Neighborhood restaurants orbit in their own world.  Warm, cozy and familiar they tend to eschew trendiness and other social hysterias.  They’re everywhere around Greater Portland, for better or worse.  But the most revered remain Caiola’s in the West End; Hot Suppa, Local 188 and others around Longfellow Square; Lolita, the Front Room and Blue Spoon on Munjoy Hill.  These are some of the city’s standard bearers of dining in the hood.  Now you can add Abilene to the group.  Opened since June, it holds sway in the Woodford’s area.  The difference is that this part of Portland doesn’t attract foodie preeners or make way for the next Central Provisions. 

Caesar salad; the dining room at Abilene

It’s awkwardly located off one of the most congested corners in Portland.   This is where Woodford, Deering and Route 100 fan off of Forest Avenue,  directed by a traffic-light system that is at once arcane and ridiculous.

Creamy mushroom soup with goat cheese

In fact the first time I tried going to Abilene was during a torrential rain.  As I approached this fabled intersection a car had just rammed into a retail shop along the avenue and all hell broke loose.  Traffic was snarled in every direction as police cars, news trucks and ambulances converged on the scene.

The heck with this I thought and as soon as we could find our way out of the carnage we headed back to the peninsula to more familiar territory.

I made a second attempt to dine at Abilene, with friends in tow.  They were reluctant to try a place in the hinterlands (to them, at least), but I convinced them that it was worth going to this out of the way place because the food is reputed to be quite good.  By now I knew how to navigate the turn off from Forest Avenue onto Deering Avenue.  If you know where you’re going it’s fairly easy to find (At Woodford’s Corner take a hard left onto Deering ).  The restaurant is next door to the popular breakfast joint, Bayou Kitchen, and across the street from the Big Sky Bread cafe.  We pulled up, peered through the windows and saw a completely empty dining room. My friends looked at me as if to say, Can’t we go anywhere more exciting?  We left and went back downtown.

Still I was determined to find out about Abilene.  Earlier this week I called up a friend–a chef and food person in Portland.  And since he likes to dine before sunset (at this writing that meant 5:30 PM, an ungodly hour to unfold one’s dinner napkin) we arrived while it was still light outside.  The little street had plenty of places to park and when I walked in my friend was already at the table, at one in the back of the room, as though he was trying to be incognito.  I found him already dipping into a Caesar salad.

“I’m hungry,” he said. Sure I thought, at 5:30 what else does one do but eat?

The room was empty.  In fact, in the décor department it’s a starkly plain room.  No frills whatsoever as the deadpan layout of tables fan out from a congenial looking bar.

Manchego toast

This is a really good salad, “he said.  “Lettuces are really fresh and I’m sure local.”  It did look nice.

Abilene is owned by Travis Colgan (the chef) and his wife, Anna Connolly (the waitress/hostess).  He’s from Vermont and she is from New Jersey.  They’ve worked in restaurants across the country, from New Orleans to the Sierra Nevada.  Along the way they lived in Texas (Abilene, perhaps?).

Like native Maine chef Abby Harmon of Caiola’s, they present an adventuresome twist on home-style cooking.    Of the six dishes we tried, all were absolutely delicious, packed with flavor nuances that were so easy to like.

We started off with the appetizer, Manchego Toast.  The dish was inspired  by a chef Colgan knew in New Orleans. House made focaccia, lightly toasted, is topped with the melted Spanish Manchego cheese, with judicious hints of garlic and shallot and topped with a duxelle of mushrooms soaking in a sauce of Sherry and mushroom broth.   I could have this ten times over and never tire of the dish.

We then dug into the Abilene fish taco.  Lot of desultory taco preps abound in Portland restaurants, highfalutin or down home.  This one was carefully composed. Nestled into lightly crisped corn tortillas–not soggy and mushy–carefully cooked white fish is dressed in a pungent cilantro cream and garnished with shredded romaine, tomatoes and green onions.  It’s a perfect starter or in a larger portion a fine dinner entrée.

Fish taco

The kitchen then sent out a creamy, herbaceous  mushroom soup garnished with  crumbles of goat cheese—I’m sold on that combination–and just the minutest thatch of parsley.  By now we were eating a lot.  But when mushroom soup is done well, there’s nothing better.  This scored high.

My buddy and I then fought over the entrees.  We both wanted the cider braised pork.  For the sake of this review we should have ordered two different entrees.  But the dish sounded too good to pass up. Braised pork shoulder is served under a sweet red onion marmalade alongside a crispy potato hash and wands of thinly sliced zucchini, carrots, tomato and red pepper.

Cider braised pork

We finished our fine dinner with a tres leches cake with coconut.  It was as good as everything else we had.

Tres leches cake with coconut

This is comfort food at its best: It’s all made from scratch and cooked slowly and carefully.  Other entrées include pecan crusted halibut, ciopinno pasta and several chicken dishes. I’ll save those for return visits.

Abilene, 539 Deering Ave., Portland, ME  207-536-0855  www.abileneportland.com (website under construction)

Rating: 4 stars for creatively prepared fare

Ambiance: friendly

Service: excellent

Bar: full

Tables: nothing fancy

$$$: very moderate; all entrées under $20