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Mid-Coast Maine Adirondack chairs and lobster traps are on the lawn and colorful banners line the facade of this appealing inn and restaurant just past the drawbridge on Southport Island and directly on the water – a picturesque harbor known as Townsend Gut, to be exact. Scott and Corinne Larson, owners of the nearby Newagen Inn on Southport Island, took over the Lawnmeer in 2004. They did some renovations and rechristened it the Lawnmere for its original spelling. Best known for its dining room, the region's oldest operating inn now claims some of the finest accommodations as well. The Larsons renovated the inn’s second and third floors to produce seven rooms and four suites, most with water views. Updated with a light 21st century look, rooms are painted in Victorian Painted Lady colors and furnished with stunning original artworks. Twenty more rooms, some with king beds or queen four-posters, are in two annex buildings on either side. There's a charming cottage for two with a kingsize bed and a sun deck at water's edge. Drinks are available in the Wobbly Lobster bar painted a stunning poppy red. Breakfast, included in the rates and available to the public, is served in as sunny, water-view dining room flanked by a spacious new deck. Ours produced a superior tomato and herb omelet and roast beef hash topped with two poached eggs. Virtually every table has a water view in the wide dining room that's stylish in white by day and romantic by candlelight at night. Chef Bill Edgerton supplements the dinner menu with a page of daily specials – things like garlicky linguini tossed with smoked salmon and peas alfredo as an appetizer and a trio of fish (swordfish with pesto, tuna with soy and garlic, and sole with crabmeat and tomato) as an entrée, both of which proved exceptional. When one of us chose the fish trio over the lobster Johnny Walker but wanted to sample the sauce, the chef obliged with a taste on the side. We also can vouch for the shrimp in parchment with julienned vegetables, new potatoes and crisp yellow squash and zucchini, and the poached salmon with dill-hollandaise sauce. Other main dishes could be Maine lobster risotto, chicken paprikash, peppercorn-rubbed filet mignon with cognac demi-glace and grilled london broil of venison with oyster mushrooms and bordelaise sauce. Vermont maple crème brûlée, blueberry bread pudding with crème anglaise, grand marnier mousse and key lime pie are among the delightful desserts. You can swim right off the dock, if you want to brave the chilly water, or take a rowboat out. Most visitors are more than content to sit in Adirondack chairs and watch the water activity.
For more information: www.lawnmereinn.com or www.boothbayharbor.com Twenty-seven rooms, four suites and one cottage with private baths. Doubles, $109 to $199. Cottage, $189. Closed Columbus Day to Memorial Day. Entrées, $15.50 to $29. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday 6
to 9, mid-June to Columbus Day, Thursday-Sunday in spring. Sunday
brunch, 8 to 11. Material excerpted from Waterside Escapes in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth, copyright 2005, and from Getaways for Gourmets in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth, copyright 2003. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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