While the Portland restaurant scene verges on being a dead ringer for Brooklyn’s finest, Cape Betty across the bridge has few contenders unless you consider the new and very popular Rudy’s.  But then go a little west of the ocean, to the verdant farm fields in this tony Cape Elizabeth neighborhood and you’ll be smack dab at Jordan’s Farm, with its most revered tenant, like the star sharecropper, Chef Jason Williams and The Well.

Picture-perfect setting–above earlier in the summer and getting near sunset (bottom); Lower right: Chef Jason Williams

The place has become the wet dream of farm-to-table devotees.  With its actual location on an old family farm and the sheer simplicity of the setup—four screened gazebos in the fields, next to strawberries, vegetables, flowers, a hoe and a tractor outside the back door—and you have the sublimity  of  the simplest menu in our locavorish  culinary mecca.  That–and Williams’s smooth moves in the kitchen–is the stuff of “what becomes a legend most?” as enduring as the famous ad for Blackglama mink years ago.

The famous Blackglama ad

In just a few short years The Well has indeed become legendary. It’s been featured everywhere from the Food and Cooking channels to countless magazines spreads.  If you tried to get a reservation this summer you’d find yourself on a waiting list or relegated to arriving at the ungodly hour of five-thirty.

Inside the kitchen gazebo earlier this summer

At this time of year that’s not such a bad thing.  The sun sets an hour later, the winds are verging on the chilly and sitting in a screened-in gazebo with a nip in the air is enervating.

We were set for a 5:30 reservation to which my dinner mate quipped: “Where are we going– to a retirement community?”

This year Williams’ sous chef (before they were always helpers) is the highly regarded cook Bryan Dame formerly of Tiqa and Gather.  In the 4-by-10 galley kitchen this duo perform the miracles of organization preparing for 70 to 80 diners who flock to the place nightly.

Williams and Bryan Dame (background)

This month, however, is last call at The Well when it closes for the season on September 30. I’m writing about it now if only to bid adieu until The Well and Williams’s magic return next summer. But if you act quickly you might still get one of the most coveted dining reservations in Greater Portland.

The menu is exquisitely plain and simple.  First courses are a salad or soup based on seasonal ingredients.  The lettuces are hand-picked that morning and the soup I had a few nights ago  was a cream of local butternut squash with peekytoe crab that was velvety smooth.  Main dishes feature fish, meat, chicken or pasta with local vegetables.

Cream of squash and local-greens salald

Introduced last year is a multi-course menu served family style to groups of four or more that includes Williams’s fabulous homemade bread and all the courses including a charcuterie or shell-fish option.

Miracle workers in the smallest kitchen; a plate of local mussels

We sat at the bar in the kitchen gazebo.  I like it because we get to see Williams and his crew put everything together as though parts of a puzzle all snug and comfy.  The salad and soup were divine, and I always eat too much bread spread with farm butter.

My friend had the lamb meatballs which she savored shamelessly, but urged me to try.  The lamb was sweet and the texture was luscious; set in a crown of herbed risotto and braised red cabbage, the meat juices dripped on the cabbage and risotto garnish to impart deliciously complex flavors.

Lamb meatballs with ricotta over cabbage and herbed risotto

While some restaurants brag about this and that ingredient flown in from faraway places, what makes the food at The Well so good is that everything there was procured from fields moments away. So it was with the confit of wood-roasted chicken set on a cauliflower puree with little orbs of new potatoes and broccoli florettes bathed in chicken jus.

Confit of chicken with cauliflower puree, new potatoes and broccoli

Williams is not big on desserts and generally offers his mile high donuts with seasonal berry sauce and whipped cream.  But that evening he had an addition on the menu described as chocolate cake in a mason jar.

Chocolate in a jar and housemade donut with blueberry compote and whipped cream

Here was an 8-ounce jar filled with chocolate cake, chocolate sauce and blueberry compote topped with local whipped cream.  You’ve had something like this elsewhere, but at The Well it’s just so much better.

The Well at Jordan’s Farm, 21 Wells Road, Cape Elizabeth, ME 207-831-9350  www.//jordansfarm.wix.com/thewell

Rating: 5 great stars

Ambiance: pure joy of dining in a farm setting

Tables: in gazebos for four or more; at outdoor tables and at the bar in the kitchen gazebo

Noise: what you make  or the sounds of birds, bees and the rustling brush

$$$: moderately expensive (about $50 pp); bring your own libations, water and iced tea available