207 Maine: Local Choices

Hilary Nangle
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If you watch 207 on WCSH tonight, you’ll see me chatting about new editions of two of my Moon series guidebooks Coastal Maine and Maine, both published by Avalon Travel Publishing. Rob asked me for suggestions for summer getaway recommendations , and I wanted to elaborate.

1. Travel somewhere in Maine where you’ve never previously been. For many folks, that’s likely to be Aroostook County. It’s beautiful, spacious and the budget-friendly rates for food and lodging will make up for the gas costs. Way Down East is another good choice: Jonesport, Lubec and Eastport are Maine the way it used to be. Better yet, go in August for the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival—that alone is worth a trip.

2. Stay home and play tourist in your backyard. Now this is a real budget-friendly choice. Draw a circle of, oh, say 20 to 50 miles around your hometown and play day trips to all the places you’ve always said you’ll go, but have yet to visit: local historical society or specialized , perhaps quirky, museums, Audubon or Nature Conservancy preserves, land trusts, state parks; and treat yourself to a few special activities, perhaps a guided tour, a boat trip, or an afternoon at an amusement park with the kids.

3. Reverse the seasons. If you haven’t been to Bethel, Rangeley or Carrabassett Valley/Kingfield in summer, do so for the hiking, mountain biking, fishing, camping, boating and general good times.

4. Treat yourself to a say at a traditional Maine sporting camp, such as Libby‘s or Bradford Camps or one of the AMC’s properties, Little  Lyford or Medalwisla. Once you’re there, it’s cost controlled, as meals and lodging are included in the rate. Most camps are strings of cabins edging a lake or stream, with meals taken in a central lodge. It’s rustic, but not too much so–most have hot showers and flush toilets and woodstoves for warmth on chilly nights. It’s a classic Maine experience that everyone should enjoy at least once (unless you don’t do rustic, than nooooo).

News and chews: Newcastle Publick House

Hilary Nangle
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We dined with friends at the Newcastle Publick House, the latest restaurant to occupy the cursed site on Newcastle Square, where Route 1A curves down and over the bridge onto Damariscotta’s Main Street. This one might just be the exception.

It was packed last night, and it was easy to see why. The food’s good, the portions are decent and the prices are affordable. It’s pub fare that rises above the usual. Many of the foods are sourced locally–and these are noted on the menu. And the restaurant grills meats, seafood and veggies over a wood fire. Best of all, this chef obviously knows his way around the kitchen.

Our party of four had two orders of fish and chips, one order of bangers and mash, and one order of grilled scallops. All were perfectly cooked. The ale-battered haddock was light, the fish moist inside the crunchy coating; the fries crisp–okay, I like them this way, Tom thought they were overcooked. The bangers were three large imported Irish sausage accompanied by garlic mashed (really, more smashed) potatoes. The four wood-fire grilled scallops in a honey-butter sauce were accompanied garlic potato mash and the day’s grilled veggies. None of us left a morsel on our plates. While the desserts were tempting, we opted to head over to Round Top Ice Cream to test the gelatto instead (very good).

Servers are young and enthusiastic. There are a few service issues to work out–it seemed understaffed–but the place has been open only a few weeks, and again, it was packed. Better yet, these kids knew when they’d been away from a table for too long, and always apologized for the absence. It would also help if some sound-absorbing materials were added to the dining room–it’s quite loud, when busy; almost too loud for regular conversation. But then again, it’s a pub.

Nitty gritty details: It’s open daily for lunch and dinner, serving in the bar/lounge, adjacent dining room and outside patio. Prices range from $6 for a wood-fired grilled cheese with veggies or BLT to $24 for a rib eye. Most prices are in the teens. What I really liked was that base prices were low, but there were options to “upgrade.” For example, we could have added fried oysters to our fish and chips for an additional $6 or you could add pastrami-smoked salmon to the applewood-smoked bacon in the BLT for $3. Go tonight: The special is a fresh lobster roll, served warm or cold, for $13.

Oh, and there’s a mug club and sometimes evening entertainment. Yup, looks like this one’s a winner; i know we’ll return. Cheers!

Sign of summer: Ice cream soda

Hilary Nangle
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Honest, I had the best of intentions. I stopped at Royal River Natural Foods, in Yarmouth, intending to get some lunch fixings, but the store was out of what I wanted, and the prepared sandwiches and soups didn’t float my boat. So, I took that as a sign from God that I should have ice cream for lunch. A little less than an hour later, I was enjoying my all-time fave, a chocolate ice cream soda from Round Top Ice Cream, in Damariscotta. Only instead of just chocolate ice cream, I had the ice cream girl make it with both chocolate and ginger. Then I sat on the back deck, squinting in the unexpected sunshine. Heaven!

Ever since I was a little kid, and my grandmother used to make me ice cream sodas, I’ve loved the combo of ice cream and club soda and chocolate syrup with a dash of cream. It’s an old fashioned treat, and few ice cream stands know how to make one anymore. But Round Top does. Not only that, it makes a really, really good one.

Now, I had my heart set on the ice cream soda, but I noticed that Round Top has jumped on the gelatto trend. It’s making its own, and there was a nice selection of flavors in a separate cooler, just inside the front door. Check it out.

Anyway, I think it was a healthful lunch. I mean c’mon, ginger represents a plant group, right? It must count as something in the USDA pyramid. As for my major food group, it combined three of what I consider necessities of life: chocolate, sugar and ice cream. And everyone knows club soda has no calories!

News and Snooze: Open, shut and in flux

Hilary Nangle
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In short: The Danforth and the Chebeague Island Inn are back; Atlantic Seal B&B is closed; West End Inn, Bear Mountain Inn and Newcastle Inn change hands.

The Danforth, located in a lovely John Calvin Stevens-designed mansion on Danforth Street, near the Victoria Mansion, has reopened. A guest there reported it’s again an elegant and gracious inn. Rooms are spacious and have luxury touches, such as robes and fireplaces. Breakfast is a Continental buffet. The gardens are lovely. Only quibble I have is that in the opening online promo, it advertises itself as being in the Old Port. Wrong. It’s on the city’s West End, an easy walk to the Old Port, but definitely not in the Old Port.

Another welcome back to the Chebeague Island Inn, accessible from Portland (1.5 hours) or Cousins Island, Yarmouth (15 minutes), via ferry. Renovated basement to attic in 2004, this old-time summer hotel closed last summer, but is now being leased with an option to buy. Also reopening is the dining room, as well as a lounge serving tapas and a “flambé ice cream” parlor.

And a sad farewell to Tom Ring’s Atlantic Seal B&B, which he operated in his family home on the water in South Freeport. I spoke with Tom earlier today, and he said the sheer volume of hotel rooms available in Freeport now did him in. Of course, it didn’t help that he’s a technophobe who didn’t own a computer, have a web site or use an answer phone. Tom’s still operating his excursion boat, with trips to Eagle Island and Seguin Island, and he promises to have someone manning his phone in another week or two. Before then, call in the early evening.

Back in Portland, the West End Inn Bed & Breakfast has changed hands, as have the Bear Mountain Inn, in Waterford, and The Newcastle Inn, in Newcastle. More on these after I’ve done some snooping.

News and snooze: Southwest Harbor

Hilary Nangle
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Quick update for those using either an older version of Moon Coastal Maine or the current edition of Moon Acadia National Park: Both the Yellow Aster B&B and the Central House Inn have sold, and both have closed. I’ll be back on island in a couple of weeks and will post if either reopens.

Shadowing Thoreau

Hilary Nangle
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Shadowing Thoreau

If you have any plans to visit Baxter State Park or Greenville, to climb Katahdin or to paddle the myriad lakes, rivers and streams lacing Maine’s northern woods wilderness together, do yourself a favor and read The Wildest Country: Exploring Thoreau’s Maine, by J. Parker Huber. The second edition, published by the Appalachian Mountain Club is now available.

Huber first published the book in 1981, and although he acknowledges in the introduction that he hasn’t returned to the region since July 1995, he says: “I still dwell there spiritually: paddling Moosehead Lake, climbing Kineo and Katahdin, watching moose, listening to loons.”

Huber shares that magic, integrating Thoreau’s journeys with his own, recommending itineraries and sharing insights about the area’s flora and fauna, history and heritage. It’s all beautifully illustrated with maps and photos by Bridget Besaw.

I’ve only skimmed the book but already I’m hungry to return to the woods and follow these footsteps and canoe routes (okay, after the black flies calm down). I’m eager to read in detail and expand my knowledge of, as the sign welcoming folks to Kokadjo so aptly puts it: “God’s Country.”

Wild about wildlife

Hilary Nangle
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Wild about wildlife

I never visit Jackson Hole, Wyoming, without visiting The National Museum of Wildlife Art. It’s built inconspicuously into a butte overlooking the National Elk Refuge and is surrounded by the craggy peaks and wilderness of Yellowstone and Teton National Parks and the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Within the museum is a collection that’s no less inspired than, and often inspired by, its setting.

“In the world of wildlife art, we’re the premier place, and we really strive to remain in that place,” says curator Adam Harris. “We have an incredibly synergy with the environment we’re in; we have beautiful wildlife and nature outside, and artistic representations of the same inside. All those things add up to create something special and unexpected.”

Works by more than 200 artists are represented in the museum’s stunning collection, which includes paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and archival materials dating from 2000 B.C. to the present. Artists represented range from John J. Audubon to Eugene Delacroix, Albrecht Durer to Pablo Picasso. “The range of art is what you would expect to see in a larger metro area, not here,” Harris says. And how!

Especially this summer. When visiting last week, I was fortunate to view a special exhibit” “Picasso’s Park: Modernism meets Natural History.” It includes 31 etchings by the master created for the 1941 edition of Buffon’s Natural History, which original was published in 1741.

Beyond that, highlights among the 12 galleries include the nation’s largest public collection of works by impressionist Carl Rungius and the studio collection of illustrator-turned-painter John Clymer, who turned to portraying western history and wildlife after illustrating covers for the Saturday Evening Post.

Perhaps most memorable is the American Bison Collection, with more than 100 images portraying the symbol of western wildlife. These include “Chief,” a powerful, seductive, and spiritual painting by Robert Bateman, whom Harris considers “one of the best known and most accomplished living wildlife artists today.” It alone is worth the $10 adult admission; accompanying kids 18 and younger are free.

This time I visited in spring, when wildlfowers bloom in the elk refuge grasslands. Other times I’ve visited in winter, when up to 9,000 elk congregate here for a controversial winter feeding program. In winter, a sleigh ride into the elk refuge is a must do–it brings you right to the herd.

Wild about Spring Creek, Wyoming

Hilary Nangle
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Just a few quick thoughts–I’ll post more later. I’m currently at Spring Creek Ranch, in Jackson, Wyo., a small resort of rooms, condominiums and executive homes sharing a 1,000-acre wilderness preserve topping a butte, with fabulous Teton Mountain views. Yesterday later afternoon, I went on a wildlife safari in Grand Teton National Park. This is a MUST if you ever stay here: bison, elk, pronghorn, mule deer, fox–we even saw one catch and devour prey, plentiful birds and small mammals, too. And, of course, spectacular scenery. More details later, include the dish on a few great restaurants, including The Granary at Spring Creek–melt-in-my-mouth elk tenderloin paired with sunset over the Tetons, and Couloir, at the gondolar summit station on Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Now I’m off to test the spa, then visit the Wildlife Museum and into town, perhaps catch a flick at the Jackson Hole Film Festival, which is currently in session. So much to do, so little time; hence few posts.

MDI lunch report: Tea and popovers at the Jordan Pond House

Hilary Nangle
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MDI lunch report: Tea and popovers at the Jordan Pond House

Lunch or tea on the lawn at Jordan Pond House, in Acadia National Park, has been an island tradition since the late 19th century, and it’s one we think should be continued. We were early enough in the season not to need a reservation, but it’s wise to have one–it provides preferential seating ahead of others waiting.

I had the classic, tea and popovers; pricey at $9, but I couldn’t resist. Tea was served the British way–a pot of tea accompanied by a second pot of hot water. The popovers were served one at a time, hot out of the oven and accompanied by butter and jam. It was enough to make me feel like a kid again, but one with adult tastes. Delicious.

Tom had a nice salad, again accompanied by a popover. Only miss was that he asked for the dressing on the side, and it was served already dressed. Good salad, but the dressing, a mustard vinaigrette, was strong, almost too strong. The setting, tables on the lawn overlooking Jordan Pond, can’t be beat on a sunny, warm day.

Here’s a hint: If you book the 1:15 p.m. Tea & Popover Carriage Ride from Wildwood stables, you’re guaranteed a table on the lawn

Bar Harbor’s Havana worth the splurge

Hilary Nangle
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Friday night, we moseyed up to Havana, this time joined by a friend. The spring menu—which will be changed shortly—is worth making a special trip to enjoy. We started with a roasted bell pepper salad and mushroom spring rolls, the latter a menu fixture, and with good reason. The former should be, too. Delicious, was the report from my friend.

Next course: one Argentinean-style skirt steak, with smoked sea salt seasoning and a papaya chimichurri and Peruvian potato salad topped with thinly slice onions ($28)–very good, not outstanding; one lobster paella with chicken and chorizo, made with dark meat chicken and smoky Spanish chorizo stewed with saffron risotto and topped with Maine shrimp, mussels and lobster ($36)—really fabulous, with a smoky flavor and kicked by the chorizo, I’d order it again; and one orange soy-glazed black cod, pan-seared Alaskan sable fish glazed with an orange soy reduction and topped with toasted pumpkin seeds and fire-roasted corn salsa over a seasoned long grain rice ($28)—my friend said she’d return again and again for this fabulous dish.

Presentation on all was, as usual, excellent; service was outstanding. For dessert, we split one dish of Mexican chocolate ice cream (made by Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream–more on that in a later post), served paired with fresh pineapple, which helped cool the heat. My ultra-foodie friend and I agreed that Havana retains its status as one of the island’s top restaurants, although prices are certainly creeping higher and higher. So far, it’s worth the splurge.

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