For supper on Monday night, Theresa had some delicious dishes planned. Lobster BLTs, for one. Corn. And a blueberry salad with arugula and gorgonzola. Killer. She bought all her produce from a terrific farm stand called Beth’s Farm Market. On the Beth’s website, Beth says (and yes, there is a real Beth): “If it is a vegetable that can be grown in Maine and it is in season, you will probably find it at Beth’s Farm Market.” I believe it. Come along for a look. The blueberries were out of this world.
The chef at Primo is Melissa Kelly. We’ve never eaten her food before, but had always meant to when she was cooking a lot closer to us at the restaurant at Old Chatham Sheepherding Company in the Hudson Valley. She left there to opened Primo with pastry chef and co-owner Price Kushner. (Since then, she’s won a James Beard Award for Best Chef, Northeast.) So not only were we looking forward to dinner because Theresa and Jeff were raving, but also because we felt like we were finally getting to do something we’d been wanting to for a very long time. You know how sometimes when you anticipate how good something will be, and then your hopes are dashed once you are in the throws of it? This was absolutely not the case at Primo. Everything was delightful and delicious. We had a ball, too.
We had an adventurous time getting to our next destination, taking the blue roads along the coast to check out two small towns: Wiscasset and Damariscotta. Both are known for having excellent seafood. At Wiscasset, it’s the lobster roll at Red’s Eats. Inn Damariscotta, it’s the oysters. They are said to be terrific just about anywhere you order them in town: they come from the oyster beds in the Daramiscotta River. But Jan, a friend we made at the wedding, said “There’s nothing like sitting down to a plate of oysters at King Eider’s Pub.” She was so right. There’s nothing like it in the world. The oysters were so fresh, so briny, so magical. They made our throats tingle. We had one taste and it took about half a second for us to look at each other and know. These were the best oysters of our lives.
More about the oysters, Red’s, and our trip to Rockland, after the jump.
While Greg slept off his scolding, I slipped out of the hotel for an early breakfast. I had heard from the Boston friends we met at the Black Trumpet Bistro that the place to go was the Friendly Toast.
Apparently, a lot of other people agree! Luckily, I got there before the lines. My breakfast and the interior, after the jump.
Is it ever really a good idea to have a nightcap at your hotel bar? I question the intelligence of this, but the fact is, we went ahead, and we ended up with some good material.
So here we are, enjoying our bourbon. The band is playing.
Yes, that’s a woman singing and playing drums. Her only other accompaniment was a keyboard player. When we walked into the hotel lobby, we thought, Oh boy. This is the stuff that Saturday Night Live skits are made out of.
And then we were enjoying our drinks for a while, and you know what? We realized the band was pretty good. (Or was that the bourbon talking?) Anyway, you can judge for yourself, in this little clip I like to call “Greg Gets a Scolding.”
We chose the Black Trumpet Bistro for dinner because the chef-owner cooks with local — sometimes even foraged — ingredients, and we wanted to taste New England. Plus, there’s a wine bar.
We only had a few hours in Portsmouth before sunset, but it was plenty of time to take in the brick sidewalks, tall steeples, quaint alleyways and of course, the stunning views of the harbor.
We packed up the car, loaded the bikes and got on the road. Like the dorks that we are, we even had a cooler for drinks and snacks on the road. Thank goodness, because we wouldn’t want to ignore the sage advice of the government in Maine:
There are many funny (cars loaded with bikes and kayaks) and beautiful (waves crashing along a rocky coastline) things to see in Maine, but this sign may have been one of my favorites. We came across it at the first rest stop across the border, where there were only restrooms and a room of vending machines full of chips and sodas. Hence, the warning, I suppose.
After the jump, the SCFmobile, loaded with bikes, but no kayaks, and a few photos of dorks eating their lunch at picnic tables on the side of interstate highways. This is going to be fun, people! Click to continue »
After a nice bike ride in the afternoon, we headed over to Blue Hill for cocktail hour Sunday. Irene and Carol met Boo, Craig, Greg and me at the bar, where we enjoyed seasonal cocktails and the best bar snacks in town. Yes. That includes face bacon.
Warm weather, tasty food, good friends. And on top of that, our midsummer’s dinner was during the annual Perseid meteor shower, which we watched from the backyard, lying on blankets. A classic evening at the farm, indeed.
Craig took over documenting the evening, and he is a much more accomplished photographer than I. So please do check out the photos. They’re a real treat.
Just before they left for Maine to be married, we had dinner with Chris and Rory at the new Tarry Tavern in Tarrytown. The meal was surprisingly delicious, but the company was even better.
A family get-together in the orchard, with the Ranchers, Grandmom, Boo, Sarah and the girls. We had a cornucopia of supper vegetables and a grilled pork chop on top:
Greg, Sarah and I got the chance to go out for a Friday night supper. Mom was watching Mae, but we brought Jane along to make things a little easier on her. Now this photo is a little blurry, but I decided I have to feature it because it shows such a typical reaction of people when they see my sister’s children. They melt right then and there:
When Sarah and I got back from our big day of fun — seeing Memphis on Broadway and having a jaw-droppingly good lunch at Nougatine — we weren’t prepared for yet another entertainment extravaganza! But as soon as we walked in the door, we were treated to this:
When Sarah and I decided to do lunch and a show, I never thought we’d end up having one of the best meals of the year. But Nougatine simply stunned us.
Another family meal together, but this time, we made it easy on ourselves, it being a school night and all. Take out from our favorite wing place, Bon Chon:
