Looking for an amazing dining experience for this weekend but forgot to book in advance? You’re in luck. Fine dining in Maine can be hard to get reservations for, but we found a couple options for this weekend if you are willing to be flexible and dine late (or early!).
Earth at Hidden Pond
354 Goose Rocks Road in Kennebunkport
Earth at Hidden Pond is a farm-to-table restaurant with a regularly changing menu featuring local meats and seafood and ingredients grown in two onsite organic gardens. Main courses presently include dishes like sea bass with summer squash, fire roasted tomatoes, seafood emulsion and basil and duck with broccolini, sweet potato puree, roasted pistachio and cherry gastrique. Diners have a choice of a three or four course meal. One of the more unique elements of the restaurant is that it was built from trees cut down on the property.
What’s open? If you want to capture a late dinner — think 9 p.m. reservations — there is still some availability on Friday. Three course meals are $85 and four course meals are $95.
Primo
2 Main St. in Rockland
Primo is also a farm-to-table restaurant with a frequently changing menu of seasonal ingredients. For instance, on a menu dated Monday, pasta dishes included wild nettle spaghetti Alfredo verde with peas, charred corn, chanterelle mushrooms and garlic scapes and lobster scialatielli with zucchini ribbons, piennolo tomatoes, basil and pecorino Romano cheese, as well as a variety of antipasti and main dishes.
What’s open? There’s availability on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, though most reservations are for 9:30 p.m. and later so be prepared to eat late. Primo’s website does say that walk-ins are welcome though, so it’s possible you might be able to score an earlier table. Prices are a la carte and range from $30 to $58 for main courses.
Nina June
24 Central St. in Rockland
Nina June is a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant that draws on ingredients from Maine’s oceans and farms for its menu. The restaurant serves a summer cafe menu — it’s a la carte — and served at the bar at the front of the restaurant and sometimes in outdoor seating. The brief menu featuring seasonal ingredients cooked in the Italian style includes dishes like squash blossoms filled with ricotta cheese and fresh herbs poached in San Marzano tomato sauce. The restaurant also serves a summer tasting menu, which this week includes dishes like poached tuna with pickled onion, orange, mint, black olives and silk chili and braised lamb shoulder with green olives and new potatoes. On Saturday, the restaurant will be hosting a special dining event — One Night in Persia with cook, author, and immigrant rights activist Louisa Shafia — with a special menu featuring dishes like quail with spices and peaches and seared beet heart marinated in pomegranate molasses and sumac.
What’s open? Reservations open for Nina June one month in advance, so there’s still time to book for the summer. This weekend, there are reservations available for both the cafe menu and the summer tasting menu on Friday. For those looking to try the cafe menu, there are reservations open only for 5:30 p.m. on Friday. The summer tasting menu, however, has a lot of availability on Friday. If the special event celebrating the food of Persia is more to your liking though, there are some reservations available for 8:30 and 8:45 pm on Saturday. The prices of the cafe menu vary. The tasting menu is $100 per person and the special Persian food event is $125 each.
Aragosta
300 Goose Cove Road in Deer Isle
Aragosta at Goose Cove is an oceanfront restaurant that serves a seasonal menu with coastal influences featuring ingredients from local fishermen and farmers. Although the menu is frequently changing, a sample menu lists mackerel with fermented beet and gochugaru sauce and spring garlic dumplings with dash as example dishes the restaurant serves.
What’s open? For those who’d like to try the tasting menu in the main dining room, you’re in luck. There are limited reservations still available on Friday only. It costs $150 per person and drinks are extra. The communal table is sold out for parties of two, according to the Aragosta booking system. However, the deck is now open on a first-come, first-serve basis for happy hour between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., so that’s another option for trying this Maine restaurant.
The Hichborn
10 Church St. in Stockton Springs
Located in a historic Italianate home built by shipbuilder Nathan G. Hichborn in 1849, The Hichborn is a small — there are just 24 seats — farm-to-table restaurant. Diners can partake in a four course meal featuring dishes like pea ravioli with rhubarb, whey and lemon balm and raspberry and white chocolate entremet with a jaconde sponge cake, raspberry gelee, white chocolate mousse, sweet cream ice cream and fresh raspberries. It also relies on local producers as much as possible for its ingredients.
What’s open? There are 6:30 p.m. reservations still available for two on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the Summer 2023 Chef’s Tasting Menu, a Prix Fixe Dinner that costs $90 per person.
