This week the New York Times’ named Tinder Hearth, a pizza and bakery in a barn on the Blue Hill peninsula, as one of its 50 favorite restaurants of the year. Last year the Times named two restaurants in Portland in its annual top-50 list.
The only thing national journalists like to do more than visit Maine in the summer is write about the restaurants they loved here. These are some of their favorites.
Red’s Eats, Wiscasset
The divisive but undisputedly popular lobster shack on Route 1 in Wiscasset has been on too many top lobster roll lists to count. While some Mainers love deriding Red’s Eats and the line of patrons that wraps around the sidewalk every summer and the attendant traffic jam on Route 1, the lobster shack’s staying power is impressive. And as Maine food writer Joe Ricchio just told the Washington Post about Red’s, if you’re serving “a not-good lobster, people probably aren’t going to go there for that long.”
Tandem Coffee and Bakery, Portland
Ever since Bon Appetit named Portland its 2018 City of the Year, Tandem Coffee and Bakery on Congress Street has never been the same. The story began by encouraging readers to “start every day with a trip to Tandem Bakery,” and visitors to Maine’s biggest city have listened. Especially during the summer months, a long line regularly forms outside the gas station-turned laundromat-turned bakery.
Twelve, Portland
A relative newcomer to Portland’s restaurant scene, Twelve is located in the Portland Foreside development on the city’s eastern waterfront. Early last year Vogue named Twelve one of its “most anticipated restaurant openings of 2022,” thanks to a team that included alums of Eleven Madison Park and Per Se in Manhattan. It’s continued to draw national attention since opening, including as one of the New York Times’ 50 favorite restaurants of the year and Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America.
Palace Diner, Biddeford
This Biddeford diner also got a mention in the 2018 Bon Appetit story about Portland, which described it as “The Single. Best. Diner. On. The. Planet.” It was named by Eater in 2018 as one of America’s 38 Essential Restaurants and was included in a Food and Wine magazine story last year that named Biddeford one of “America’s Next Great Food Cities.” Also last year, Netflix food and travel series “Somebody Feed Phil” featured Palace Diner (along with Red’s Eats and Tandem).
The Lost Kitchen, Freedom
The Lost Kitchen has been described as “Maine most mysterious restaurant,” “one of the nation’s hardest-to-book restaurants,” “the country’s most talked-about restaurant,” “one of the hardest-to-get reservations in the world,” “like walking into your best friend’s living room,” “an occasion,” and “the best Maine restaurant you may never be able to eat at.” The restaurant in Freedom, population 711, has even expanded beyond dining lists. Time magazine named The Lost Kitchen it as one of the “World’s Greatest Places” in 2018.
