Showing posts with label maine. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Noel at the Nonantum

The following article appeared in the holiday issue of Northshore Magazine

Take a trip north to spend the holiday season in Kennebunkort.

By Michael Hartigan

The lobby at the Nonantum Resort buzzed with youthful excitement, as children of all ages lined up near the holiday display to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. Worker elves doled out candy canes and packets of winter activities; festive anticipation hung in the air. Nothing else could have brought the young crowd more joy—until the saw rumbled to life.

Outside on the steps of this Kennebunkport, Maine, resort, a local ice carver began his stint with a roar. Ice chips showered down like cold welder’s sparks as visitors crowded around. The craftsman took requests, cutting names into ice bricks for the kids and eliciting squeals of delight previously reserved only for the big man in red sitting inside.

That morning, people came to Kennebunkport anticipating a good dose of holiday cheer. Like St. Nick in his sleigh, the Nonantum delivered.

The Nonantum Resort, one of the area’s top lodgings in any season, fully embodies and embraces the festive, communal spirit that is at the heart of Kennebunkport’s annual, town-wide holiday celebration, the Christmas Prelude.

The Prelude, which launched in 1982 and instantly put Kennebunkport on the map as one of New England’s best Christmas towns, is more than a week of village-wide events, parties, sales, tree lightings, and Santa sightings—all trimmed with New England charm.

For 10 days, the celebration attracts locals, weekenders, shoppers, and couples looking for a romantic holiday season retreat. They take advantage of the many stores and restaurants along the main downtown thoroughfare that remain open past summer season to offer discounted specials.

But the Prelude is not just an adult getaway—it appeals to the entire family.

“Prelude is a magical time of year in Kennebunkport,” says Nicki Noble Bean, director of marketing at the Nonantum. “Families come together for holiday traditions like gingerbread house making and breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus. We have many guests that come back year after year.”

The 2016 celebration, which runs from December 1 through December 11, expects to offer a gift bag of holiday events for kids and parents alike.

Multiple tree lightings stand as highlights, the most prominent of which kicks off the Christmas season on December 2 in Dock Square. The same night is marked for the distinctly New England tradition of lighting a lobster trap tree in the nearby Cape Porpoise. And don’t worry if you can’t make the opening Dock Square tree lighting, the ceremony repeats during the finale weekend on December 9.

Whimsical parades encourage visitor participation, including a hat parade with home-decorated holiday headwear, and an annual pooch parade, when dressed-up dogs strut their stuff in Christmas costumes.

Santa and Mrs. Claus make several appearances around town, utilizing a variety of creative modes of transportation like fire engines and lobster boats. Caroling, candlelight processions, and fireworks light up the dark December nights.

For its part, the Nonantum plays host to some of the Prelude’s most memorable events. The resort complements the town’s schedule with specials at the hotel and its restaurants. For example, this year after the opening tree lighting on December 2, the 95 Ocean restaurant at Nonantum will have live entertainment and a special menu.

Inside the hotel, kids can build gingerbread houses, or they can head outside for a cookie-tasting stroll and trolley ride. On December 4, kids can meet Mrs. Claus with the elves, and on December 11 the Nonantum hosts a sumptuous breakfast with Santa. Aside from the array of delicious pastries, cakes, omelets, and more, that morning comes complete with arts and crafts, local artists and craftsmen showing/selling their work (like ice sculptors).

The man of the hour holds court in the comfortable hotel lobby, which itself feels like your own personal living room on Christmas morning.

But if the kids stray from the Nice List, mom and dad can find some holiday respite on December 9 and 10 at the Nonantum’s annual Fire & Ice ball. Overflowing with local food selections, the festivities begin inside and spill outdoors with bonfires, ice bars, and live music.

According to the Nonantum, last year’s sold-out festivities saw almost 3,000 guests consume 3,500 Christmas cookies, 50 kegs of Shipyard ales, and 15 barbecued pigs over the two-night extravaganza. The event was recently awarded a Maine Governor’s Award for Tourism Leadership and Growth.

While the Fire & Ice ball may be the star on top of the tree, no part of the Prelude rests on its tinsel-covered laurels. This season, it will again be worth packing up the family sleigh to experience Kennebunkport’s annual Christmas tradition.

“The holiday spirit is alive in the area,” says Noble Bean, “and everyone wants to be here to enjoy it.”

95 Ocean Ave. Kennebunkport, Maine

207-967-4050

nonatumresort.com

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Culinary Kennebunkport

This story appeared on Northshore Magazine - August 17, 2016

Our entire evening was a culinary whirlwind of trendy modern and classic New England.

The Brussels sprouts were candied, the lobster was whole fried and the haddock was a luscious pillow. Candy boutiques mingled with local olive oil artisans. After popping into a gourmet ice creamery, we relaxed around a stylish wine bar’s communal bonfire, sipping hard-to-find Syrah. All of this within comfortable earshot of the ocean waves.

Such are the culinary delectations that have become standard throughout Portland, Maine’s, thriving, well-deserving food scene.

But we weren’t in Portland.

Thirty minutes south, here in Kennebunkport, similar culinary creativity is regularly on display, with an added sprinkle of year-round, small town charm. Portland may be Maine’s most popular contribution to New England’s fashionable food scene, but when you come to Kennebunkport you better come hungry.

Kennebunkport has been on the tourist map for some time, of course, as home to fishermen and former Presidents. The village stands as a go-to destination for weddings and weekend getaways, while its annual Christmas Prelude is a town-wide, off-season celebration that regularly draws visitors from all over. Because of this, many establishments remain open into December to catch the Prelude crowd, making Fall a less-crowded and exceedingly enjoyable time to visit.

But regardless of season, the food scene here is reason enough to come.

Downtown, comprised essentially of one road bridging Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, is dotted with eateries serving waterfront fare variations. However, sailing a bit off course will bring you to Kennebunkport’s real treasures.

We navigated past downtown to Cape Porpoise, where the traffic dissolved and the food options materialized at a small intersection.

There, The Wayfarer restaurant stands out as much for its versatility as for its reliability. Every dish was fresh and unique, including the aforementioned Brussels sprouts and fried lobster. Lobster mac n cheese bubbled over with flavor, claws and tail meat. But the surprise was the bacon-wrapped meatloaf, a far cry from anything mom used to make. The meat was spiced Italian-style, offset by bacon and a sweet brown sugar glaze, as if a southern barbecue pitmaster decided to smoke up some meatballs. In a welcome break from the high-priced cocktail menus downtown, the Wayfarer is BYOB, which made our wine bottle and dinner all the more personal.

Personal seems to be the only way they do things around here – personal and local. Farm + Table owners Liz and Bruce Andrews know how to do both. They assist Farm + Table customers with welcoming conversation and by organizing this artisanal food store geographically, with little placards identifying an item’s home state. The shop, located near the Wayfarer, is in its second season, housed in an old red barn and chock full of eclectic offerings, like a wall of Maine jams or a shelf of South Carolina cocktail bitters.

“Would you like to try some?” Bruce asked, as I perused jars of Maine-made bloody mary mix. I left with a jar.

Back across the street, right next to the Wayfarer, Cape Porpoise Kitchen doles out fresh-baked pastries, baskets of moist blueberry muffins and prepared foods for those looking to cast away for the afternoon.

Cape Porpoise is not the only epicurean enclave in Kennebunkport.

Down Ocean Avenue, Mabel’s Lobster Claw takes Maine seafood to a new level. They specialize in lobster, of course, but special is an understatement – their variations of baked stuffed lobster are the stuff of legend. The Lobster Savannah is a massive crustacean split and swollen with scallops, shrimp, mushrooms and Newburg sauce, topped with provolone and broiled golden brown. The result is as overwhelmingly delicious as it is artistic.

Other notables include the hyper-locally sourced al fresco dining at Earth at Hidden Pond (two onsite gardens make sure of that); and the creatively spun selections at Salt & Honey, like the juicy chicken biscuit sandwich and a zesty bloody mary.

Wherever you eat, be sure to stick around after dinner.

Rococo Ice Cream’s rotating selection of adventurous flavors keeps things interesting, like an exotically sweet Amarula Pecan and the Blueberry Chipotle, with a mild but noticeable heat on the backend of each lick. Our scooper encouraged us to try his own cocktail-based concoction, Dark and Stormy. A refreshing ginger/lime combo, we made sure to vote for it in Rococo’s summer staff contest for best original flavor.

We capped our night across the bridge at Old Vines Wine Bar. We lounged around their outdoor fire pit, wine glasses lazily swaying in our fingers, and tried unsuccessfully to recall something more satisfying than Kennebunkport’s culinary experience.

Read the story here: http://www.nshoremag.com/culinary-kennebunkport/

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Maine’s main muffin

Maine’s culinary highlights are a unique sort of surf and turf – lobster from the ocean deep and blueberries from the mountainside brush. If the nearest Kennebunkport or Bar Harbor souvenir shop isn’t laced with red crustacean fare, it’s doused in blue – blueberry syrup, blueberry pancake mix, blueberry soda; the list is endless.

But for my money, the best foodie representation of Vacationland is the blueberry muffin. Nothing says comfort food on a blustery New England winter morning like one of these breakfast confections sitting next to your coffee. But they require skill to master, to perfect the right texture, right amount of berries, right balance of sweet and tart. This means that the state’s restaurants are chock full of old time recipes, innovative twists on the classic, and boring, tasteless attempts.

There are plenty of blueberry muffins in Maine; but there is no blueberry muffin like the one at the Maine Diner. Spiked with blueberries and flavor, just the right amount of sweetness with a texture that lingers somewhere near aerated pound cake, these Maine staples certainly do the state’s most famous berry proud.

Located on Route 1 in Wells, Maine, the family-owned Maine Diner opened in 1983 and continues to open daily at 7:00am. The restaurant’s amusing history, which is recounted on the restaurant’s website, reads like Maine folklore: a transplant from down south (Boston) retires up north; he opens a diner, utilizing the land to grow fresh ingredients for his dishes, shutting down in summer to tend the garden; the first ever diner customer walks in the front door after driving his car into their telephone pole; the next day, hundreds more stroll in and a Maine icon, clad in simple blue and white awnings, takes flight.

In the ensuing thirty-plus years, the Maine Diner has won numerous awards, been featured on television morning shows and cooking channel segments, and served more than 6 million customers.

And yet, every morning locals still occupy the stools lining the counter – the same few rotating in and out depending on the day. In the winter, they’re clad in their coats and hats, sipping hot coffee.

The blueberry muffins, or most any of their muffins or pies, are the diner’s highlights. But the entire menu smacks of hearty, classic dishes that spotlight the fare Maine is famous for, and incorporate local ingredients, many of which are still grown out back in the Maine Diner’s garden. The food is comfort food at its best; and the home grown cooking is complimented by an old school hospitality, both of which are too often forgotten in so many other tourist hotspots.

For me, Wells, Maine, is all about hospitality and homegrown cooking. My wife’s parents live there, just a few minutes down the road from the Maine Diner. A visit to the in-laws, in typical Maine fashion, usually entails multiple days of feasting, regardless of whether or not a holiday is upon us. This comes from my mother-in-law’s heartwarming combination of old world Italian family traditions and adherence to New England hospitality (not to mention her expert cooking skills).

But my father-in-law is never one to be left out. Breakfast is his domain and he has no qualms about looking to the Maine Diner for a frequent assist. Nothing compares to waking up in Maine, walking downstairs and seeing a Styrofoam container on the kitchen table. We all know what’s inside, especially with the smell of the blueberry muffins, fresh-baked and recently picked up, infusing the room. They bring the family together around the breakfast table like no cereal box or store-bought pastry ever could.

Many mornings, my father-in-law calls ahead to the diner before he leaves the house. They’ll gladly set aside an appropriate amount of muffins for him before the crowds get in and devour them like locusts. He’s not one of the local guys at the counter – yet. But when that day does come, when he settles in as a local at the counter, I’ll gladly pick up the mantle of the morning blueberry muffin run to the Maine Diner.

Michael Hartigan is a Massachusetts travel writer. His first novel, Stone Angels, was published in August, 2015. Hartigan will be signing copies of Stone Angels at Barnes & Noble in Saugus on Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 1:00pm.

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Sunday, January 12, 2014

2013 Photos of the Year

Americana filled my lens in 2013, from a Presidential inauguration to the historical sites from which the roots of democracy sprung. I was lucky enough to capture some stunning moments and surreal scenes that, besides having weighty significance, looked good too.

Along the same lines, but on a different continent, my trip to Italy provided a far more ancient historical perspective, but one nonetheless beautiful.

Here are my favorite photos from the year 2013.