Travel

Star-bright, starry night, the pleasures within at the Camden Harbour Inn’s Natalie’s Restaurant

August 7, 2015 / / Restaurants, Travel

Housed in the stylish Camden Harbor Inn, Natalie’s Restaurant is one of the most mesmeric dining spots in Maine.  Both the inn and the restaurant throb with creature comforts.   And the best way to experience this is through total immersion.  That means not just arriving for dinner but, rather, to stay at the inn, making the dining experience part of an overnight adventure in this sublimely scenic coastal village.

Garden entry at the inn

Garden entry at the inn

That’s exactly what I did, and one of the best parts of this pleasurable sojourn was waking up to have breakfast on the covered porch on a serene morning that concluded my stay.

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The infinite pleasures of Francine Bistro in picture-perfect Camden, one of Maine’s prettiest seaside villages

July 31, 2015 / / Restaurants, Travel

The Zeitgeist of farm-to-table American cuisine at Francine Bistro prevailed long before the term was tossed around everywhere.  In fact, it’s virtually second nature to chef and proprietor Brian Hill whose Camden bistro remains a dining destination since 2003. He employs not just the familiar fusing of farm-to-fork but, rather, each dish is a study in simplicity, of copacetic flavors that spring from his magical well of culinary methodology. In a word the food is delicious!

Francine Bistro at night

Francine Bistro at night

It’s also one of the most popular restaurants in this tony coastal village, which now boasts other hot spots such as the superb Natalie’s up the street at the Camden Harbour  Inn (see next week’s review), Pig and Poet at the Whitehall (see July 24 review) or at neighboring Rockport and Rockland, particularly Hill’s other restaurant, Shepherd’s Pie.When I was there earlier this week (my second visit in two weeks) I ordered the pan roasted chicken, a pretty basic dish—but not here.  To me if the basics of roast chicken do not come off well in a restaurant then everything else served tends to follow suit.

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This time the Pig and Poet dazzles with a riveting menu of creative local fare

July 24, 2015 / / Restaurants, Travel

What a difference a day makes—in this case about 45 of them in which the Pig and Poet at the Whitehall has emerged as a seriously fine place to dine in the tourist-heavy coastal town of Camden. I went when it first opened in early June (see June 12 write-up) to experience the new iteration of this inn and its restaurant. Dinner was good enough but basically uninspiring. But I vowed to return to give it a second chance later in the season.

A commanding presence on Route 1, the Whitehall and Pig and Poet are thoroughly inviting

A commanding presence on Route 1, the Whitehall and Pig and Poet are thoroughly inviting

And I did earlier this week to savor a superb meal in what is now the jewel in the crown of the stunningly refurbished Whitehall (formerly Whitehall inn).  By Camden standards it’s not as luxe and lavish as the nearby Camden Harbour Inn, a Relais & Chateaux lodging facility. But Pig and Poet’s chef, Sam Talbot, lives up to his exalted reputation in the dishes that he prepared that evening.  His resume includes stints on the TV series, Top Chef, and pegs in some  of New York’s trendy hot–spots including the founding chef of the Surf Lodge in the Hamptons’ billionaire paradise of Montauk, New York.

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North Haven’s Turner Farm: the ultimate salt-water growing fields and meadows

July 7, 2015 / / Discoveries, Travel

On 300 acres of sprawling meadow and woods cascading down to the water’s edge, Turner Farm is the mainstay for produce, beef, pork and cheese  of exquisite quality from the tender nurturing by the farm’s growing practices.  It helps to have such conservation-land-conscious keepers tending to  such a farm. It had been fallow for years until owners US Representative Chellie Pingree, who has deep roots on the island, and her husband, financier Donald Sussman, revived this  historic island property to all its glory.

The barn at Turner Farm

The barn at Turner Farm

The produce finds its way into the kitchens of Nebo Lodge, owned by the Pingree-Sussmans and in high season even the local little island supermarket carries the bounty from their fields.

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North Haven Diary: Nebo Lodge offers a graciously old-fashioned dining experience on this gorgeous island 12 miles out to sea

July 6, 2015 / / Discoveries, Restaurants, Travel

When you’re at a precious summer colony, whether on any of Maine’s iconic islands or in coastal communities on the mainland, local dining is a key element of time well spent.  On North Haven that puts you squarely at Nebo Lodge and its superb kitchen with cook Amanda Hallowell at the helm.

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North Haven Diary: Day 1, Calderwood Hall and more for very special island delights

July 3, 2015 / / Discoveries, Restaurants, Travel

Destination North Haven, Maine, was not immune to the flush of July 4th weekenders on Thursday jamming the lines at the Rockland Ferry Terminal that takes travelers to North Haven or Vinalhaven, the two very distinctive islands along the Fox Island Thoroughfare of Penobscot Bay.

That was my destination to spend time there for the next 10 days and fortunately the North Haven boat, which crosses the bay only 3 times a day (compared to Vinalhaven’s 6 crossings) is much less crowded for travelers and residents to the smaller island.

Boarding the ferry for North Haven

Boarding the ferry for North Haven

Setting up a house on an island has its idiosyncrasies, and it’s best not to make assumptions.  The local store is fairly well stocked with groceries and food, with frequent deliveries from Beth’s Farm Market in Warren for berries and produce, or meats from Curtis Meats as well as the produce from the island’s Turner Farm. Though the shelves empty out fast by the weekend.

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Worth the trip: Maine’s varied farmers’ markets to visit

June 15, 2015 / / Discoveries, Travel

Now is the time  to visit different farmers’ markets besides those in your neighborhood as the selection of produce, meats, fish, dairy and prepared foods becomes more varied.  Beyond Portland, look into the difference that geography makes within a 50 mile radius of the city where other, often more vital farm markets are the life blood of the community.  This weekend I went to Kennebunk and Scarborough markets, both of which are much smaller than Portland’s but with differences that made the trip worthwhile.

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Lodging and Dining: The razzzle dazzle of the new Whitehall and its restaurant, Pig and Poet, Camden

June 12, 2015 / / Restaurants, Travel

whitehall front

As though out of a film set for Wuthering Heights, the old Whitehall Inn in Camden was a mainstay of civility for well over a century, a place where vichyssoise and gossip lingered in the squeaky comforts of this seaside inn. It charmingly creaked and groaned with pokey rooms and the typical splash of faded chintz and wicker in its principal public spaces.  Its restaurant was unremarkable and not one frequented by the general tourist brigade that piles into Camden in the summer.

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The bounty of a fine barn supper takes place at the inimitable Turner Farm on North Haven

July 1, 2010 / / Restaurants, Travel

Note: This was originally published on July 10 2015 and I was reminded of it in a memory on Facaebook. I thought it was still so relevant today that I’ve posted it again.  It said so much about our food world then and now with all the hoopla of cuisine, chefs and daring restaurants teasing us with greatness and triple digit tabs.

The food world is under siege with trendiness.  Fried chicken has become an artisanal  super-star.  The rarest tomato, the sustainable fish fillet, the rigors of omikase and Asian panache–even pizza are elevated to otherworldly stardom.  Canned food is left in the dust unless you can it yourself at a farm table in the middle of your highfalutin country kitchen. Then there’s the whole wide world of farm-to-table as though it were something really novel when in fact it’s how the world used to eat simply and well:  food from the field—unprocessed, unadulterated, fair and fresh.

At table at Turner Farm supper

At table at Turner Farm supper

Then there’s the barn supper, a hot ticket nowadays where we pay up well over $100 per person for a famous chef who’s taken off his gloves and toque to get down and dirty with “real” food sent simply to the table in a setting that looks tailor made for a Ralph Lauren ad.

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