Choice Tables: Portland, Me.: Locavore in Menu and Décor

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 30 Agustus 2013 | 17.36

Alexandra Daley-Clark for The New York Times

The dining room at Fore Street in Portland, Me.

It's hardly a secret that Portland, Me., is a food-lover's paradise. Stroll down the sloping streets and cobbled lanes in the heart of this small maritime city, and you can't miss the evidence: bakeries fragrant with just-baked sour cherry pies; indie coffee shops selling wood-roasted beans; bars where cocktails might be infused with local rhubarb or kale or blueberries; and, of course, restaurants of seemingly every ethnic and gastronomic stripe.

And then there is the port itself — the heart of it all — where, beyond the signs touting $4.99-a-pound lobster and whoopie pies, fishermen unload their day's haul beneath a cloud of sea gulls.

The challenge for the visitor is how to navigate Portland's prodigious dining options — no small task given that there are literally hundreds of restaurants in this city of fewer than 70,000. In surroundings that range from the clubby to the shabby, you can dine on everything from tartes aux champignons and Eritrean foul to braised rabbit ragout and lobster rolls, Vietnamese style.

One thing is certain: In a place where the local food movement got a jump start — years before the word locavore found a firm foothold in the epicurean vocabulary — you can bet that much of what you eat is likely to have been raised, foraged or caught in the surrounding fields, forests and waters.

Some restaurateurs, in fact, are taking that emphasis on "local" a step further and applying it to the design of the restaurant itself. "People in Portland have been innovating with food so long," said Anne Verrill, an owner of Grace restaurant, which occupies a restored church, "that now the next step is paying attention to design."

And not just any design, but Maine design, which implies a focus on reclaimed materials, restoration and local craftsmanship. Which is how I decided to organize my own four-day culinary journey to Portland: visiting restaurants where a passion for excellent food is combined with surroundings that won't let you forget what city you're in.

Hugo's

The streets were empty on a Monday night, but Hugo's, a sleek, lounge-like restaurant at the edge of the Old Port district, was filled — not only with diners intent on their delicate assemblages of, say, braised daikons with summer kimchi, but also with the dozen or so servers and food preparers who take center stage in the bright open kitchen that faces the bar.

You might call it food preparation as performance art, and as we sipped an exhilarating concoction of gin, cucumber shrub, basil, lime and ginger beer, we were transfixed by all the minute manipulations that go into the restaurant's three tasting menus. (The preparers are also more than happy to explain exactly what it is they are dicing, spritzing or torching.)

Hugo's, a mainstay on the Portland food scene, was sold last year to the manager and two chefs who had worked under Rob Evans, a previous owner (who is now an owner of the casual Duckfat). After undergoing a four-month top-to-bottom renovation, Hugo's has just reopened, alongside the neighboring, immensely popular, Eventide Oyster Company, which the three partners also own.

"We didn't want an architect," said Arlin Smith, who serves as general manager. "If we were going to scrounge to buy it, we wanted to put our hearts and souls into it. We wanted to feel like we were part of Portland, and let the place build itself one piece at a time."

One of those "pieces" is a 160-year-old red birch tree that had been pulled from the bottom of Moosehead Lake in central Maine and was used to construct the bar and tables, whose russet and blond tones contrast beautifully with the restaurant's black walnut flourishes. Minimalist chairs and elliptical dinnerware are the work of local designers. An eclectic collection of old china and a tin ceiling temper the overall polish.

The menu has also been tinkered with — without sacrificing the modernist flourishes that Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor (co-owners, along with Mr. Smith) had already helped establish as a Hugo's trademark. The carrot chawan mushi was a creamy carrot-juice-and-egg custard topped with fried black quinoa, beet chips and pickled white beets. Silky swordfish belly in brown butter was adorned with a ribbon of kohlrabi and tiny pickled beets and sprinkled with marinated mustard seeds. Our favorite was udon salad, a tangle of house-made noodles flecked with peppery shaved radishes and tangy Chinese sausage and accompanied by a miniature herb salad. A cloud of intense tamarind citrus foam topped it off.

Suzanne MacNeille is an editor in the Travel Section.


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