By Brian Kevin
Photos by Dave Waddell
From our August 2024 issue
The year was 1932. Bing Crosby topped the charts, Roosevelt led the polls, and Amelia Earhart had just flown across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, in Presque Isle, Aroostookers were celebrating the opening of the Northeastland, a grand brick hotel built to the tune of $200,000 to replace an old wooden one that kept catching fire. “Dancing! Music! Cabaret!” proclaimed an ad for the hotel’s inaugural soiree. “The magnificent new Northeastland,” it declared, would offer a “telephone in every room” and “unexcelled cuisine.”
The hotel has anchored downtown PI ever since. But until recently, it has more or less punted on the cuisine thing. Back in 2020, COVID forced the closure of the Northeastland’s street-facing restaurant, the Sidewalk Cafe, a diner-ish spot where old-timers held down a horseshoe counter and families gathered for after-church brunches. The fate of the hotel was in question too. So it was big news when a nonprofit called Ignite Presque Isle bought the place in 2021, promising renovation and revitalization — along with a brand-new restaurant.
Rodney’s at 436 Main opened at the tail end of 2022. And if it isn’t “unexcelled cuisine” exactly, it’s certainly no diner. A community anchor and one of the highest-aiming restaurants north of Bangor, it’s well worth a reservation the next time you’re in the County. I brought the whole family earlier this year, and we ordered hungry. The dinner menu at Rodney’s, updated seasonally, is a lot to take in. On our visit, it comprised eight entrées, four pastas, five sandwiches, some salads and soups, and eight appetizers (some of which have since spun off onto a four-item poutine menu). The name of the game is crowd-pleasing American with an adventurous streak.
We started with a couple of appetizers. A mussels Provençal dish was nice and rich, piled generously with Prince Edward Island shellfish. The fried calamari, tossed with cotija cheese and chili sauce, was creative and tasty, if a little gooier than expected. (Rodney’s sauces dishes liberally; if you’re more of a minimalist, you might ask for restraint.) One of our entrées paired scallops with a decadent maple-cream sauce. Another was a gorgeously plated row of grilled bone-in lamb chops, perfectly tender and drizzled with balsamic and a bright chutney. Portions were lavish — half the lamb came home with me, although I also snuck in bites of my son’s hefty cheeseburger, with its sweet brioche bun.
As we ate, we tried to interpret the dining room’s décor, which includes vintage-style posters from Pebble Beach auto shows and grilles from Alfa Romeo sports cars. As LeRae Kinney, Ignite PI’s CEO, later explained, these pay tribute to the restaurant’s late namesake, Rodney Smith, a Silicon Valley exec and philanthropist with a fondness for retro race cars. He was married to Presque Isle native Mary Barton Akeley Smith, who facilitated a $1.5 million gift from the couple’s foundation, allowing Ignite PI to purchase the Northeastland.
Even without knowing the backstory, the car motif — along with a lively bar and the room’s bebop-jazz soundtrack — gave the place a fun, approachable vibe. “We want a little touch of class without being pretentious,” Kinney says. “The line we walk is to be a place for a business dinner or date night, but where you can also come in wearing jeans and a hoodie and get a beer.”
The Upta Camp, an applewood-smoked old-fashioned (top left), matches the dining room’s homey vibe (bottom left); director of operations Collin Darrell (right) shakes up a cocktail.
To dispel any inkling that Rodney’s takes itself too seriously, consider the signature dessert: Maine “Potato” Ice Cream. A spud-shaped mound of Houlton Farms Dairy vanilla is dusted with cocoa powder to look potato-ish. Whipped cream on top resembles sour cream, while toasted coconut stands in for cheese and crushed pistachios for scallions. It’s a dead ringer for a loaded baker of the sort Aroostook farms are known for: a local standard at a glance, surprising once you dig in. Could say the same about Rodney’s.
