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Blue Hill Peninsula/ Arborvine The chef who spearheaded the changes in Down East dining tastes a generation ago is back for an encore. John Hidake, who launched Blue Hill’s acclaimed
Fire Pond restaurant in 1977 and led it through its glory years, and his
wife Beth converted a rambling, 200-year-old John had sold Fire Pond in 1987 because “we had
achieved what we had set out to do” and he wanted to spend more time
with his young family. “But I really missed the creativity of a
restaurant kitchen, which you can’t do in the catering business.” He
also missed his regular patrons, who had become close friends. His wide
following missed him, too – in its earlier days, a trip to the The new restaurant seats about 50 in two small front dining rooms and a larger, L-shaped room that doubles as a reception area and bar. Mismatched tables and chairs in the Shaker, Heppelwhite and Windsor styles are set with antique linens, flowers and votive candles. Oriental rugs dot the floors. Each dining area has a working fireplace and is furnished with antiques. John made some of the furniture himself. The dinner menu features local seafood as well as heartier fare like rack of lamb with wild mushroom sauce and tournedos bordelaise. Seasonal dishes include broiled halibut with mushrooms and scallions in a green curry sauce, grilled yellowfin ahi tuna with ginger-soy aioli, amaretto-glazed duckling with apple-ginger chutney, medallions of pork with apples and calvados-maple glaze, and grilled sirloin steak with a five-spice rub and a cardamom-scented maitre d’ butter. The night’s specials might add treats like galettes of Maine crabmeat and shrimp with a light dijon sauce on a bed of herbed bulgur and grilled magret of moulard duck with a plum and mint salsa. Typical appetizers are a medley of smoked salmon, trout and mussels with horseradish cream, brie in puff pastry with figs and toasted almonds, and a salad of baby beets, leeks and pears with gorgonzola. Specials could be a soup of chilled avocado with crème fraîche and a salad of strawberries, mango and melon with toasted pistachios and a prickly pear vinaigrette. Dessert favorites include grand marnier chocolate mousse, white chocolate cheesecake with berries and lemon curd tartlets. The Vinery, a brick-floored conservatory, offers pastas and light fare in the $9 to $14 range. It’s now run by the Hikades’ son Andrew, who cooks in a separate kitchen. Son Tim serves as sous chef in his father’s kitchen. (207) 374-2119. www.arborvine.com. Entrées, $22
to $29. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday 5 to 9:30, Friday-Sunday in winter.
Vinery in season, Wednesday-Sunday 5 to 9. The
Wescott Forge Also back for an encore is
our beloved Fire Pond – this time, after several reincarnations under
different owners, with a new name, a new look and an acknowledged nod to
the Fire Pond tradition. After Frenchman Jean-Paul
Lecomte closed his nighttime Jean-Paul at the Fire Pond and his daytime
Jean-Paul Bistro across the street, the Fire Pond building beside the
millstream lay dormant until its rescue by Blue Hill resident Johnny
Bravo and folks formerly associated with the late Thrumcap café and
wine bar in Bar Harbor. Anneliese Riggall and chef Daniel Sweimler
opened the Wescott Forge in 2005, with backing from Thrumcap owner Tom
Marinke. A substantial renovation
on two floors of the old mill building created an elegant open dining
area on the lower level seating 50 beside a gas fireplace. The tables of
choice continue to be on a delightful enclosed porch beside the
millstream, which is illuminated at night. Well-spaced tables dressed in
white with beige overlays downstairs and an upstairs lounge with a bar
and couches help create an easy elegance to the historic building,
renamed for one of the last blacksmiths to occupy the structure. Touches
of the old forge show up in the wrought-iron stair railing and light
fixtures. “We wanted to bring back
what Blue Hill had lost,” Anneliese said of the move to Blue Hill,
which coincided with the closing of Thrumcap. With her came New
York-trained chef Dan, whom Tom Marinke described as “the best chef we
ever had” in his years at Thrumcap and its predecessor, the Porcupine
Grill. Dan designed the Forge’s
fare to be “progressive new French with Asian and Italian
influences,” reflecting his New York background and local ingredients.
He pledged to “keep it fresh – for myself, as well as for everybody
else.” His opening menu was short
but sweet, the kind upon which almost everything appeals. It featured
such entrées as poached halibut with salsa verde, seared
seaweed-crusted hai ???AHI
tuna with a wasabi-pea coulis, pork tenderloin with a plum glaze
and grilled sirloin with a burgundy reduction. Starters included
house-smoked mussels with jícama and mango curry, tuna tartare, a
roasted beet and asparagus tart with goat cheese, a crisp spring roll
with jonah crab and shiitake mushrooms, and a lobster salad with
nectarines, watercress and pomegranate syrup. Desserts were a Schokinag
chocolate soufflé with bourbon cream, strawberry-rhubarb shortcake with
fromage blanc ice cream and Earl Grey crème brûlée. Also offered was
a cheese plate with fruits and quince paste. A rustic bar menu with
smoked fish, terrines and charcuteries is available in the main-floor
lounge. The short wine list is priced mainly in the high twenties and
thirties. (207) 374-9909.
www.thewescottforge.com. Entrées, $17 to $23. Lunch, Monday-Saturday
11:30 to 3, Thursday-Saturday noon to 3 in winter. Dinner,
Monday-Saturday 5:30 to 9:30, Wednesday-Saturday 4 to 9 in winter. Some of the island’s best meals have long attracted the public as well as inn guests for dinner at the Pilgrim’s Inn. In 2005, the new owners renamed the restaurant the Whale’s Rib Tavern, added a second dining room next to the inn’s taproom and added an upscale tavern menu to their traditional offerings. The former goat barn has been refurbished to resemble a 1793 tavern, with windsor chairs at white-clothed tables. Well-known Maine chef Jonathan Chase has presided in the Pilgrim’s Inn kitchen since he sold his namesake Blue Hill restaurant in 2002. He and two other chefs offer up to 40 entrées nightly. Their tavern menu includes the likes of baby back ribs, meatloaf, bangers and mash, and shepherds pie. The traditional menu might start with Scandinavian-style borscht, parmigiano-reggiano flan with tomato-basil coulis and a smoked seafood sampler of mussels, Maine shrimp and Scottish salmon. Entrées range from a signature seafood stew and tuna niçoise to pan-seared venison medallions with a shiitake mushroom-red wine sauce. Desserts include chambord cheesecake and mocha mousse. (207) 348-6615 or (888) 778-7505. Entrées, $11.95 to $34.95; tavern menu, $8.95 to $14.95. Dinner nightly, 4:30 to 10:30. Closed early January to early May.
The harbor views outside the wraparound windows are
a major attraction at this with-it establishment, run by an Austrian by
way of Rudi Newmayr, a contractor who built many a
restaurant but said this is the first he ever owned, took over the old
Atlantic Café space in 2004 and added some interesting twists. He
dispenses typical For lunch, we sampled a spicy organic The dinner menu ranges widely from roasted halibut with watermelon syrup and wasabi oil and sugar cane skewered tiger shrimp with pineapple salsa to herb-roasted chicken breast with truffle poultry jus and pistachio-crusted rack of lamb. Grilled duck breast with sweet potato hash and cranberry-fig relish and grilled venison chop with roasted plum barbecue sauce and Asian slaw were hits on the autumn menu. You might start with steamed mussels with fennel, tomatoes and garlic in a white wine broth or seared quail in a lavender-honey glaze. Lobster might show up in a “B.L.T” – lobster layered between buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes. Finish with one of the specialty dessert crêpes. With windows onto the water, the 28-seat dining room
is simple but stylish with white paneling, wide-board flooring and
benches imported from (207) 367-2600. www.maritimecafe.com. Entrées,
$18 to $24. Lunch daily, Lily's
Cafe Deer Isle and Stonington folks head
for this inauspicious looking little house across the cove from South
Deer Isle for what they consider consistently the best food around.
Chef-owner Kyra Alex opened in 1998 and attracted a steady following for
eclectic fare that ranges from lentil salad to cold Chinese noodles to
crispy baked haddock sandwich to albacore tuna melt to veggie sandwich
and Lily’s nutburger. That’s a sampling of the all-day fare. At night, Kyra adds a couple of
specials that she decides on at about 3 p.m. and are “ready at 5.”
One night’s choices were baked salmon and polenta with chicken sausage
and tomato sauce. The previous night saw white lasagna and baked pork
with roasted potatoes and gravy. The main floor of the house holds six
tables, most topped with glass and dolls or shells. Nine more tables in
two upstairs rooms are pressed into service on busy nights. The restaurant hews to limited hours,
never on weekends and closing at 8 p.m. We know, because we were running
late and nearly didn’t make it. But our innkeeper guests pulled rank
and got us in for a convivial meal of delectable lamb chops, topped off
with bread pudding. Upstairs is the Chef’s Attic,
a shop featuring cottage wares and occasional art shows. There also are
tables scattered around the back lawn and an organic produce stand in
this establishment that’s the essence of Down East Maine. (207) 367-5936. Entrées, $5.95 to
$10.95. Open Monday. Tuesday and Friday, 7 to 4, Wednesday and Thursday
7 to 8, Memorial Day through Labor Day. Closes one hour earlier rest of
year. 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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