Portland, Maine

Getting time to plan some summer travel and we are thinking about Portland. We have been to both Bar Harbor and Camden and liked both. Thought we might spend three days/four nights in Portland. Any opinions/recs for a place to stay, eat, and what to do in and around Portland? As far as lodging we are willing to do upscale both in amenities and location.

Thanks,
Curt

If you end up a bit south in Portsmouth, I can give you some recommendations. That’s a fun town too and shouldn’t be overlooked.

I live in the Portland area now, so I don’t have up-to-date personal recommendations for hotels. That said, I’d be strongly tempted by the Danforth Inn, which houses one of my favorite Portland restaurants, Tempo Dulu. I’ve heard very good things about their updated rooms as well. Other hotels to consider are the Press Hotel (pretty new; our friends stay there every year), the Portland Harbor Hotel (bigger old hotel in prime location), and maybe the Hyatt Place (a newer, fairly trendy-looking property, again in an ideal location for walking around the Old Port). The Westin is nice but pretty corporate. We go to the “Top of the East” – a bar on top of the Westin with great 360-degree views – occasionally for drinks.

For restaurants, my new recommendation is Drifter’s Wife. It’s a natural wine-shop/wine-bistro similar to what you see all over Paris these days. We had a fantastic meal there last week. Other board members have similarly raved. I could eat/drink there happily once a week.

Other current favorites include:

  1. The aforementioned Tempo Dulu (pricey but wonderful Indonesian/Southeast Asian)
  2. Back Bay Grill (still my favorite white tablecloth place in town; one of the better wine lists in a city that is mostly disappointing on that front)
  3. Miyake (Sushi on par with the best I’ve had on the East Coast)
  4. Eventide (tiny but fantastic seafood place, both raw and cooked)
  5. Bao Bao (Chinese-style dumplings)
  6. Fore Street (the classic; I don’t love the food as much as some, but the atmosphere/enviroment is the best in town)
  7. Boda (“Thai Street Food”-inspired; delicious and with good cocktails)
  8. Scales (Terrific seafood right on the water with a great bar)
  9. Lolita (great Spanish/Italian-inflected shared plates, with another good wine list)
  10. Empire Chinese (Hard to describe, but’s not a typical Suburban Chinese restaurant. Great atmosphere, delicious food [the Pastrami Egg Rolls are one of my favorite bites of food anwhere], and lots of fun. We eat here more than anywhere else in Portland)
  11. Last but not least, if you go in the Summer, I highly recommend bringing a bottle or two of wine out to The Well at Jordan Farm in Cape Elizabeth (just South of Portland). Fantastic food served at picnic tables and gazebos, BYOB. It’s our favorite place to eat in the Summer. Board member Kirk Grant organized a wine dinner there a few years ago with some other board members, and it was a hit.

We used to love Central Provisions and Hugo’s as well, but for recent visits they felt a bit tired to me. Others still rave about both though, so take that with a grain of salt.

For things to do, I think you can see Portland-proper in a day, but it’s a full day if you enjoy walking around, doing some shopping, etc. I’d have lunch somewhere on Commercial Street along the water (Flatbread Pizza, Scales, and Gilbert’s Chowder House are my recommendations, each filling a different niche).

For a second day, I’d consider a Casco Bay cruise/island day trip. There are ferries and local cruise lines. I’ve also recently learned that, if you know how to operate one, you can rent a boat from DiMillo’s for a reasonable price and do a self-guided trip around the bay. If that sounds like your cup of tea, I would consider anchoring and having dinner at the Chebeague Island Inn.

With my third day, I might grab high-end picnic supplies/wine from Browne Trading Company and head to the beach in Scarborough, or, more likely, head the other direction and (1) go hiking at Bradbury Mountain or Wolfe’s Neck State Park, (2) have lunch at Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster (2nd best lobster rolls in Maine [Eagle’s Nest in Brewer serves the best]) and really good crab rolls, beer battered shrimp, and clam chowder, (3) visit Freeport/LL Bean, and (4) go to Conundrum Wine Bar for dinner.

Thanks to both. Pretty sure we will just do Portland with our limited amount of time.
Jay-Thanks for all the info you provided. It really helps us focus our time and gives a great many options for lodging, eating, and sights to see.
Again, thanks to both.

Cheers,
Curt

If you like beer, definitely visit Oxbow and Allagash. Even if you don’t visit the brewery in Freeport, there should be plenty of Maine Beer Company brews on tap around Portland. An excellent brewery!

In the same neighborhood as the Oxbow tasting room are Maine Craft Distillery, Maine Mead Works, Rising Tide Brewing and the Urban Farm Fermentory, plus a couple of great coffee roasters. From there if you want/need to pass a half hour on foot you can walk up Munjoy Hill and enjoy the great 360 views.

I totally forgot to mention beer tasting rooms. If you are into beer, the hottest brewery in Portland, Bissell Brothers, recently opened a tasting room in a redevelopment area called Thompson’s Point. There’s a distillery and even a winery tasting room over there too, all in the same complex. Plus a new “hot fried chicken” place that is supposed to be pretty good. I don’t personally love Bissell Brothers, but if there is a concert of interest playing at Thompson’s Point while you’re in Portland (it’s the primary outdoor venue in Portland and gets some major acts), it’d be worth heading over there.

I generally agree with the other brewery recommendations. I love Maine Beer Company. It would fit really well with a Freeport itinerary like the one I suggested. Rising Tide and Oxbow are my personal favorites in Portland, although there are new places opening all the time (I haven’t visited but love Austin Street and Foundation, for example, both of which opened up next to Allagash).

Also, if you are into craft beer but the idea of spending your day driving around in out-of-the-way industrial parks to visit breweries isn’t appealing, most of the good restaurants in town have great local beers on tap. And then there is Novares Res, one of the best beer bars I’ve seen anywhere. But I digress.

Miyake, mos def. Go south to Biddeford to Palace Diner. Yum. Go north to Rockland for Suzuki Sushi (incredible). Last summer we also ate a several places in Belfast like a popup begetarian that was Out Of This World (Suzuki’s is also OOTW as is Miyake, and Palace … seriously … :slight_smile: