Waaay northeast - Downeast Maine

Two schizophrenic nights in northern Maine -

Caribou: Accompanying a friend whose roots are here, we stayed in the Caribou Inn and Convention Center, outside of downtown. Right off of US1, the place is a rather garish blue. We rented a suite for $172. The carpet at the side entry was rather worn and stained. The room was huge and dingy, no door between the living room and bedroom, totally inadequate lighting. Possibly the best hotel in this impoverished potato town, a hard pass.
Almost nothing was open for dinner, we wound up at Governor’s Restaurant, a small funky chain with good prices, big portions and mostly adequate food. I love meat loaf. This was well below average. Besides the company, my $7 glass of Chateau Ste Michelle Rose was the highlight of the evening.

Lubec: We checked into the Inn on the Wharf. Our spacious room was attractive, clean, comfortable. The view over Johnson Bay is one of the top five vistas I’ve ever seen from a hotel room. We are staying in the Sunrise Room. Simply magical; right now the thin line of smoky pink just below the horizon (setting sun shining on the water) is mesmerizing. Set me back $100. In the same building, their Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant offers excellent, moderately priced seafood with almost the same stunning views. My $8 glass of Chateau St Jean Chardonnay (CA Appellation) was OK. My small caesar salad ($6) had lots of parmesan. The crabcake (it says on the menu: all crab, no cake) may be the best I’ve ever had. $12. Literally a world apart, but this somehow reminds me of the inland Milia Agrotourism on Crete. Memorable. I will be back.

Dan Kravitz

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Quite the contrast!

RT

Thanks for the slice of deep Maine!

It seems like the hotels up there are bipolar.

I like to look at maps and I always wondered what was up in that part of Maine. I see Caribou has a real road on it, but there aren’t many in that part of Maine that show on a map!

After a friend of mine visited there last summer, I started following the town on Instagram. Maybe we’ll visit late summer / early fall. Good thing for me I have a Prius that get’s 50 - 55 mpg in warm weather. [wink.gif]

Thanks for the info.

Did they have ‘ice out’ yet in Caribou when you visited, Dan.

Thanks for the tip on Lubec. We may be taking a car trip to PEI this summer and thats a good halfway point for maybe an overnight stop.

Cheers.

The two places were polar opposites, even though only 4 hours apart. Lubec is definitely worth the trip. The next two nights of the trip were far less isolated… Bar Harbor and Rockland. I’m writing up the wines on the main board.

Inn on the Wharf is an excellent hotel at any price, with a very good ‘down-east-home’ restaurant. For the price they are asking it’s just silly-good.

Dan Kravitz

I’m going to take the opportunity to hijack this thread for an upcoming family trip to Maine. I’ve been digging back through this forum and found lots of good stuff in Fu’s thread here: Maine Lobster Crawl - Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum - WineBerserkers . Lots of recommendations to research.

While reading this thread, I noticed your location Dan Kravitz. We will be in your neck of the woods - staying at the Sebasco resort. Hoping I can get a local’s suggestions? When we booked, we thought both restaurants at Sebasco would be open and planned on doing the meal plan, but sounds like that’s not an option this year. I don’t want to eat at the only resort restaurant every meal, nor do I want to get stuck cooking for 13 people 3 times a day. Any recommendations casual dining close-by that can accommodate a large group, or better yet, good takeout? In the Bath or Brunswick area? Also, is there a recommended grocery store and wine shop in the area? We do plan on stopping in Portland on the way through to get as many supplies as we can carry, but I know that will only go so far. Thanks!

Thanks Dan. We are staying in Portsmouth and Lubec in July before heading up to Quebec City.
We will have our dog with us which unfortunately is a no-no at Inn on the Wharf, but will definitely check out the restaurant.
Looks like Lobstah and clams are the main thing…

Hello Ryan,

I know Brunswick much better than Bath, and my town of Harpswell (Holbrook’s is just over a mile by boat from Sebago, 26 miles by car) even better, but here ya go:

In Bath, Now You’re Cooking has a reasonable wine selection. Across the street, Cafe Creme is a good coffee shop. I really can’t recommend any restaurants in Bath (the excellent bbq place closed a few months ago).

In Brunswick, restaurant choices are a little better. Taverna Khione is like eating in your Greek grandmother’s kitchen, they also have a wide range of Greek wines to go at fair retail pricing. Enoteca Athena bills itself as Italian and Greek, but the emphasis is very Italian. It’s a good restaurant. Just opened is 555 North, the reincarnation of a Portland fine dining mainstay. Good, interesting wine list.
Morning Glory is an impeccable natural food store which can serve as a much higher quality alternative to the supermarkets in the area (Shaw’s and Hannaford), although they are better than the average American supermarket. Also in Brunswick, Wild Oats is an excellent bakery with top level prepared foods. Also a wide selection of excellent frozen entrees, quality way over what you would expect. 6 - 12 homemade soups / stews offered hot every day. They are open 8 - 3:30, for the best selection I suggest getting there before noon as they sell out of stuff. Tuesday and Friday mornings, the farmer’s market is on the Brunswick town common. Saturday morning, it’s at Crystal Spring Farm. Hard to list favorites among the purveyors, but have to mention a few: Apple Creek Farm for chicken, goat and eggs. Copper Tail Farm for goat dairy. Pemaquid Seafood. Either Six Rivers or Spear’s for produce. Hootenanny bread. The nice thing of course is that it’s one-stop shopping. Also in Brunswick, Tess’ Market has a ridiculously wide selection of rather random wines. You’d never guess from the outside!

If you go north to Bath, west to Brunswick, then south to Harpswell, there are some gems. Holbrook’s should be open. Cook’s Lobster & Ale House is definitely open. Between Harpswell Islands and Harpswell Neck is Black Sheep Wine Shop, John chooses with care and knowledge. As you get to the neck, Vegetable Corner is an outstanding butcher shop, a good bakery, has a wide, frequently changing variety of foodstuffs, make a lot of their own stuff. They even have a slim selection of vegetables. They get a lot of stuff from Quebec, very interesting. Opposite Vegetable Corner is the Schoolhouse Restaurant. At the end of Harpswell Neck is The Dolphin Restaurant and Marina. Extremely high quality food, rather elegant setting although as many customers come right off of their boats, the dress code can be shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. Gorgeous views.

Please feel free to e-mail or PM me if you have any questions about any of these places. Sorry I can’t be more help with Bath.

Dan Kravitz

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This is awesome - thanks very much Dan!