David Gruber's Portland & Downeast Maine
The spots the hospitality strategist frequents all summer long + LINKS
East Coast Summer is a seasonal Saturday column that serves as an alternative to Plugs. It’s where someone of note (with great taste) shares their go-to spots in the town or region where they summer. ECS will run every Saturday through mid-August (save for monthly L.A. editions of Plugs), featuring destinations such as Amagansett and Cape Cod. It’s for paid subscribers of The Angel only; upgrade your subscription for all-access!
That said, this issue of ECS is free for all to read because it’s sponsored by Postcard, a smarter map for deciding where to go and what to do. You can save places from anywhere, find exactly what you need, and share your lists. Download Postcard here.
#4 is David Gruber, a brand and communications strategist who advises restaurants like Cove, Cotogna and Quince, and Altro Paradiso, plus big names like Nancy Silverton, Eli Zabar, and Grant Reynolds. Prior to founding Gruber Strategies, he was the head of brand at B&B Hospitality Group (Babbo, Lupa, Del Posto, etc). On a taste level, David is very discerning and almost never wrong, so I'm thrilled he agreed to share his Maine intel with us, especially since he's the one who sold me on taking a trip to Deer Isle, ME next month. Here are David’s go-to spots for eating, drinking, and shopping in Portland & Downeast Maine — and here’s his map on Postcard.
I went to college in Maine, which means I’ve been driving from New York to Vacationland at a regular clip for almost two decades. Emily asked me to write a guide to Downeast–the tony section of coastline that includes Camden, Rockland, Castine, Blue Hill, and the islands. I’ve spent a handful of summer weekends scouting that pocket, but my real area of expertise is the stretch of Maine from the New Hampshire border to Wiscasset. So I expanded the aperture a bit to also focus on Portland.
This list is far from exhaustive. These spots are scaffolding for a road trip itinerary from all points south. They’re listed in geographical order, from when you cross the Piscataqua River Bridge heading north.
The Palace Diner
The Palace Diner is a century-old, 15-seat railcar diner in a parking lot in a former mill town. About a decade ago, it was reborn as one of the country’s greatest versions of the form. A legendary retired New York restaurant critic recently told me that the Palace team has been tinkering with a BLT for years, obsessing over bread thickness and mayo quotient–with no end in sight. Every item on the menu is its nostalgic ideal: pancakes, tuna melt, chicken sandwich. I daydream about the fried smashed potatoes. The Palace hype is real, and it’s warranted.
Cong Tu Bot
If I have time for only one dinner in Portland, I pick Cong Tu Bot. I should be eating Vietnamese food more often. I always over-order, and I always consider the wisdom of keeping leftovers in a hotel minifridge.
Street and Co.
If you’re a Manhattan parent visiting your kids at Walden or Winnebago, you probably set a calendar reminder to book a reservation at Fore Street every year for visitors’ weekend. I prefer Fore Street’s sister restaurant, Street and Co. The menu has a section titled “over linguine.” Pick a protein from the sea (pick grilled lobster) that’s laid over a bed of noodles slicked in garlicky butter. I attempt to recreate it every summer, and I never use enough butter.
Tandem Coffee & Bakery
In my line of work, people talk a lot about “placemaking,” the supposed art of installing a colorfully branded coffee shop or marquee restaurant to anchor a neighborhood. The thinking goes that cultural signifiers boost residential appeal so that landlords can increase rental prices. Most of it is developer mumbojumbo. But in the ten years since Tandem hung a shingle in a former gas station on Congress Street, two boutique hotels have opened on the block. I’ve stayed at the Longfellow for its proximity to Tandem alone, so that I can start my day with yogurt with rhubarb compote and puffed rice granola. Suffer in line and fill a pink pastry box with cookies and scones to have on the counter at your rental house.
If you have more time in Portland, consider:
Rose Foods: a bagel shop where my brother worked as a line cook.
Smalls: a coffee shop in the West End for when I don’t have time to wait in line at Tandem.
Browne Trading Market: the go-to fishmonger.
Maine & Loire: the wine shop where I stock up en route to points north.
Rosemont Market: Portland’s answer to Bi-Rite, where I buy olive oil, vinegar, and salt en route to rental houses.
Friends & Family: a wine store that serves pizza and salads at biergarten tables.
Eventide Oyster Co: home of the brown butter lobster roll. The appeal diminished when Eventide expanded to Boston.
Bresca & the Honeybee
Sabbathday Lake, the last “active” Shaker village, is about half an hour north of Portland. Just down the road from the village–a Commerce Inn fantasyland with white clapboard buildings and cedar-shake roofs–is the titular lake. The chef from my beloved Purple House operates a seasonal ice cream shack on the beach there called Bresca & the Honeybee. As the website reminds you repeatedly (four times), the operation is WEATHER PERMITTING. On the three occasions when I’ve attempted to go, the weather has not permitted. But I am undeterred! [Editor’s note: I’ve been, and it is indeed fabulous.]
The Alna Store
Further north, everything is at least half an hour away. Even in that context, The Alna Store feels like an oasis. Part restaurant, part shoppy shop (with Afterglow ice cream sandwiches rather than Faire fare), The Alna Store is the local I wish I had in Park Slope. Breakfast bloody Marias are garnished with half of a boiled new potato.
Tinder Hearth
When I fantasize about moving to Maine and opening a restaurant, it looks a lot like Tinder Hearth. A bakery in a leaning old farmhouse that anchors a farm campus. There’s an open-air building with a pizza oven that spins out pies; and a hut with soft serve in just-pressed waffle cones. If you stand on a tree stump you can see the ocean in the distance. I’d make time for dinner on campus, but it’s not a mistake to order pizza and ice cream sandwiches to-go and eat on the beach just down the road. (A handful of coffee shops and bakeries in the area sell Tinder Hearth bread. If you see it, buy it.)
Chase’s Daily
My friends spent a recent summer in Belfast, a few blocks up from the main drag. If every town had its own Chase's Daily, there would be no war. Assuming you arrive at the right time of day on the right day of the week, the store is a Nancy Meyers fantasy of flowers, produce, muffins, and pizzas. Of course, hours are limited.
Much to the dismay of my friends and loved ones, I gladly drive half an hour for a latte in the morning, and an hour (plus) for the right farm stand or oyster farm. If you share my affliction, I’d recommend going out of your way to buy a week’s worth of cheese at Blue Hill Wine Shop. Endure a (scenic!) winding drive to the farmstand at Four Seasons Farm. And pick up a sack of oysters at Glidden Point Oyster Farm in Edgecomb to shuck on the porch. Every Maine town has a lobsterman who will sell you a few lobsters from the back of his boat. Oysters are destination fare.
I haven’t had much luck in Camden or Rockland. When I’m there this summer, I’ll be scouting The Place, Cafe Grazie, and Sammy’s Deluxe.
Because cooking opportunities are important, I always stay at a rental house. If I were to stay at a hotel north of Portland for a day or two, I’d consider The Brooklin Inn and The Ark.
Some of my recent contributions to The T List: on gooseneck barnacles (percebes!), restaurants with house accounts, and sorghum. [T Mag, gift links]
Beautiful piece by Frank Shyong: Nearly half of the restaurants included in Jonathan Gold’s Counter Intelligence have closed. What does that mean? [Lunch Box]
Emilia Petrarca shopped the Union Square Greenmarket with Flynn McGarry (and he’s got tips!) [Shop Rat]
Pete Wells went on a tour of Bourdain’s Provincetown, in light of the new biopic, Tony, which I’m going to see this weekend. [NYT, gift link]
Ella Quittner with an entertaining profile of Carla Lalli, whose divorce memoir-slash-cookbook Food Is a Feeling, hits stands in early September. [Grub Street]