Not surprisingly I’ve gained a few pounds after attending the Maine Beer Company dinner held Wednesday evening at Union at the Press Hotel, that bastion for Portland cosmopolites. But the pairing of beer and wonderful dishes prepared by the restaurant’s chef, Josh Berry, made it all worthwhile. It was a masterful menu, each dish beautifully conceived.
The table is set Union for Maine Beer Bottling dinner
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
Not every restaurant has to be cutting-edge to satisfy. But what makes a restaurant a “Stone Cold Stunner” was my first thought when I read a recent Eater Maine post featuring the best restaurants of 2015 in various categories? The way it works is that Eater selects the nominees and then asks readers to rate their picks. Other categories include Hottest Restaurant, Best Chef, etcetera and etcetera.
In the category Stone Cold Stunner a very curious entry caught my attention. “Eating at the Treehouse really does feel like dining inside a giant, magical treehouse,” it said.
The bar room at The Treehouse
Huh? What’s the Treehouse? I must have missed this one in our great world of fine dining in Portland. After looking at some of the posted photos I realized this was the former Pat’s Café, the local favorite and long-running eatery ( though intermittently closing and reopening numerous times) along the little food world of Steven’s Avenue (Siano’s Pizzeria and Pat’s Meat Market) otherwise dominated by Deering High School and the Sisters of Mercy convent.
Still, there are so many new restaurants that are now part of our dining universe that could have—and should have–been nominated. The rarefied rooms of Tempo Dulu come to mind as does the swath of urbane sizzle perfected by Union at The Press Hotel. At least Evo—truly a stone cold stunner—is at this writing the front runner.
