1) Five Fifty-Five’s Chef Steve Corry recently prepared one of his famous five-course tasting menus for me. The meal was at once so elegant and so down-to-earth that it reminded me of a magnificent blend between Portland’s Fore Street restaurant circa 1996 and a Friday night in August at Arrows in Ogunquit. That meal, the story of Chef Corry, his wife Michelle, and their restaurant-odyssey are recounted in MH+D’s January/February feature, “The Many Layered Courses of Five Fifty-Five.”

 

2) I returned to Five Fifty-Five the other night, and sat in the Point Five Lounge for beer and conversation with an old friend. With a pint of Stella Artois in hand, the talk was easy and reinvigorating. At some point, Chef Corry sent over a couple little tastes of salmon pate topped with crispy leeks and drizzled in a concoction of sweetened balsamic vinegar. The pate came on large Asian soup spoons and we slurped them down in single bites, savoring the complexity of tastes.

3) Later, cranberry scones with balsamic-tinged crème fraîche arrived. They practically dissolved in our mouths like little edible clouds of love. Outside, rain streaked the windows and blew bits of paper down Congress Street. Inside, the hustle and bustle of a Saturday night in an extraordinary restaurant warmed us.

4) Stop reading this.

5) Go to Five Fifty-Five right now.

Joshua Bodwell, Associate Editor

Photos: Benedetta Spinelli