full of smart tidbits about Maine’s natural resources, but the appeal is hearing the backstories and evident passion of the folks stewarding Maine’s woods and waters. The show is available on podcast platforms like Apple and Stitcher and at mefishwildlife.com/changers.
In an epoch of podcasts, micro-videos, and social-media screeds, it’s easy to overlook how much discipline and consistent thoughtfulness go into running a really vital blog. Since 2008, Portland’s Shay Stewart-Bouley has blogged her experiences as a woman of color in a very white state at Black Girl in Maine. These days, the site has a stable of contributors weighing in on the ongoing struggle against racial injustice here and across the country. Stewart-Bouley is a powerful writer and storyteller, and the site is provocative in the sense of pushing Mainers to think about topics that are difficult — and necessary. — Brian Kevin, editor in chief
ART GALLERY
Gleason Fine Art
Boothbay Harbor
FINALISTS
Greenhut Galleries
Portland
Harlow Gallery
Hallowell
Littlefield Gallery
Winter Harbor
Maine Art Hill
Kennebunk
OUR PICKS
Housed in a simple, 19th-century general store on the bank of the York River, the George Marshall Store Gallery blends austere Yankee history (it’s a property of the Old York Historical Society) with adventurous contemporary art in every medium. Group shows might blend textiles, furniture, photography, and painting. Occasionally, hors d’oeuvres and cocktails at the opening receptions cleverly complement the art — curator Mary P. Harding remembers a show called 32 Degrees of Winter where she served snow cones. The York gallery’s 25th season finds it open by appointment only, but the website makes it easy to sign up for a slot. For an anniversary retrospective opening in October, Harding is filling the gallery with memorable pieces from past shows. — Genevieve Morgan, contributor
THEATER
Maine State Music Theatre
Brunswick
FINALISTS
Quisisana Resort
Lovell
Portland Stage
Portland
The Public Theatre
Lewiston
Theater at Monmouth
Monmouth
MUSEUM
Portland Museum of Art
Portland
FINALISTS
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Brunswick
Farnsworth Art Museum
Rockland
Washburn-Norlands Living History Center
Livermore Falls
OUR PICKS
The Colby College Museum of Art is Maine’s largest art museum, with a strong claim to being its best. With more than 10,000 works of art housed in a lavish 54,000-square-foot complex in Waterville, the museum is the envy of small colleges nationwide. It has benefitted from the generosity of benefactors, including artist Alex Katz and his chief collector, Paul Schupf, and Peter and Paula Lunder (Peter is the former president of Dexter Shoe Company), who gave the museum their personal collection of more than 500 works by the likes of Georgia O’Keeffe, James McNeill Whistler, Pablo Picasso, and Alexander Calder. When it’s open, the museum is as likely to show a conceptual video installation about climate change as a Winslow Homer deep dive as a collection of weather vanes, all free of charge. The pandemic has it closed, but kudos to the museum for launching online exhibitions and virtual curator chats. — Edgar Allen Beem, contributing editor
In July 1870, at the invitation of the state, 53 Swedish homesteaders arrived in Aroostook County to begin carving out a new life. Their stories and culture — and those of their descendants — are preserved at the New Sweden Museum. The three-story building, named the Capitolium by the immigrant Swedes, shows off photos and artifacts that include original, handcrafted cross-country skis (a conveyance the settlers introduced to Maine). Worth a visit on the 150th anniversary of Maine’s Swedish colony. — Ronald Joseph, contributor
HOME & GARDEN
GARDEN CENTER/ NURSERY
Longfellow’s Greenhouses
Manchester
FINALISTS
Broadway Gardens
South Portland
Estabrook’s
Yarmouth
Moose Crossing Garden Center
Waldoboro
Skillins Greenhouses
Brunswick, Falmouth, Cumberland
OUR PICKS
There are bigger and better-known greenhouses around greater Portland, but the gardeners in my family swear by Garden Spot Farm, in North Pownal. It’s a modest mom-and-pop affair, a seasonal nursery that started as the Peaslee family’s farm stand back in 1972. But the little cluster of greenhouses produces some 900 varieties of flowering plants, plus the vegetables that were once the farm stand’s mainstay, and the Peaslees, who still run the place, have bark, loam, mulch, compost, and other horticultural helpers. My daughter, our family’s true green thumb, swears the plants are hardier than at other greenhouses, and she has a hard time passing up the $1 “perennial of the week.” — Edgar Allen Beem, contributing editor
From left to right: Will, Sandra, and Scott Longfellow, the family behind reader favorite Longfellow’s Greenhouses, in Manchester. Photographed by Dave Dostie.
BUILDER
Knickerbocker Group
Boothbay Harbor
FINALISTS
Goodwin Builders
Rangeley
Marden Builders Inc.
Boothbay Harbor
Ouellet Construction
Brunswick
Spang Builders
Kennebunkport
FURNITURE STORE
Thos. Moser
Freeport
FINALISTS
Chilton Furniture
Scarborough, Freeport
Dow Furniture
Waldoboro
FX Marcotte
Lewiston
Youngs Furniture
Portland
ARCHITECT
Knickerbocker Group
Boothbay Harbor
FINALISTS
Caleb Johnson Studio
Portland
CWS Architects
Portland
Kaplan Thompson Architects
Portland
Platz Associates
Auburn
HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE
Hammond Lumber
Various locations
FINALISTS
Ames True Value
Wiscasset
Aubuchon Hardware
Belfast
Maine Hardware
Portland
Rangeley Lakes Builders Supply
Rangeley
OUR PICKS
We should all be so lucky to have a local hardware store like Rankin’s Hardware, in Camden, where staffers are unfailingly helpful and deeply knowledgeable and consistently treat my most boneheaded queries with the same time, consideration, and respect they give the professional contractor in line behind me. I’ve had 30-minute conversations about the relative merits of various screws and the particularities of $6 cans of spray paint, and there’s always someone to help me navigate the warren of rooms out back, looking for the perfect piece of wood. — Jesse Ellison, contributing editor
OUR PICKS: FAMILY
Portland’s Indigo Arts Alliance intended to launch the inaugural Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival as a kind of literary block party, hosting readings, concerts, and workshops on a closed-down Portland street. When the pandemic forced a shift to the web, the planners “made lemonade out of lemons,” says Márçia Minter, who cofounded Indigo Arts Alliance, an incubator org for artists of color, last year with her husband, artist Daniel Minter. It became a summer-long, online story-telling fest, a weekly series of gorgeously produced videos of top-notch authors and illustrators reading and discussing their work, paired with videos and printable instructions for hands-on projects (welcomed by those of us with some extra childcare responsibilities during quarantine). Books include Beautiful Blackbird, by Maine author and illustrator Ashley Bryan, to whom the festival is dedicated, and author Kelly Starling Lyons’s Going Down Home with Daddy, for which illustrator Daniel Minter recently picked up a Caldecott Honor. The festival runs through August, after which the storytelling videos come down, though the discussion clips and craft materials will stay live. — Brian Kevin, editor in chief
Exploring new terrain can be daunting when your main hiking buddy is still potty training. So I love the Royal River Conservation Trust’s Rain or Shine Club, an easygoing weekly hike, led by RRCT guides, through preserves near me in Yarmouth. Though the excursions are on pandemic hold as of July, my son and I attended religiously before he was in school, forging bonds that have endured long after the hikes. Plenty of Maine’s land trusts have similar family-friendly hiking clubs. Check with the one nearest you. —Jennifer Van Allen, branded content editor
