LTHforum Maine vacation planner

I have just started making plans for an upcoming trip to Maine. Never having been there, I was happy to see the posting about the Moxie Festival. Unfortuantely, I'll be there one month too late. I would appreciate any more Maine suggestions, though. I'll be there (and cruising around the general area between Boston and Kennebunkport, ME) from 8/4 - 8/11, so I've got plenty of time to check them out and not other real agenda. Who knows, maybe Mike G.'s method of having LTH plan one's vacation is not such a bad idea. I'm not sure if this post belongs here or in the Beyond Chicago section. The moderators can decide.

If you're so inclined to make it to the Providence RI area, I highly recommend heading up Highway 195 toward the Cape and making a stop in Swansea, Mass for a 3 1/2 pound baked stuffed lobster at the Venus de Milo Restaurant.

The Venus is kind of a weird place. It's a huge banquet facility that iopens its restaurant daily to the locals. Upon being seated, you're presented an appetizer plate of chicken wings (and gizzards if you're lucky).

I first ate at the Venus around 12 years ago while in Providence on Business. I've been back 5 or 6 times and only eat the three and a half pound baked stuffed lobster from the menu. The lobster is split open, the tail meat is chopped and put back in the shell with a little scallop added for filler. it's then topped with buttered Ritz cracker crumbs and baked to perfection.

Other than the BSL, the restaurant's other claim to fame is that it is the first place Emeril cooked when he graduated from culinary school. But, don't hold that against them.

The BSL at Venus is something everyone should experience once in life.



Venus De Milo

Aside from Moxie, low-bush blueberries (and blueberry jam and chutney), and lobster rolls (and lobsters), let me recommend Morse's Sauerkraut, the best sauerkraut I have every tasted (by quite a lot).

Morse's Sauerkraut
Route 220
3856 Washington Road
North Waldoboro, ME 04572

(8 miles north of Route 1 and 2.5 miles south of Route 17)

207-832-2297

stevez wrote:I'll be there (and cruising around the general area between Boston and Kennebunkport, ME)

Essex Seafood is our first stop out of Logan whenever visiting Weston MA vicinity relatives.

Menu, directions here: http://www.essexseafood.com/

Small family owned year round locals place. Go for the non-pareil fried clams, steamers, lobsters and clam chowder. (ok fries, onion rings.) As you circle back NNW to I-95 and regions north, you pass White Farms Ice Cream for very very good ice cream.

Essex is about 35 min NNE of Logan moderate traffic.

About a year ago I posted this rpt on another board:

" Essex Seafood. (Essex)
--Lobster, cooked perfectly. Fresh enough so it wasn't 'tanked'.
--Steamers--a revelation. Never had clams like these: thin shelled, oblong, fat bodies and necks.
--Clam chowder: a paragon, as good as unthickenend chowder can be.

Clam Box (Ipswich)
--Fried big belly clams. damn good.
--Onion rings. Don't waste your calories. Mealy coating, If I didn't know they were made in house, I would put them down as frozen.

Comparison.
Essex Seafood is a real place, with a real kitchen, open year-round, and someone who knows their way around the kitchen. Clam box is a takeout stand with a single great product, fried clams. Although did not try, Essex' onion rings looked great--with wisps of fried edges threaded around the edges. By accident, entered Essex through the wrong door and wondered through the food prep area...the kitchen was immaculate...

White Farms Ice Cream (Ipswich)
Pro's: Wonderful, rich ice cream, not too sweet, exc flavorings and add-ins.
Con's: TOO much of the additives (my wife's caramel) and my coconut jamocha.
Would return in a heartbeat while on next Cape Ann run, but next time will get the 'Doggie' portion (one small scoop with a dog biscuit) instead of the 'Kiddie' size (one humongous scoop)."

Since that initial trip, we omit the Clam Box and get our fried clams and onion rings fix at Essex.

Kennebunkport is a nice little town with an interesting Historic District. And just north of town is the George H. W. Bush family compound. You can't go in, of course, but you get a pretty good view of it from the road. Then driving a mile or two north on my last trip to the area (admittedly, a while ago) imagine my surprise to see an old CTA car sitting alongside the road. It's the Seashore Trolley Museum.

But I strongly recommend if you're going as far as Kennebunkport, drive another 30 miles to Portland. Maine's biggest city (which isn't saying much - the population is smaller than Evanston). Portland has a great, well-restored Old Port area (quintessential Old New England, down to the cobblestone streets and working lobster pots piled up alongside the docks), great restaurants, and if you're into brewpubs (which I am), an excellent one - Gritty McDuff's - which takes the "Gritty" in its name seriously.

And if you're into shopping, the home of L.L. Bean, as well as tons of other outlet stores, is just up the coast in Freeport.

Enjoy your trip.

I also second the suggestion of visiting Portland, which is like a smaller, quainter Boston. Besides a couple of Sterns-approved, very crowded diner type places, it has one exceptional fine dining restaurant, Hugo's, whose chef Rob Evans was named one of Food & Wine's 10 best new chefs the same year Avenues' Graham Bowles was (for his previous gig in Vermont). Excellent contemporary food (with a seafood slant, not surprising considering that the big seafood importer Browne Trading Co. is nearby) at a very reasonable price.

Near Georgetown is a very atmospheric lobster shack currently called Dena's (according to my friend Wyatt, the concession and thus the name changes every five years). Good lobster rolls, fried shrimp, etc., eaten on picnic tables overlooking the dock-- exactly the sort of rustic experience you would hope for in Maine. A little tough to find, you'll have to ask around and drive down a gravel road convinced this can't be the way.

Mike G wrote:I also second the suggestion of visiting Portland, which is like a smaller, quainter Boston. Besides a couple of Sterns-approved, very crowded diner type places, it has one exceptional fine dining restaurant, Hugo's, whose chef Rob Evans was named one of Food & Wine's 10 best new chefs the same year Avenues' Graham Bowles was (for his previous gig in Vermont).

A third vote for Portland...

And a second suggestion for fine(ish) dining. Fore St. Restaurant is a gem of a place. And although it's slathered in hype--James Beard awards, Gourmet magazine top 50 restaurants, no sign. I think it lives up to the hype by staying true to it's modest spirit. Seriously--when we went it was during the midst of a media storm, and I didn't sense any signs of self-congratulatory attitude. I guess it would fall in the category of a higher end restaurant, but without feeling like it. They somehow manged to transform an old warehouse into a warm, cozy space--installing a big open kitchen with (apple)wood burning ovens, and a glass encased vegetable cooler that houses all of the night's produce.

The menu is straight forward enough. The focus is on the quality of the ingredients, and the simplicity of their preparations. Much of the menu is done in their wood ovens (think spit-roasted meats, and cedar planked fish). The most memorable dish that I had was a smoky seared hunk of foie, coupled with some fresh figs and a blackberry gastrique. Everyone was ordering big platters of raw seafood too. They are known for their pristine seafood.

If you are a Saveur subscriber, they did a huge cover article on the chef, Sam Hayward. But I think it dates back to 2000-2001.


Fore St.
288 Fore St
207-775-2717

I also have had a very pleasant visit to Essex Seafood, and then a wander around Gloucester afterwards, but you will not be able to get any clams this time because of the red tide. Or, if they have clams, they will not be really local.

I have also had some good meals in Portland. Here is a post on a place I visited and a bakery I would have liked to visit http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=6554#6554.

Here is another link with info on the bakery, 555, and some other places that could be of interest. http://foodandwine.netscape.com/articles/invoke.cfm?label=where%2Dto%2Dgo%2Dnext%2Dportland%2Dmaine

Lastly, look for one or more places that serve lobster on picnic tables by the ocean. Everyone has their favorite, but it is the best thing, with blueberry pie for dessert of course. Lobster Rolls are pretty delectable, too. My experience has been that you need to stop at almost every stand and try theirs .

Enjoy.

dicksond wrote:My experience has been that you need to stop at almost every stand and try theirs .

Enjoy.

I think that may be my plan