Restaurants

With Some Exceptions, Dining Well Beyond the Portland Nexus Is a Worthy Excursion

July 10, 2023 / / Restaurants

No  thick plush of white tablecloths because there’s no room for them with tables just inches apart apart and noise levels beyond comprehension, these traits might describe  the scene at so many otherworldly dining chambers in Portland nowadays where the civilities of the past give way to guileless  gimmickries as though we’re shoppers, not collectors. And let’s not forget the prices.  If you think navigating  at the local supermarket where shelves are stocked with sticker shock is fruitless, dining out is a way more perilous game of arithmetic.  One example is Twelve, the Portland outpost where the refugees of  Eleven Madison Park   didn’t bring the tranquilities of the mother ship to give new life to our 2023 Portland dining scene.

Twelve’s version of roast chicken, which I had last year when it opened.

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First Look: Update–Hungry For A Neighborhood Café, The Ugly Duckling

February 14, 2023 / / Baking & Desserts, Restaurants

Here are a few new dishes that I’ve tried recently.

The Breakfast Sandwich and Breakfast Sweet

Yinz breakfast sandwich served on a rye English muffin with a special Yinzer sauce(mustard and ketchup

Pastel de natas, filled with a wonderful custard filling

The Ugly Duckling courtesy of Chaval’s Damian Sansonetti and Illma Lopez opened today to an overflow crowd that spilled onto the street waiting to get in for some superb pastries and sandwiches. It’s part of a mini food mecca that has grown along Danforth Street in Ruski’s territory.  Zu Bakers, the 211 Danforth  and now Ugly Duckling comprise this delicious corner of food fare.  The Duckling, however, is in its own realm, serving up Illma’s divine pastries, excellent coffee and breakfast sandwiches served on Illma’s signature buttermilk English muffins.

The trocadero

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The Popular Former Baharat’s U-Turn is a Full Turn As A Neighborhood Hangout

December 20, 2022 / / Restaurants

Many Portland diners were sad to see the axiomatically hip  Baharat close its doors earlier this year.  When they first opened years ago, their take on Middle Eastern Food was a trendy answer to its start as a food truck or the more upscale places like EVO and Tiqa.  I loved the food in the first few years, its gutsy, easy to take fare was well prepared and reasonably priced. On my last visit about 5 months ago, it had lost its luster. The plating had turned from dazzling to muddy. I vowed not to return, and then it closed!

Baharat Circa 2017

From what I’ve learned ,the owners of Full Turn are related to the originators of Baharat, who’ve since moved downeast to be with family.  From other chatter at Full Turn when I visited last week, I surmised  it’s a  mix of employee ownership and its founders. And in so doing it’s truly a neighborhood restaurant serving a simple menu of food and drink, in essentially the same room as before. It hasn’t yet reached its full hipifacation potential.

There’s more seating in the  bar area and the rest of the dining room–a kind of cavernous space that just sort of disappears into the woodwork.  The great wall of windows will be very inviting when those big garage style door windows open in the summer.  At this time of year, sitting by them can  be drafty.  In fact on my visit, with  my back to the windows, I had to put my coat back on over my shoulders to stay warm.  That’s the only complaint.  I’m not sure that there’s a fix, other than to turn up the heat on frigid nights.

Full Turn dining room and bar at 6:00 pm on December 2022 evening  visit; by the time we left the rooms were filling up fast

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Briefly Noted: The Knotted Apron Bistro Is a Neighborhood Gem Tucked Away in Rosemont

September 1, 2022 / / Restaurants

And by that I don’t mean the venerable food shop, Rosemont Market, which has anchored this neighborhood for years with its array of mostly locally sourced foods. But rather it’s across the road on Woodford Street.  In my one and only visit thus far to The Knotted Apron several weeks ago we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner because the food was so thoughtfully and artfully prepared and served in a true neighborhood bistro setting.  Think of it  being like a counterpart to the West End’s Chaval, a mainstay of the West End or The Blue Spoon on Munjoy Hill.  That every neighborhood in Portland or neighborhoods in general from York Village to Union Village should have such a locally inspirational place.

The Knotted has been around since the the Pandemic and while many newish restaurants in Portland tend to have a sameness about them, The  Knotted Apron remains clearly identifiable and has avoided the predictability of  being throttled by the so-called New American dining category.  Instead think of it as savvy neighborhood place serving delicious food.

One of the prettiest outdoor dining patios in Portland

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North Haven Barn Dinner Revisited 7 Years Later

July 13, 2022 / / Restaurants, Travel

Note: This was originally published on July 10, 2015 and having been reminded by a Facebook post in memories I decided to include it in the Golden Dish again since it’s so terribly apt for today, seven years later showing that fine cooking is timeless and still relevant without all the hoopla that swirls around our culinary scene today.

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
The table set at Turner Farm Barn Dinner Circa  July10, 2015

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Dara Bistro: A Place in the Country for Fine Dining

July 10, 2022 / / Restaurants

Out of the farm fields and farm shops in Cumberland Center is a growing list of purveyors who are integral to Maine’s food lore.  My list includes Pine Ridge Acres  farm store, Spring Brook Farm and Cumberland Food Company. The latter has now become a destination for dining-in for dinner known as Dara Bistro.

Their “Story” best describes the change:

“Dara Bistro, formerly named the Cumberland Food Company, started on January 1’st, 2017 by Chef Bryan Dame and myself, Kelsey Pettengill.   We serve as a community meeting space in the form of a casual neighborhood Coffeeshop by morning, and then as a more formal dinner service space at night.  Located at 371 Tuttle Rd, the building dates back to the late 1800’s and was originally utilized as a jersey cow dairy farm.  It has gone through a handful of transitions over the years, most recently when it was remodeled into a restaurant space and run as Doc’s cafe until 2017 When we leased the space and made it our own!”

Several comfortable dining areas including the open kitchen and service counter

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Coastal Haunts from Gem to Gem of Fine Dining

July 3, 2022 / / Restaurants, Travel

Two restaurants beyond  Portland’s sturdy culinary confines are exemplary. They are  87 miles apart, the distance from Cape Elizabeth’s The Well at Jordan’s Farm to Rockport’s Nina June.  They excel for one simple reason.  The food at each is fabulous.

I visited Nina June in early June, and it was my first time there. I loved the place when it was the Salt Water Grill some years ago.  The room was lily white then, right out of a Ralph Lauren playbook, Rockport Harbor being the perfect backdrop in this gorgeous little village as the quiet side of Camden next door.   Nina June is cozier than its predecessor and more like being in a country boite rather than a “fancy” restaurant. But the food  is superb under the able hands of Sara Jenkins, owner and chef. She commands her post like a general, but always calm, not rattled  as every nook and cranny of her cooking talents emerge. If anyone from Maine should merit a James Beard Award, it’s Jenkins, leaving many others merely striving.

Nina June’s dining terrace overlooking Rockport harbor, photo courtesy of Nina June

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At the Helm: Unremarkable and Bland

May 17, 2022 / / Restaurants

Dare I disagree with the latest (and one of the few) reviews of this forward-looking restaurant?  After all,  the Helm Oyster Bar and Bistro  appeared in the city’s newspaper of record  with a four-star review, a rarity, barking unbridled raves. When I visited the restaurant shortly after the write-up appeared we ordered several of the menu items gushed over.   In our tastings it was as though we were at a different restaurant entirely.

The room is different from most other dining establishments in Portland.  For one, it’s glass-walled overlooking glimpses of the water on Thames Street, a byway that will one day connect to the rest of the Eastern Waterfront development, where the audacious and highly anticipated 12 is set to open in the old Portland Company Building  known collectively as 58 Fore Street or Portland Foreside. The renown of 12 is its pedigree: The chef, Colin Wyatt,   is from such New York stars as Daniel and Eleven Madison Park.  He joins the team of EVO (one day chef Matt Ginn should be nominated for a JBA), Chebeague Island Inn and  58 Culinary.

The chef at Helm, Billy Hagar,   hails from the San Francisco area, and his Portland resume reads Flood’s and Drifters Wife (both closed, both unremarkable , the latter less so).

The entry, the raw bar and dining bar

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Update: More Hash-House Breakfast Reveries, Portland

April 24, 2022 / / Restaurants

Recently revisited are Marcy’s Diner and the Miss Portland Diner as an update to Hash House published recently.  At Marcy’s, which has been under new ownership for the last two years after the infamous Darla sold the eatery to her long-time waitress, Mandy Lacourse, the food is as greasy-good as ever.  Note that certain preparations take a lot of tasty shortcuts.  The pancake batter is made from a mix and the fabulous hash-browns are prepackaged grated potatoes.  Note that these pre-grated potatoes are given star treatment on the restaurant’s flat top, where they remain for hours on end building up that wonderful patina of crispiness.

A plates of bacon and eggs with Marcy’s famous pile of hash browns

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Paper Tiger: A Matter of Taste

April 15, 2022 / / Restaurants

Paper Tiger is everything I dislike in a restaurant: plate-smashing noise, inside as dark as a pocket with knife blades tearing through and quarters so close at the dining bar that I wanted to call the Covid matron for help.  In fact, the person sitting next to me had such a horrendous bronchial cough, I nearly walked out as my only means of getting away from this jabberwocky.  I should have and would have not had to endure a series of ridiculous food that was coming out of the kitchen.

Large booths and additional dining at the seating bar overlooking Fore Street

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