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The Kennebunks White Barn Inn Some of the best dining in New England takes place in this Relais & Chateaux namesake white barn, which soars up to three stories with a breathtaking backdrop of flowers rising on tiers outside its twenty-foot-high rear picture window and illuminated at night. Two barnwood dining rooms are filled with understated antiques and oil paintings dating to the 18th century, and the loft holds quite a collection of wildlife wood carvings. White-linened tables are set with silver, Schottsweizel crystal and Villeroy & Boch china. The White Barn became the AAA’s first five-diamond dining establishment in all New England and lately it topped the ranking of any restaurant in a resort worldwide in Condé Nast Traveler’s Best of the Best awards. The White Barn is that good. Swiss-trained British chef Jonathan Cartwright’s food is in the vanguard of contemporary American regional cuisine. Dinner is prix-fixe ($89 for four courses), with eight to ten choices for most courses. Our latest dinner, the highlight of several over the years, began with a glass of Perrier-Jouët extra brut (complimentary for house guests) and the chef’s “welcome amenity,” an herbed goat cheese rosette, an onion tart and a tapenade of eggplant and kalamata olives. A lobster spring roll with daikon radish, savoy cabbage and hot and sweet glaze, and seared Hudson Valley foie gras on an apple and celeriac tart with a calvados sauce were sensational appetizers. Champagne sorbet in a pool of Piper Heidsieck extra-dry cleared the palate with a flourish for the main courses. One was a duo of Maine rabbit: a grilled loin with roasted rosemary and pommery mustard and a braised leg in cabernet sauvignon, accompanied by wild mushrooms and pesto-accented risotto. The other was pan-seared tenderloin of beef topped with a horseradish gratin and port-glazed shallots on a pool of potato and Vermont cheddar cheese, with a fancy little side of asparagus. Dessert was anything but
anti-climactic: a classic coeur à la crème with tropical fruits and
sugared shortbread and a trio of pear, raspberry and mango sorbets,
served artistically on a black plate with colored swirls matching the
sorbets and decorated with squiggles of white and powdered sugar. A tray
of petits-fours gilded the lily. (207) 967-2321. Prix-fixe, $89. Dinner by
reservation, Monday-Thursday 6
to 9:30, Friday-Sunday 5:30 to 9:30. Closed two weeks in mid-January. Jackets
required.
Dinner here is better than ever, thanks to the assured touch of artist/owner Jack Nahil, former owner of the White Barn Inn and later the Salt Marsh Tavern. Executive chef Rich Lemoine, who has been with him since White Barn days, presents exotic contemporary fare. The 60-seat, two-level dining room itself is a study in white and cobalt blue. An arty display of cobalt glass is on a shelf above a painting of cobalt glass. Our latest dinner began with remarkably good crusty basil-parmesan-rosemary bread. Appetizers were a composed spinach salad with prosciutto and oyster mushrooms and an exemplary chilled sampler of ginger poached shrimp, a Maine crab-filled spring roll and tea-smoked sirloin with wasabi citrus rémoulade, each artfully presented and interspersed with colorful slaw. Oversize dinner plates speckled with herbs yielded a superior sliced leg of lamb teamed with cavatelli pasta and wilted arugula, and a mixed grill of duck sausage, veal london broil and lamb loin chop. Other choices ranged from pan-fried halibut with a russet and sweet potato crust with lime-cilantro tartar sauce over baby spinach to grilled duck breast and confit marinated in grand marnier with raspberry-orange demi-glace. The dessert of cinnamon ice cream with strawberries over lady fingers was enough for two to share. (207) 967-2125. Entrées, $24 to $36. Dinner,
Monday-Saturday 5:30 to 8:30 or 9. Closed January and February.
This Italian bistro is run by Laurie Bongiorno of the White Barn Inn, who took over the old Café Topher property in 1996. He opened it up into a perfectly stunning space, with vaulted beamed ceilings three stories high and a tall fieldstone fireplace. Sponged pale yellow walls, large tables spaced well apart, comfortable lacquered wicker armchairs, white tablecloths covered with paper, pinpoint lighting, and fancy bottles and sculptures backlit in the windows add up to a thoroughly sophisticated feeling. The talented chef and some of the staff are direct from Italy. Opera music was playing in the background as a plate of tasty little crostini, some with pesto and black olives and some with gorgonzola cheese and tomato, arrived to start our dinner. The bread, prepared in the in-house bakery, is served in slabs smack onto the table, with the server pouring an exorbitant amount of olive oil into a bowl for dipping. Everything else came on enormous white plates, except for the wine (in beautiful stemmed glasses) and the ice water (in pilsener glasses). The exciting, oversize menu is made for grazing. Among antipasti, we loved the wood-grilled local venison sausage on a warm caramelized onion salad and the house-cured Maine salmon carpaccio with olive oil, herbs and lemon juice and topped with pasta salad. Pastas come in small and large sizes, as do pizzas. Secondi are dishes like osso buco, wood-grilled salmon served over porcini risotto and grilled lobster served with a lemony garlic butter over fresh pasta. We split the wood-grilled leg of lamb steak with Tuscan white beans, pancetta, garlic and rosemary. The “insalata mista della casa” was a nice mixture of field greens, kalamata olives, tomato, gorgonzola and pine nuts. Accompanying the meal was a fine reserve chianti from an affordable, all-Italian wine list. A sampler plate of tiramisu, a chocolate delicacy and strawberries in balsamic vinegar with mascarpone cheese ended a memorable dinner. The overflow crowds spill on warm nights onto a tiered outdoor courtyard that looks rather like a grotto. (207) 967-2211. Entrées, $20.95 to $26.95. Dinner nightly, 5:30 to 9 or 9:30.
This is the trendy successor to our favorite
Seascapes restaurant, the latest incarnation of a landmark building
that’s been a restaurant at the edge of Chef-owner Peter Morency renovated the place to
reflect his We sampled the creative kitchen’s fare at an autumn lunch. The clam chowder, though tasty, contained far more potatoes than clams. The roasted chicken taquito with guacamole and salsa fresca was delicious, and the star of the show was succulent fish and chips, paired with superior coleslaw. Desserts were pumpkin cheesecake with caramel sauce and warm banana cake with milk chocolate ganache. At night, the chef shines with the likes of seafood
stew, roasted halibut with orange-mussel
butter, smoked pork tenderloin with sundried cherry and port wine
reduction, seafood mixed grill and sirloin steak with red wine demi-glace
and maytag blue cheese. We’d gladly make a meal of the hangtown fry:
pan-fried oysters, pancetta and a boiled egg over mixed greens. Downstairs, the Ramp
offers a predictable mix of clam chowder, crab cakes, fish and chips,
fish tacos, fried clams and lobster roll along with the unexpected,
North Carolina-style pulled pig barbecue sandwich with tidewater slaw. (207)967-8500.
www.pier77restaurant.com. Entrées, $19 to $30. Lunch daily
June-September, On the Marsh Restaurant The soaring, barn-like interior of the former Salt Marsh Tavern is chicly elegant, thanks to owner Denise Rubin, an interior designer who bought the converted barn and farmhouse restaurant and set about redecorating the place. Now she offers diners “a feast for the eyes as
well as the palate,” changing the decor with the seasons. Tables on
two floors are flanked by fancy padded chairs that the owner designed
and are draped to the floor in white over raspberry cloths –
officially “raspberry sorbet,” her favorite color. All the artworks
on the walls, most of the antiques adorning the lofts and even the
chairs and the silverware are for sale. Large rear windows look onto a
salt marsh stretching toward With an eye for the dramatic, the owner and her chefs categorize their menu by “prologue” and “performance.” Warm up with crunchy tiger shrimp and leeks with a sundried tomato-saffron aioli, a foie gras tourchon with dried cherries or lobster ravioli with leeks and peas. Typical main courses are grilled swordfish with fennel and orange relish, oven-roasted halibut with herb butter, muscovy duck breast and confit, and seared filet mignon with béarnaise sauce. Desserts might be a trio of crème brûlées, dark chocolate pâté with rum crème anglaise and, the owner’s favorite, blueberry-raspberry sorbet with Belgian chocolate spears. For a different experience, you might gather at the owner’s table to sample executive chef Peter Dwyer’s tasting menu. There’s also a chef’s table for two to four in the kitchen, where guests get an inside look at the goings-on in what he calls the heat of battle. (207) 967-2299. www.onthemarsh.com. Entrées,
$24.95 to $31.50. Dinner nightly, from
Ogunquit restaurateurs Brooks and Luanne MacDonald took over the old family-style Riverview Restaurant that had inspired him to get into the restaurant business. They commissioned a waitress to paint a huge mural of the river on the wall lacking a water view and, voila: Hurricane No. 2, an offshoot of the original Ogunquit trend-setter. In place of the soda fountain where Brooks hung out as a teenager is a hand-crafted mahogany bar serving 60 wines by the glass to patrons in a 90-seat restaurant with views of the Kennebunk River. The contemporary American menu features Hurricane's signature dishes and a few items unique to Dock Square. Seafood and lobster are the specialties on a roster ranging from pan-roasted arctic char served over black quinoa to the signature lobster cioppino. Fire-roasted Chilean sea bass served over a crispy duck confit and fingerling potato hash, oven-roasted Alaskan halibut with grilled apples and papaya coulis, and fennel-crusted rack of lamb finished with preserved lingonberry sauce are typical. A bento box of shrimp, scallop and salmon lumpia, Maine lobster rangoon, vegetable nori rolls and marinated beef is a specialty appetizer to be shared. The pastry chef’s desserts could be warm rum raisin bread pudding with orange sabayon or chocolate-grand marnier crème brûlée. In 2003, the Hurricane group took over the Port Bakery & Café, open daily from 6 to 6 in Kennebunk’s Lower Village. (207) 967-9111. Entrées, $18 to $39. Lunch
daily, 11:30 to 3. Dinner nightly, 5:30 to 10:30, to 9:30 in winter.
This stylish newcomer began life as Stripers Fish Shack and dropped the “fish shack” from its name when it relocated in 2004 from an outbuilding behind the former Schooners Inn to the main waterfront dining room of the Breakwater Inn. It’s now Stripers, “a waterfront restaurant and raw bar.” And how. Here is ubiquitous White Barn Inn owner Laurence Bongiorno’s shrine to seafood, still something of a “fish shack” in terms of food concept but as stylish as all get-out in its stunning new digs at the rear of the inn. Call it a fish shack nonpareil, this stunning place seating 110 diners in well-spaced comfort amid floor-to-ceiling windows onto the water and blue chairs slip-covered to the floor in Ritz-like fashion. A mini-aquarium harboring a tropical fish inside is atop each table, mirroring the giant aquarium at the entry. So is a stash of appropriate sauces for what amounts to the original fish shack fare. The menu is short and deceptively straightforward, given the kitchen’s creativity, and eons removed in delivery from the clam shack and fish fry idiom. Look for the day’s catch (swordfish, Atlantic salmon, halibut, shrimp), available chargrilled, broiled or pan seared and served – as are most entrées – with rice pilaf or fries and what the menu calls “mushy” peas, a mix of mashed and whole peas in a rich buttery and creamy mash. Also look for lobster, bouillabaisse and blackboard specials, perhaps pan-seared scallops with lobster-cognac sauce or yellowfin tuna with provençal sauce. Perhaps the best fish and chips you ever ate comes in the form of ale-battered haddock with fries, garnished with wedges of lemon and lime. Other favorites are the seafood platter – an array of oysters, shrimp, clams, mussels and cracked lobster – and the occasional bento box. One night’s box yielded seared scallops, gravlax, shrimp and panko-fried oysters with seaweed salad. Seafood-oriented soups, stews, salads and appetizers are offered to begin. The only “fishless options” are grilled chicken, filet mignon and rack of lamb. Desserts include peanut butter pie, apple crumble and vanilla bean crème brûlée. Just off the porch is a spacious raw bar with seating for dining and cocktails. (207) 967-3625. Entrées, $18.95 to $32.50.
Dinner nightly, 5 to 9:30. Sunday brunch,
Material excerpted from Best Restaurants of New England, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth, copyright 2002, and from Getaways for Gourmets in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth, copyright 2006.
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