Trip report: Portland, Me- so Awesome!! (long)
Visited from Chicago during the first week of September. I wasn' t quite sure what kind of dining scene to expect in Portland but was very impressed. Dedication to locally grown foods is always a plus. And it was exciting to see so many chef owned restaurants, where the focus was on the food, and each place has such a distinct personality. There were so many places we wanted to try but the few we were able to fit into our three days there were:
Hugo's- the best service I've received in a restaurant. There were only a few tables there, so we got plenty of attention and the server was extremely accomodating. We opted to try the four course tasting menu, with wine pairings- but we did make a few special requests- such as half rather than full pours, and they were perfectly accomodating. The server even noticed that I avoided the meat courses and thought to alert me to the fact that there was bacon in the sauce of the fish entree. (but what the heck, i tried it anyway and it was so good) the highlight was definately the soft shell lobster with english pea soup, lemon gelee and pickled fennel. all the wine pairings were wonderful, creative and unexpected.
Street & Co. Bakery- fantastic croissants, this gave us a reason to get up very early! I like the setup of the shop, and it was neat to see all the bakers working hard behind the counter.
DuckFat- great lunch spot, the fries are fantastic. I especially liked the truffle ketchup. The homemade soda's were great, but they were out of the lemon verbena! It's an impressive value for the excellent quality of food they serve.
Forestreet- This is my new favorite restaurant. I love the open kitchen, everyone who worked there was very friendly. Our waitress was VERY new, but clearly did her best. I don't normally eat meat beyond fish, but couldn't resist at this place. This is the ideal restaurant to try new things. The homemade fettucine with lamb was delicious, i was practically licking the place. The mushroom tasting platterThe roast duck was cooked perfectly- tender and juicy. I thought the pricing of the wine list was very fair, i ordered a bottle of the Etude pinot noir at $60 and it was a beautiful pairing for all our dishes.
and finally: Rabelais- this is not a restaurant but a bookstore, just next door to hugo's. They are entirely dedicated to food and wine and as such are a very valuable resource. They have alot of books that are near impossible to find and I couldn't resist buying a number of them. The couple who owns it are very friendly, seem to have the inside scoop on most places and had some great recommendations for us.
pierrot
Sep 21, 2007 04:13PM
It's nice to hear that you had such a good experience with our local Portland food scene. There's so much more to try, hopefully you'll come back for a second round.
One note, you might want to make one edit to your post. The name of the bakery you enjoyed so much is Standard Baking, not Street & Co--which is a seafood restaurant. I'm headed to Standard this morning to pick up some of there almond croissants . . . yummmm.
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Yes, you're right, it was Standard Baking Co! We didn't make it over to Street & Co. Thanks!
I don't have an edit option on that post, I looked this problem up on the technical board and it seems that the browser I was using at the time is not supported for that. which is really regretable since there are so many typos in my first post. Oops! Serves me right for writing that at work.
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