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
The evening was another Danforth Inn gala. And the food was nothing short of revelatory at the LifeFlight dinner held at Tempo Dulu, a performance orchestrated by chefs Shelby Stevens and Chris long, whose regular beat is at the Danforth’s sister establishments, the Camden Harbour Inn and Natalie’s Restaurant.
The reason for this celebration was to thank LifeFlight, a nonprofit organization that takes to the air to transport patients in need of critical care. Hoteliers Oscar Verest and Raymond Brunyanszki were thanking them for taking care of their chef Chris Long when he had an accident last year that was life threatening and needed to be transported to Maine Medical from Camden for immediate care.
Fine wines served at the dinner in one of three dining rooms at Tempo Dulu at the Danforth
Portland’s formidable charms don’t otherwise compel restaurateurs to bring luxe into our dining world. Instead we have some of the most well-designed but down-to-earth restaurants in the country, the kind that earn James Beard awards and accolades in the national media regularly. They are the kind that highlight our prowess as practitioners of the much vaunted vanities of farm-to-table.
That all changes, however, when you enter the überstylish digs of the Danforth Inn and have reserved to dine at its restaurant, Tempo Dulu. And of all the times I’ve been to this marvelous retreat to relish the haute cuisine of Southeast Asia that’s prepared by executive chef Lawrence Klang, his team pulled out all the stops for the special Singapore Sling dinner that occurred last Friday and Saturday nights.
Clockwise: guest convene in the main salon; advertising honcho, Brenda Garrand; diners at the bar; the gracious gallery and part of the trio in charge (r.to l.) Alfie Mossadeg, Raymond Brunyanszki and Trevin Hutchins
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Note: Because of the extended July 4th weekend, Friday Dining is appearing today.
Sometimes I feel like the churlish critic who ate Portland, Maine, or is it eating me? No matter because when you come upon such a restaurant as Tempo Dulu, in the utterly glamorous new iteration of the Danforth Inn where it’s magnificently housed, it makes nearly all other dining experiences that you thought were so good tame by comparison. That’s not to say that dinner at some of our most revered restaurants like Central Provisions, Back Bay Grill or Fore Street is not duly fabulous. But it’s a combination of the exotic blending of cuisine—Indonesian—taking place in an absolutely gorgeous setting that makes the distinctive shoals of fine dining so singularly superb here.
Curried egg and the Wayang cocktail
The waiters are all handsome with Ipana-perfect smiles and beautifully attired. The principal rooms where cocktails are served shimmer like gold dust so worldly it could host cads with escorts or dowagers in diamonds.
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.
