Travel
Our favorite place to visit, Cozy Harbor, Maine
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Maine Distilleries and Gritty McDuff’s Brewpub, Freeport, Maine July 30, 2010
Most people go to Freeport, Maine for L.L. Bean and the plethora of outlet stores, we went for vodka and gin. Maine Distilleries – makers of Cold River Vodka and the very recently released Cold River Gin – was born of the collective vision and skills of master distiller Chris Dowe and potato farmer Don Thibodeau. With potatoes from Don’s Green Thumb Farms in Fryeburg and water from the Cold River aquifer – the same water that irrigates the farm – they create products that are pure Maine, at the only “ground to glass” distillery in North America. Cold River Vodka has garnered some impressive accolades, including Number 1 Rated Vodka in the World in 2008 by Wine Enthusiast. The company website tells more of the fascinating story and is well worth a read.
Head distiller and partner Chris Dowe
This time of year is the short break in the production cycle at the distillery – the available potatoes are not the right quality at the height of the summer. As he showed us around the small, attractive facility, Chris Dowe said his partner will “start pulling potatoes the third week in August.” He uses a combination of Yukon Golds, Burbank Russets and “a couple of whites.” In the processing room, the grinder – an old meat grinder from a Marriott – churns up 65,000 lbs of spuds at a time and drops them into a stainless steel tank with local tap water. The “potato soup” is brought to a boil, cooled, then pumped into fermenting tanks. The resulting liquid is transferred to a German copper pot still; following distillation it is blended with water from the Cold River aquifer to make the finished vodka.
Maine potatoes from partner Don Thibodeau's Fryeburg farm are the basis for Cold River Vodka.
The copper pot still
Cold River is smooth and delicious, with an underlying tinge of sweetness. Susan especially liked the sole, flavored variety – made with wild Maine blueberries. The sugar content is just 1%, so it is not at all cloying, and the flavor is authentic.
The brand new Cold River Gin – launched just a couple of weeks ago, incorporates the seven classic gin botanicals (juniper, orris root, anise, angelica, orange peel, coriander and licorice root, steeped with the vodka in the pot still for 12 hours. (All gin starts life as vodka, a “neutral spirit.”) The 94 proof spirit that results is aromatic and may just become our new favorite gin – as soon as we can locate it in New Jersey!
Cold River Gin makes an exceptional G&T. We enjoyed it with Glidden Point oysters!
After our informative and fun visit with Dowe, we drove just a short way up the road to the local brewpub, Gritty McDuff’s. Gritty’s has been brewed in Maine for 21 years and the pubs in Freeport, Portland and Auburn – Maine’s first brewpubs since Prohibition – are justifiably popular for both beer and casual food. Refreshed with a cold pint of Gritty’s Pub Ale, Ted indulged in lobster mac n’cheese – combining two of his favorites – and I went a bit lighter (and healthier!) with a turkey club on wheat berry bread. We wished we had room for a piece of the Black Fly Stout cake – a chocolate cake baked with Gritty’s signature stout – but alas, that pleasure will have to wait for another day.
Gritty's Pub Ale
Gritty's drinks menu makes good use of Cold River Vodka
Gritty's lobster mac n' cheese with fried jalapenos and grilled cornbread
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Moody’s Diner and Morse’s Sauerkraut, Waldoboro, Maine July 28, 2010
A beacon for hungry travelers on Maine's Route 1.
One of the great things about blogging from Maine is that our desire to create fun posts gets us “off the peninsula” – as they say around here. This glorious, jagged coastline is all peninsulas, so very often driving to the next town takes longer than if you could go by boat. We love it in our little harbor-side cottage and community so much that we need a pretty big nudge to venture forth to other places – as wonderful as they may be. Spoon & Shutter has given us that nudge and as a happy result, we’ve visited places I’ve wanted to go to for years!
The cash register at Moody's. Note the pie sign!
On this day, our travels incorporated two mid-coast culinary institutions. Moody’s Diner is famous for its solidly New England menu and its genuine retro appeal. Snug up against Route 1 in Waldoboro and open ‘year round, it draws locals and tourists alike for fish chowder, meatloaf, Indian pudding and flavorful kaleidoscope of pies, in addition to other classics. We sat at the counter and chatted companionably with a couple from South Carolina on their way to Bar Harbor and then to Nova Scotia – a place on our wish list! See our Restaurants page for more on Moody’s.
After lunch, we crossed Route 1 and drove a winding, country road to Morse’s Sauerkraut, which is, truly, in the middle of nowhere! But that hasn’t stopped current owners David Swetman and Jacquelyn Sawyer from making a great success of the business, which has been in existence since 1918 and which they bought 11 years ago. After mastering the making of the kraut – David admits this was not an easy thing – they expanded the place to create a full-service deli. To one side, a cozy dining room offers German-style cuisine, served at high wooden booths. The rest of the space – a cinder-block warehouse, actually – is painted a cheerful red and stocked full of European specialty foods, sausages, cheeses, baked goods, teas, coffees, chocolates and baked goods. The sauerkraut, pickle-making and bakery operation has been moved a few miles down the road and Morse’s now distributes its products wholesale to 175 restaurants around the country.
Morse's charming restaurant
A selection of landjaeger sausages
A small sampling of Morse's specialty food products
Morse's owner David Swetman
On the way home, we stopped to get props and peruse the goods at The Well Tempered Kitchen, a surprisingly well-stocked and beautifully organized shop on Route 1 in Waldoboro – and another place I’ve always wanted to visit!
On the way home, we stopped to get props at this farm/kitchen store on Route 1.
A selection of oilcloths at The Well-Tempered Kitchen.
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Glidden Point Oyster Farm, Damariscotta, Maine July 14, 2010
We love oysters. And lucky for us, one of our favorite oysters are Pemaquids, from Maine. Our Pemaquids of choice come from Glidden Point Oyster Farm in Edgecomb, Maine, along the Damariscotta River.
If you are in mid coast Maine, and want to get some great oysters, make the trek down River Road in Edgecomb and get some fresh Glidden Point oysters. And for those of you not in the area, they ship anywhere via FedEx. To read even more about Glidden Point and the Maine oyster industry you can go to the New York Times article by clicking here.
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Boothbay Harbor, Damariscotta and East Boothbay, Maine July 7, 2010
Dunton's Doghouse, Boothbay Harbor, Maine
We started the day in Boothbay Harbor with lunch at one of our favorite spots – Dunton’s Doghouse. I felt sorry for the guys sweltering over the grill and the fryer in the roadside hut, but they seemed cheerful enough and the crab roll was as good as ever: the top-split roll perfectly buttered and toasted, holding a generous portion of Maine crab, held together with just the right amount of mayonnaise.
Dunton's crab roll
After lunch, we drove up the coast about 25 miles to the pretty village of Damariscotta, which, like Boothbay Harbor, boasts a main street lined with shops and casual restaurants; unlike BH, however, most of these are open ‘year round. We had been told about a luncheonette/ice cream/candy shop called S. Fernalds General Store, a former Damariscotta landmark which had re-opened downtown following a few years of re-location in another community. The quirky shop is full of vintage charm, with creaky floorboards, funky, flea-market decor, a wall of “penny candy” jars, big wooden barrels of peanuts in the shell and saltwater taffy, a menu of intriguing sandwiches and a gift area with retro-style toys. All of the sandwiches are available “whole” or “half” – a wonderful concept that more sandwich places should adopt, if you ask me! We were still full from our crab rolls, but I couldn’t pass up a cone of (local favorite) Round Top ginger ice cream.
The sandwich selection at S. Fernalds
Old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies at S. Fernalds
The big decision at S. Fernalds
Round Top ginger ice cream
Of course, we couldn’t be in Damariscotta without shopping at Reny’s, a Maine “department store” with an extraordinary variety of items from fishing boots to shower curtains to gourmet food. Our mission was an “all-Reny’s” gift bag – mug, jam, beer cozy, dish towel and chocolate bars!
Downstairs at Reny's
Reny's service with a smile!
Dinner was more classic Maine – outside on the deck at Lobsterman’s Wharf in East Boothbay. We were a group of 8 to celebrate a family birthday; half of us had lobsters, I ordered sea scallops prepared in a traditional way – baked topped with buttered breadcrumbs. The warm evening was ideal for eating overlooking the Damariscotta River, watching the gulls swoop around hoping for a stray tidbit.
Maine lobster dinner at Lobterman's Wharf in East Boothbay
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Portland, Maine April 9-12, 2010
The view from our room at Inn by the Sea
It’s not every day that we get to wake up in a stunning, two-story hotel suite with a view out over a bird sanctuary to the ocean. We’re in Portland, Maine, on assignment for Boho magazine, staying at the fabulous, eco-luxury resort Inn by the Sea – 7 miles outside of the city in rural Cape Elizabeth. We’re off shortly to start our day in downtown Portland, visiting a variety of boutiques, eateries and other cool locations for the story, which will appear in Boho‘s July issue.
I’ve long thought that I want to live in Portland, … this weekend convinced both of us that we really, really want to! This is such a cool city. There’s the trendy Old Port area along the harbor, with lots of great shops and restaurants, but there is still a strong working waterfront – fishing fleets and ferries mix with charter vessels and pleasure boats. There is a vibrant art culture – several museums and all manner of studios, as well as artisans making everything from rugs to perfume. The food scene is now nationally famous, with a strong farm and fishing boat-to-table ethic, and there’s plenty of gorgeous old architecture. It’s a small city; we discovered today (we spent most of it downtown) that we probably could have parked the car just once and hoofed it everywhere. People are friendly and fun, there’s a great energy, and everyone we talked to loves living here! The place that we chose for dinner tonight exemplifies the Portland spirit. Local 188 is in a giant space that used to be an A&P, then a car dealership (so you get an idea of the size). It’s decorated with funky mismatched furniture – including cushy couches for lounging – and has a terrific, Mediterranean-influenced menu, huge wine and beer list and super cool staff. You’ll have to wait for the Boho magazine story we’re working on to see Ted’s photos and read more details, but if there was a place like this near us in Montclair, we’d be regulars (and so, we bet, would everyone else!)
MAD Girl, Meredith Alex in her studio / showroom
Day three began with brunch at the luscious Vignola, followed by visits to a couple of funky boutiques, including madgirl world, the unique (I try to never use that word, but it certainly applies here!) atelier of designer and performance artist Meredith Alex, a Maine native with her own, very distinctive vision, huge talent and fearless energy. I bought pale green linen overalls with madgirl’s signature ruffles on the cuffs (so NOT Talbot’s!) and Ted got the coolest shirt – it says on the back “Save the earth, open your eyes, see the madness” !! We think we’re cool in Montclair – and we are – but Portland blows us away! There’s a spirit of cooperativeness here that is palpable – everyone looks out for everyone else.
J's Oyster Bar, Portland, Maine
It may surprise you to learn that Portland, Maine is a food fanatics paradise. From down and dirty seafood dives like J’s Oyster Bar – where we have been known to slurp down a few dozen of our favorite bivalves – to restaurants led by James Beard award-winning chefs – Rob Evans of Hugo’s and Sam Hayward of Fore Street – this small city boasts more than its fair share of excellent eateries. As an aside, Portland continues to make the James Beard list – this year, Hayward is nominated as Outstanding Chef and Fore Street as Outstanding Restaurant. Chef Krista Kern Desjarlais of Bresca is nominated for Best Chef, Northeast.
Chef / Owner David Iovino, Blue Spoon, Portland, Maine
BLT, Blue Spoon, Portland, Maine
In addition to the fantastic restaurants we visited for the Boho story, we enjoyed a terrific lunch at Blue Spoon. Saturday mid-day, Ted was on the verge of getting cranky when, thanks to a recommendation from a local merchant, we sought out this tiny storefront in the up-and-coming neighborhood of Munjoy Hill. Chef/owner David Iovino told us that he had been looking for a place in Montclair, NJ (our hometown) – when he couldn’t find one, he upped and moved to Maine, bought the building that houses the restaurant and now happily lives upstairs with a great view of Casco Bay. Ted’s mood improved vastly after wolfing a rustic BLT made with earthy local bread and thick bacon; I went lighter with a salad of greens, thinly sliced green apple, toasted nuts and goat cheese. Of course, like nearly all Portland restaurants, Blue Spoon offers a selection of local beers – Maine is also a beer lovers paradise!
Portland street scene
Local Tavern, Portland, Maine
Inside Two Fat Cats Bakery, Portland, Maine
Micucci Grocery, Portland, Maine
Duck Fat, Portland, Maine
We could have spent weeks eating our way through the city, but since we had to come back to earth in New Jersey, checked out a few places we’ll spend more time in next visit. Behind its deceptively simple storefront, Micucci Grocery Store is a winding, treasure-filled maze of Italian cheeses, specialty foods, groceries, baked goods and wine, with a tiny cafe in the back. We brought home homemade whoopie pies and cookies from Two Fat Cats Bakery, part of the same Portland food empire as Fore Street. And we looked longingly in the window at Duck Fat, remembering the astonishingly good French fries (yes, fried in duck fat) that we scarfed down in the car two summers ago after gorging on oysters at J’s!
No trip to Maine would be complete without a stop at the New Hampshire State Liquor Store to stock up on wine, and hooch – Mt. Gay rum and a couple varieties of gin, to be specific … summer is coming, after all. But the NHSLS does not sell beer, so thanks to a tip from our friend, Mainer Kevin Colby, we found our way to Gary’s Beverages, just a short drive off the highway in Portsmouth. Walk past the cigarette and beef jerky displays near the entrance and you will find yourself in a veritable kingdom of beer, including many hard-to-find labels – at seriously discounted prices. We think we’ve stocked in enough to last us for quite awhile!
Our souvenirs
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Long Beach Island, New Jersey, March 13-15, 2010
We get to LBI as often as we can; fortunately for us, Ted’s mom has a fabulous oceanfront home there. This particular weekend was defined both by Ted’s birthday and a ferocious storm that pounded much of New Jersey for two days. That meant instead of walks on the beach, we would have to content ourselves with cooking, eating and drinking – such a shame!
When we arrived on Friday night – in driving rain – we followed our tradition of unloading the car, turning the lights on and heat up in the house and heading to Kubel’s in Barnegat Light for a burger and a beer or two.
On Saturday morning, we visited another one of our favorite island eateries, Uncle Will’s in Beach Haven. Of all the great places we get to eat, Uncle Will’s is in a category of its own. By day, it offers a legendary breakfast menu, served in a whimsical atmosphere with a pancake-eating mascot pig, who may just show up at your table. At night, the restaurant assumes a different identity; the wooden chairs get cloth covers, white tablecloths go on and the acclaimed dinner menu is Caribbean-inspired.
Saturday morning at Uncle Will's Pancake House, Beach Haven, LBI
We enjoyed two of the many creative breakfast dishes – a Van Goat omelet for me (wild mushrooms, asparagus, tomato and goat cheese folded into a paper-thin omelet, just the way I like it) served with French toast! Ted always orders the same thing, even when he tells me in the car he’s “not gonna do it this time” – biscuits with sausage gravy, topped with scrambled eggs. My stomach hurts just thinking about it …
The "Van Goat" omelet with French Toast
Besides the terrific food, what makes the Uncle Will’s experience so memorable are the gracious owner and staff, who maintain high standards in a casual, fun environment – not always an easy thing to do in the restaurant business. It has become a cliche to say that “everyone is greeted like an old friend,” but it’s really true here, which keeps the crowds coming back. In the summer, waits for a table can stretch down the block, so we visit as often as we can in the off-season.
Waitress Sally Meyer's service with a smile
After breakfast, we stopped into the delightful shop next door, How to Live. The creation of forward-thinking artist and writer Sandy Gingras, the newly relocated shop includes new and vintage home accessories, books, jewelry, candles, cards, calendars, etc. – in other words, my favorite kind of place to browse, but Ted found plenty to interest him, too.
From mid-April through December, there are a number of good fish markets open on LBI, but in the winter, it’s slim pickings. Saturday afternoon, we ventured off-island to a great seafood market, Exit 63 Seafood Corner in Manahawkin, where we picked up clams, scallops, salmon and cod for a big lunch on Sunday to celebrate Ted’s birthday. The owner and staff were especially helpful and friendly, and we’re looking forward to going back to try the pretty little restaurant they operate in the second half of the store.
Saturday evening we opted for a romantic dinner at Plantation in Harvey Cedars, one of the better restaurants on the island. Ted had seared tuna with baby bok choy and crispy risotto cake and I had tilapia (though I’m not usually a fan) because of the way it was prepared- with crab, chorizo and black bean-studded rice and cilantro-heavy corn salsa. I also discovered a cocktail destined to become a new favorite, the Cucumber Cosmopolitan – Hendrick’s Gin, white cranberry juice, Cointreau and lime juice, garnished with a cucumber slice – way better than the traditional Cosmo!
For more photos and details about our LBI weekend, see Spoon & Shutter archives.
Upcoming trips:
Cape May – September
Portland, Maine, for Harvest on the Harbor – October
Check back soon for reports and photos!
