Eating and drinking my way through Maine
I know I can sound like a broken record, but Central Provsions just keeps getting better and better! On our latest visit I was: imbued with joy by the tuna tartar, dazzled by pineapple and heart of palms, and stunned by the new standard for lamb. Accompanying it all was the fantastically versatile Baxter boulevard punch!
Kicking off the week of Harvest on the Harbor was an amazing evening of food and wine pairings by some of Maine’s top chefs. With 7 courses it was too much to go over each dish, but some of the standouts were: Cara Stadler of Bao Bao Dumpling House‘s beef tartar was filled with Asian inspired flavors, the foie torchon from Lee Harding Smith’s Oyster Room was my favorite savory dish of the night, David Turin of Opus Ten‘s margret duck and chicken boudin renewed my faith in humanity, and Shanon Bard of Zapoteca’s‘s chile dusted venison was oh so tasty. These dishes plus the others, combined with wonderful wine pairings by Erica Archer’s Wine Wise Events made me Happy, Happy! So many great flavors and textures! Topping it all of was the most deliciously unique desert by Ilma Lopez of Picolo. Her incorporation of root vegetables into desert lead to a beautiful mouth-watering finish! A special thank you to the folks at Coffee By Design for generously matching all funds raised to support The Good Shepard Food Bank.
The new Bramhall Pub is a wonderful subterranean lair of a pub. Filled with shadowy nooks and candlelight. Just perfect for drinking a lazy afternoon away with friends or perhaps an assignation. Located beneath one of Portland’s many artists colonies the crowd is bound to be interesting. On the drink side they have a solid beer collection and a huge alcohol selection. The cocktail list is still in development but their seasoned bar staff is more than capable of matching drinks to anyone’s taste. The menu is smallish, but very good. Thin potato crisps with or without toppings, a wonderful pork sandwich and the soon to be famous sous vide bacon burger.
An update for those in the know,The Bearded Ladies Jewel Box is Maine’s coolest new bar. Deliberately a little hard to find this bar has now been opens few weeks and really starting to find it’s stride. Its a little dark inside for picture taking (plus the cocktails are very potent), but I can assure that this elegant bar is putting out beautifully crafted drinks and strikingly tasty generously portioned snacks. On my latest visit we tried both the pickle plate and the super yummy smoked salmon on cucumber. Both were throwbacks to the Mad Men era updated with modern spices to make them really pop. Based on the current kitchen set up chef Lex Jones could be one to watch.
