Your source for the most in-depth and timely news, information, and analysis about outdoor issues and Maine travel.
A special Chef’s Table Dinner was our excuse to return to our favorite Bar Harbor Inn – the Bluenose – and the dinner at the Inn’s Looking Glass Restaurant was exceptional. But so is everything else at this resort with its stunning ocean views, gorgeous rooms, fabulous customer service and amenities, and one of the state’s top chefs, Arturo Montes.
The message was tempting: “Celebrate all things summer and local overlooking the beautiful wildlife sanctuary and Crescent Beach. Chef Mitch will present a weekly fixed menu that features Maine fare from gardens and sea.”
Having visited Cape Elizabeth’s elegant Inn by the Sea last January and dined at its amazing Sea Glass Restaurant, we thought the advertisement sounded really good. But the Summer Garden Dinner was better than good. It was spectacular!
Give me oysters and beer every day of the year and I’ll be fine.
Jimmy Buffett
From the small Oyster Bar upstairs to the larger and lively tavern downstairs, King Eider’s many-awards-winning Pub in Damariscotta is a splendid place to spend an evening – or even a day. The menu is huge, the selection of beer and other beverages not much smaller, and the friendly hi-neighbor how-ya-doin atmosphere makes regulars out of all first-time patrons – including us!
Have you been to Damariscotta lately? If your answer is: well, I drove through it on my way to Boothbay Harbor – then you need to discover the brakes on your motor vehicle! Stopping in this small town is no longer an option. It’s a necessity!
Our 24-hour mini-vacation here featured a stay at the elegant Alewives and Ales Bed & Breakfast, lunch at the Damariscotta River Grill, dinner at King Eider’s Pub, a hike on conservation lands that border the river, and – of course – shopping at the original Reny’s. Damariscotta’s got it all!
Maine restaurants and inns celebrate summer with many special events, including wine dinners featuring five specially prepared food courses, each with a matching wine, for far less than you’d pay if you ordered the same dinner from the menu.
When we looked for a wine dinner in southern Maine and another in northern Maine, we were lucky to find them at two of our favorite places: The Inn and Tavern at Brunswick Station, and the Lucerne Inn just east of Bangor.
We stayed the night at both inns – something we recommend if you intend to more-than-sample the wines. There were some similarities in the dinners, and some interesting differences, but both were fantastic experiences.
The Inn on Peaks Island was the first place we visited enroute to the start of this travel column. We visited in November of 2010, taking a frigid Saturday morning walk around the island with temperatures in the 30s and winds gusting to 30 mph.
So you can imagine how much more fun it was to return on Memorial Day weekend this year - sunny with temps in the 80s! Actually, we loved Peaks in November and we really loved the island and inn on this trip.
Only a short 15-minute ferry ride from the Portland dock, the island offers a quiet, relaxing experience featuring wonderful accommodations, great food, stunning scenery, and friendly people.
You don’t have to go all the way to Thailand to experience it’s tasty cuisine, now available close-by in Skowhegan, Augusta, and Wiscasset at M Thai. Vicky Soikum has created a very tasty exotic food experience that will keep you coming back to try more items on her extensive menu.
We chose the M Thai in Skowhegan at the recommendation of Jennifer Olson, Executive Director of the Skowhegan Main Street organization. Jen said the food “is very good.” And oh, she was so right!
All Episodes Can Be Seen on the Maine Audubon website. And on the Time Warner cable TV channel (channel 9 in most places) at 7 pm Wednesday, 6:30 pm Friday, 7 pm Saturday, and 8:30 pm Sunday.
