I spent 24 solid hours in Rockland earlier this week for three reasons: to stay at the uniquely stylish 250 Main Hotel; to visit the very compelling Center for Maine Contemporary Art and to dine at the town’s newest restaurant, Sammy’s Deluxe.
Scenes from Rockland, clockwise: the Plaza at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art; dining room at Sammy’s Deluxe and the lobby at 250 Main Hotel
When Maine Street Meats, Bleecker and Flamm (the names of the co-owners) made some news recently on a local food site–their desultory mention was buried in a story about sandwiches. Maine Street Meats has an exemplary one, a Vietnamese bahn mi offered on Tuesdays. But this exquisite delicacy shop also has steamed pork buns on Thursdays as well as thin-crust pizzas daily and stuffed savory breads and double chocolate chip cookies that are popular with the lunch crowd every day.
Maine Street Meats offers gourmet packaged goods, local meats, cheese, house-baked breads and house-made charcuterie
Since opening in 2013, Salt Warm Farm Restaurant has offered the magic of dining in the heart of picture-perfect-Rockport Harbor to savor the wonderfully creative cooking from the restaurant’s head chef, Sam Richman. However, the establishment closed abruptly a few weeks ago on the heels of Richman’s departure from the kitchen. One can’t help but to read between the lines for the real story. According to a recent Eater Maine post, owner Annemarie Ahearn is quoted as saying “We are in discussions with a very exciting and accomplished chef…for next season.” Why when there already was one?
Almost immediately Richman started a series of popups called Salty Soup Kitchen (see various Facebook posts); the first was held two Saturdays ago and the second this past weekend. When I heard about it I went up to Rockport for one of the events, which featured Mexican Night held in a stunning red barn on Mill Street in the West Rockport neighborhood where sprawling country estates grace the landscape.
Mexican Night menu and chef Sam Richman
I trekked up on Saturday afternoon, slogging through a 45 minute crawl through Wiscasset during the Columbus Day weekend rush that typified the town’s classic summertime bottleneck. Why they voted down the opportunity to create a bypass several years ago remains a big mistake.
