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Bar Harbor/ Hospitable owner-innkeepers, creative breakfasts, a quiet in-town location near the water and a guest book full of grateful raves. These are among the attributes of this summery but substantial, Tudor-style cottage built in 1885, tucked away in the trees between the Bar Harbor Inn and "the field," a meadow of wildflowers. Transplanted New Yorkers Roy Kasindorf and his Quebec City-born wife, Hélène Harton, bought it in 1991 from a woman who had turned it into a B&B at the age of 86. They retained many of the furnishings, adding some of their own as well as artworks from artist-friends in New York. In 1998, they acquired the summery Yellow House across the street and added six more guest rooms. Ten bedrooms in the main house hold lots of chintz, wicker and antiques; some come with balconies, fireplaces or both. One dubbed Audrey's Room (for Roy's daughter) on the third floor contains two antique beds joined together as a kingsize and a clawfoot tub with its original fixtures, from which the bather can look out the low window onto Frenchman Bay. We were happily ensconced in the second-floor Room 5, a majestic space outfitted in country French provincial fabrics with king bed, two wing chairs in front of the fireplace and a water-view balcony upon which to relax and enjoy the passing parade. Rooms in the Yellow House are light and airy, furnished "in the style of a simple summer home," in Hélène’s words. "We saved everything we could from the original." Jack’s Room comes with an imposing kingsize pineapple poster bed, mirrored armoire and a marble bath with glass shower. Guests here enjoy a double parlor as well as a wraparound porch. Back in the original house, the main floor harbors a wicker-furnished parlor with lots to look at, from collections (including two intricate puppets beside the fireplace) to reading materials. It’s the site for a convivial wine and cheese hour in the late afternoon. Beyond a dining room with shelves full of colorful Italian breakfast china is the kitchen from which Hélène produces the dishes that make breakfasts here such an event. In summer, they're served outside at tables for two or four on a pleasant terrace with glimpses of the water. Roy is the waiter and raconteur, doling out – in our case – cantaloupe with mint sauce, superior cinnamon-raisin muffins with orange glaze, and puff pancakes yielding blueberries and raspberries. Your feast might start with Hélène's grilled fruit brochettes bearing peaches, strawberries and kiwi with a ricotta-cheese sauce or grapefruit segments in cinnamon syrup, followed by an Italian omelet with homemade tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese or crêpes with frozen yogurt or a rum-cream sauce. All this is served on matching dishes and placemats – a rainbow of pastels, as cheery as the setting. (207) 288-9552. For more information: www.ullikana.com. Sixteen rooms with private baths. Doubles, $145 to $270. Children over 8. Closed November-April. Material excerpted from Getaways for Gourmets in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2006. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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