Lost Kitchen fields 10,000 calls for a remote, 40-seat restaurant

Erin French runs a 40-seat restaurant called The Lost Kitchen in an old mill in a tiny town in central Maine. She takes reservations for the season one day a year, starting midnight April 1.

This year, instead of a few dozen calls overnight, she got 10,000 in 24 hours.

Word of mouth, a few magazine mentions and a Tastemade video that got 2 million views (and won a James Beard media award) have helped turned French into a culinary star. It’s quite a triumph for a woman who grew up in Freedom, Maine, population 700, working in her dad’s diner.

She’s also got a cookbook coming out May 9 from Clarkson Potter called “The Lost Kitchen,” offering recipes for everything from mussels to moose stew—as well as the story of her unusual journey.

French started in 2010 with a $40-a-meal supper club in her apartment. At first, “I had to beg friends to come over,” she said.

But word spread and by the fifth dinner, all her guests were strangers. She opened a restaurant with her husband in Belfast, Maine, but that business closed in a messy divorce.

She started over using a 1965 Airstream to give pop-up dinners. In 2014, she opened The Lost Kitchen in an abandoned 19th century mill that had been restored by a businessman who wanted to help the local economy. French’s restaurant, using ingredients grown by local farmers, was the perfect tenant.

French, 36, has been featured by Martha Stewart, Food & Wine and L.L. Bean, which co-produced the Tastemade video and made her a brand ambassador. Still, she wasn’t prepared for the avalanche of calls, from locals to folks from Texas, Alaska and Ireland.

Dinner at The Lost Kitchen, while pricey for Maine, wouldn’t raise eyebrows in New York or Boston: $100 per person plus tax and tip for six to eight courses. The menu depends on what the farmers, fishermen and fields have to offer. A menu from last summer included tomato soup, melon salad, cheese, sea bass, corn, cherry tomatoes, baby fingerlings, arugula, polenta cake, grilled peaches and blackberries.

But The Lost Kitchen isn’t just about food. “It’s the mystery, the excitement,” French said. “There’s something a little scary. You don’t know where you’re going. You don’t know what you’re going to have for dinner. You’re going on an adventure.”