People frequently ask me about must-see places for foodies visiting Portland. Most recently, I wrote up this list in an email, and then I thought I should post it here:
If I were going to spend a weekend in Portland, I'd want to be sure to check out:
Dining and Drinking:
- Becky's Diner - local breakfast joint
- Gilbert's Chowder House - local lunch joint
- Fore Street - fancy dinner
- Drifter's Wife - acclaimed hyperlocal dining, if you can get in
- Silly's - casual and fun near East Bayside
- Duckfat - trendy dinner
- Portland Hunt & Alpine Club - cocktails
- Thirsty Pig - beer and sausages
- Novare Res - beer
- Central Provisions - cocktails, beer and good food
- Liquid Riot - noisy distillery with restaurant
- Holy Donut - potato donuts, go early
- Mount Desert Island Ice Cream - Lorna still raves about the tangerine-tarragon sherbet
- Gelato Fiasco is also highly regarded. Not an ice cream guy myself.
Shopping
- Vena's Fizz House - cool classic cocktail gear and lost ingredients
- Sweetgrass Winery tasting room, for the gin - across from Vena's
- Harbor Fish Market - amazing
- LeRoux Kitchen - excellent kitchen store
- Bull Moose Records - vinyl & CDs, stuff you thought nobody had, good staff
- Sherman's Books, especially good kids section
- Portland Food Coop is OK, not great
- Urban Farm Fermentory - wacky kombucha brewer
- Micucci - very good Italian market
- Maine Beer and Beverage - complete collection of Portland beers, ciders, meads, and spirits!
Portland produces a lot of excellent beer and spirits, including:
Gins made in Maine
- Maine Craft Distilling - Alchemy Dry Gin
- New England Distilling - Ingenium Gin
- Cold River Distilling - Traditional Gin
- Sweetgrass Winery - Back River Gin
- Wiggly Bridge Distillery - Small Batch Dry Gin
- Stroudwater Distillery - Classic Dry Gin
- Hardshore Distilling Company - Original Small Batch Gin
- Liquid Riot, Portland Maine - double-expensive, I've never tried this one
Field Trips within Portland
Consider a trip to East Bayside, home of Drifter's Wife, Hardshore Distilling, Coffee By Design (roasters), Tandem coffee roasters, Maine Craft Distilling, Urban Farm Fermentory, Oxbow Brewing, Maine Meadworks, Maine & Loire Wines, and across the street from Silly's (lunch/dinner).
Also Thompson's Point: Stroudwater Distillery, Bissell Bros Brewing, Cellardoor Winery, and Bunker Brewing nearby.
If you want a brewery crawl, (which can take two days in Portland) there's a brewbus to make it easy.
These represent my own subjective tastes. If you want jewelry and other nice things, I can ask Lorna for her suggestions.
I have to stop now
Comments