Feast
Viva Havana!
FEAST - OCTOBER 2008
By Candace Karu
Photography François Gagné
Nuevo Latino flavors find a sophisticated home in a Bar Harbor hot spot.
The unassuming exterior of Havana belies the excitement and activity that diners discover inside this innovative bistro. The small, gray-shingled building on Main Street in Bar Harbor, located just a few blocks from the village green, keeps the restaurant’s secrets tucked safely inside. Only its festive trim, the color of cool guacamole, and the lush flower beds laden with vibrant orange and yellow blossoms hint at the fiesta going on inside every evening from May through December.
Leap of Faith
FEAST - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Candace Karu
Photography François Gagné
Sophistication, simplicity, and success find a home in Kittery’s Anneke Jans.
On Valentine’s Day in 2005, retired entrepreneur Andy Livingston and his self-described soul mate and business partner, Donna Ryan, took a giant leap of faith when they opened Anneke Jans, an intimate bistro on Wallingford Square in Kittery. With cork walls stained to a rich cordovan patina, black lacquered trim, and a floor-to-ceiling wall of windows that folds away on warm days, the decor is New York hip meets relaxed Maine intimacy. With no previous restaurant experience, Livingston and Ryan started the fledgling venture armed with little more than a love of food, an appreciation for wine, and a dream.
Everything Old is New Again
FEAST - AUGUST 2008
By Candace Karu
Photography Darren Setlow
A restaurant steeped in the classical tradition keeps an eye on the future.
On a Monday night in early summer, the mellow sounds of jazz and murmuring voices fill the air at the Back Bay Grill. For three years, many patrons—music lovers and gastronomes alike—have booked selected Monday nights at the popular Portland eatery to enjoy the restaurant’s jazz series. Chef Larry Matthews began the series during Maine’s shoulder seasons, hoping to lure new customers with not only great food but the area’s best jazz musicians as well. The combination proved irresistible to regulars and a happy surprise to the uninitiated.
A Family's Fare
FEAST - JULY 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Irvin Serrano
A passion for fine dining results in a fine setting.
Maine is peppered with poetically named towns—from Union and Liberty to Old Town and Oxbow. When a friend offered John and Beth Hikade the use of a dilapidated circa-1790 Federal-style home in Sedgwick some thirty-five years ago, John didn’t know what to make of the town’s name. “But I flipped the map open,” he recalls, “and I saw that right next door was a town called Blue Hill…I liked the sound of that immediately!
Opening Evangeline...
FEAST - JUNE 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Irvin Serran
The countdown to the opening of Portland’s newest eatery.
April 17, 2008
2:50pm “Oh, you’re finally open for business!” says a well-dressed lady as she steps into the high-ceilinged dining room of Evangeline. “Finally!” agrees Captain Sean McClure, walking to greet her, the jacket of his pinstripe suit left hanging from a barstool across the room. McClure pencils her in for the following evening.
My Blue Heaven
FEAST - MAY 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Benedetta Spinelli
The Sky’s the limit at York’s newest eatery.
The three-story Atlantic House hotel was built on York’s pristine Short Sands Beach in the late 1880s. While decades of inattention had left the building in a sad state of disrepair, over the course of last year it was renovated so extensively that the result can only be described as a transformation. At the heart of the Atlantic House’s rebirth is the destination restaurant Blue Sky on York Beach. In a town brimming with seaside dining options, Blue Sky’s nationally renowned chef Lydia Shire has done what she does best: take the culinary road less traveled.
A Palette for the Palate
FEAST - APRIL 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Benedetta Spinelli
Oceanfront dining that sates the eye and the appetite
A few short miles from Kennebunkport’s summer-jammed town square is a sublime stretch of shoreline known as Cape Arundel. It is a paragon of the Maine coast. The very features that made it unappealing to local farmers and fishermen in the 1800s—hilly, craggily land and a rocky shore with no safe harbor—make it ideal for sprawling summer cottages with expansive views of the raucous Atlantic. In the heart of this mostly residential enclave, in a converted circa-1895 Shingle Style house, sits the Cape Arundel Inn.
Layers of Flavor
FEAST - MARCH 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Benedetta Spinelli
Solo Bistro: uncluttered aesthetics and fabulous fare.
Set along the shores of the deep Kennebec River, Bath has long been known as the “City of Ships.” Now, thanks almost single-handedly to one restaurant—Solo Bistro Bistro—Bath may soon be known as the midcoast culinary destination.
The Many Layered Courses of Five Fifty-Five
FEAST - JAN/FEB 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Benedetta Spinelli
New Eatery Focuses on Food, not Flamboyance
FEAST - JUNE 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Warren Roos
Chef David Turin has used his own two hands to build a new dining experience for South Portland.
Portland chef and restaurateur David Turin enjoys the formal pageantry of a gourmet dinner as much as the next food lover. But when Turin first envisioned his latest culinary venture, David’s 388 on Cottage Road in South Portland, he set his sights on creating an eating experience that would satisfy the connoisseur while remaining casual.
Who's Afraid of Krista Kern?
FEAST - JULY 2007
By Christopher Locke
Photography Benedetta Spinelli
Portland is getting crowded. And I’m not referring to the paucity of convenient parking. It seems nowadays that you can’t swing a fresh slab of monkfish without hitting an award-winning restaurant in this town. So who in her right mind would open a new restaurant amongst so many dazzling stars, and on top of that, a place that only seats a scant twenty? If you’re Maine-born chef and restaurateur Krista Kern, this is the part where you raise your hand
Organic Chemistry
FEAST - AUGUST 2007
By Christopher Locke
Photography James R. Salomon
Three premier restaurants serving fresh food from their own gardens
Poet William Blake once quipped that the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. If that’s true, then three outstanding Maine restaurants—Primo in Rockland, Arrows in Ogunquit, and Joshua’s in Wells—have staked out their own culinary Shangri-Las
A Feel for Food and Place
FEAST - SEPTEMBER 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Benedetta Spinelli
Caiola’s neighborhood eatery satisfies the palate in style
Great chefs, it is said, cook by feel. They do not follow well-trodden recipes from the pages of a cookbook, but rather they dream up dishes from a deep, instinctual understanding of the subtle smells, flavors, textures, and visual appeals of food.
Not only does Chef Abby Harmon, the former executive chef of Portland’s much-admired Street & Company, cook from this place of deep intuition, but since Harmon and her partner Lisa Vaccaro leapt to open Caiola’s in Portland’s West End the pair has continually trusted their instincts.
The Fusion of Flame
FEAST - OCTOBER 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Warren Roos
Rockport's Prism Glass mixes glassmaking with gastronomy
Life changes.
Here in Maine, we are surrounded by a natural world that is forever in flux. Winter winds blow down the old trees, and the forests send up new sprouts every spring. The ceaseless waves erode the shores and topple rocks. Rivers strike new courses and change the woods and meadows through which they wend.
Delectable Summer Resort Dining
FEAST - MAY 2007
By Nancy Englis
The Migis Lodge version of Maine, characterized by luxury and finesse, marks a tradition. Some families have been coming for generations, and many arrive during the same week every summer.
Chef John Strain relishes all twenty-three years he has worked at Migis Lodge. Strain is a magician when it comes to serving plain and sophisticated meals simultaneously. “I make a loin of lamb covered in a pistachio-nut crust on a ragout of fried lentils and wilted radicchio with minted lamb demi-glace,” he says, “and I offer the same lamb broiled, plain and simple.
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