Portland is New England’s unlikely foodie destination
PORTLAND CEMENTS A GROWING REPUTATION FOR FINE DINING
When chef David Turin opened his first restaurant in Portland, Maine, in 1992, he says he did so because of “great farms, great fish and cheap rent.”
The veteran restauranteur, who had two successful restaurants in Massachusetts before moving to Maine, says he was “dumb and lucky” to find affordable space in Portland at just the right time. Turin, now 62, is considered a “pioneer” of the city’s burgeoning restaurant scene, he says with a laugh, a place that Bon Appetit magazine named as its 2018 Restaurant City of the Year.
While the conditions were right for Turin to open a restaurant 27 years ago, how did he know the customers would come?
“I didn’t. I was young and ignorant enough that I thought if I build it, they will come,” says Turin, owner of David’s Restaurant on Monument Square and David’s 388 in South Portland.
Figures seem to prove out that indeed they are coming. In 2017, 6 million visitors came to the Greater Portland and Casco Bay region, an increase of 12.7 percent from 2016, according to Visit Portland. The number of hotel rooms over the last 10 years has risen about 20 percent and as of Jan. 1, Portland dispensed 496 restaurant licenses, according to Greg Dugal of Hospitality Maine, and has one of the highest restaurant per capita
rates in the country. While the city may lose 10 restaurants a year, give or take, new ones are opening at a rate of 15 to 20 annually, he says.
“It’s a chicken or the egg thing,” Dugal says, explaining why restaurants are flourishing in Portland, Maine’s largest city. Are tourists coming for the restaurants or are the restaurants increasing because more people are visiting?
While there are many things to do in the region besides dining, we focused our two-day visit to the seaport city on the food scene and feel like we hardly made a dent. Heading for the city’s historic Old Port section, our first muststop was Holy Donuts. Who could go to Maine and resist eating a doughnut made with Maine potatoes? It would be like not eating lobster or resisting a luscious local oyster. The chocolate doughnut, a customer favorite, was rich and chocolatey while the bacon/maple doughnut had tons of satisfying, crunchy bacon bits, but the doughnut’s texture was too dense for us.
Moving on we took a walk down picturesque Commercial Street with its working wharf, cobblestone streets and plentiful restaurants and shops in renovated warehouses and sturdy brick buildings. We stopped at Central Provisions on Fore Street for lunch since there inevitably would be a line for dinner. Serving creative tapas, like bone marrow toast and pork and tuna meatballs, the meal was delicious with three plates more than enough for two people. For drinks, Blyth & Burrows was elegant and fun. We arrived there just as it opened at 4 p.m. and got a great window seat overlooking Exchange Street. The Chinese Takeout cocktail, whipped up by one of its expert mixologists, featured a fortune cookie garnish and was my favorite. Hint: At the back of the room, look for a hidden, secret passageway, a tribute to the speakeasies of Prohibition, leading downstairs to another bar.
But what about the lobster rolls? No fear. For dinner, we went to the wildly popular Eventide Oyster Company on Middle Street and ordered a brown butter lobster roll and a fried oyster roll with pickled vegetables, each on a soft banh mi. Delicious and reasonable.
On day two we signed up with Maine Foodie Tours for its Bon Appetit tour in the city’s Munjoy Hill neighborhood, a little off the beaten path from Old Port and filled with hidden gems. Pamela Laskey, owner of Maine Foodie Tours, which operates in Portland, Bar Harbor, Rockland, Booth Bay and Kennebunkport, talked with us at LB Kitchen on Congress, a healthy breakfast spot, before we met our tour guide. She had moved from Boston to Portland about 10 years ago to research whether a tour business would work in Portland. Her goal was to educate visitors on Maine’s dynamic food industry, from fresh seafood to homegrown products. Laskey says she struggled for three years. “I guess I was ahead of the curve,” she says, but with the help of social media sites like TripAdvisor, the tours took off with Portland far and away her best attended location. What has brought visitors, Laskey says, was the attention from Bon Appetit, and the area’s award-winning chefs. “There’s definitely a love for the chefs. There are gourmands who come (on the tours) to those who can only microwave popcorn. Folks want to be educated and entertained.”
About 80 percent of her customers are from out of state, she says, and there’s a constant flow of people coming from Boston, but many are from Maine too. “Mainers are food-centric and going out to eat once a week is their entertainment,” Laskey says.
With seven eatery stops on the tour, our guide also gave us some interesting city history during the three-hour walk. Ten of us started at the Belleville Bakery and gushed over the flakiest croissants this side of Paris. Clam chowder was on the menu at Bob’s Clam Hut, a recent newcomer to town and a spin-off from its original ultra-popular site in Kittery, Maine (near the outlets). Terlingua, a neighborhood favorite for Latin cuisine and barbecue, and the requisite brewery in any hip town followed. What stopped us in our tracks, however, were crisp, decadent hand-cut Belgian fries cooked in duck fat, and creamy gelato milkshakes from the Duckfat Friteshack on Washington Avenue. For those in the know, this secret stand helps customers avoid the lines and crowds usually found at Duckfat’s main restaurant in Old Port. The flight of dipping sauces alone, from truffle ketchup to curry mayo, made us all swoon. Our last stop was Root Wild, a kombucha bar that featured several delightful natural flavors, such as ginger and blueberry. The best discovery for me, an oyster lover who was first introduced to the bivalve in a bar on the Damariscotta River in Maine, was the Portland Oyster Shop (or The Shop) also on Washington Street. For $1.50 each, fresh shucked oysters can be purchased to take home or enjoy at an indoor picnic table on site. My favorites were the Mookie Blues from Walpole, Maine, and, no surprise, the Norumbega from Damariscotta.
Portland reminded me a lot of Boston. Like Boston, parking is a bear and the restaurant spaces are tiny. But smaller-size restaurants seem to do better than ones in big open spaces, Laskey observes. Turin agrees.
“There’s a backlash against corporate-owned restaurants. Diners want a restaurant that feels authentic; (they) are involved with those who are running it and doing the cooking. In Maine (diners) expect the owners are the chef and spouse, or the chef and a relative,” he says.
“Last year was our best year ever. The business doesn’t show signs of slowing down, it shows signs of growing.”
Visit portlandfoodmap.com for a comprehensive list of Portland restaurants. Eileen Fischer is a freelance writer and former editor of Sunday Arts & Style.
“IN MAINE (DINERS) EXPECT THE OWNERS ARE THE CHEF AND SPOUSE, OR THE CHEF AND A RELATIVE.”