After a recent dinner at Fore Street, what struck me most is how iconic this Portland restaurant remains.  That it manages to keep its reputation intact night after night, and its space packed at all times, is truly a revelation in a city teeming with great restaurants.

After all, it’s the grande dame of farm-to-table dining in Maine whose newcomers are merely following suit rather than blazing new trails.  Consider, for instance, that Fore Street employed foragers way back while some of our city’s newest chefs were still in their knickers.

As soon as you walk in you see the whole scene–from the open kitchen, the dining room and the views of Portland Harbor beyond

Fore Street has not lost its luster one bit.  Yet its gloriousness is so subtle.  It doesn’t blaze with culinary fripperies. Instead its gastronomic Zeitgeist favors a less-is-more approach, maintaining a patina of refinement with everything that comes out of its kitchen.  From the food that’s grilled, spit-roasted or pan seared and roasted in great cast-iron pans to the utter fineness of its ingredients—nearly all locally sourced— it’s the simplicity  of its cooking that speaks with such exuberance.

The most vibrant open kitchen in Portland

Sometimes that’s the rub.  The typical diner might not appreciate such subtleties, expecting bongs of bravura to razzle and dazzle.  What no molecular hoopla or rapscallion culinary pomposities to send one swooning?

Of course the room that so many wait to get into has fanned Portland’s dining scene since the restaurant opened in 1996.  It remains as contemporary as ever.  Perhaps, at first glance, the loft-like space sheathed in bare brick walls and steel-framed casements is a decorous throwback to the 1970s, just like chocolate brown was then the new black.  Add the luster from the gleam of its copper-topped tables and the drama taking place in the open kitchen with its wood-burning hearth and battery of chefs clanging those copper pots and yelling out their declamations of cooking commands merely fan the staccato of its brilliant tempo.  In fact, it’s one of the great open kitchen spaces that I’ve seen anywhere.

The dining room displays so much style still

Very occasionally the food isn’t always so stellar in the way that a great beauty muses with an off day.  A few from the hundreds of dishes I’ve enjoyed over several decades haven’t been as simply amazing as they should be.  Still the aggregate of my dining experiences add up to five glittering stars.

The bustling kitchen

Three people plus a loyal staff of servers and managers have kept this long-running play in the spotlight.  Co-owner and chef Sam Hayward is responsible for the sensibilities that his kitchen staff follow. His long-time chef de cuisine, Nate Nadeau, keeps the embers burning brilliantly nightly.  And Dana Street, co-owner is the grand proprietor whose curmudgeonly commands are really more like the impresario conducting a stellar cast of players.

Wood oven;bar dining; kitchen prep and booth seating in the dining room

Though the menu changes daily some dishes always remain on the menu if ever so slightly tweaked.  The simplicity of the summer flounder, for instance, served with a dice of seasonal vegetables that’s brushed with gales of shimmering pan sauce is just so delicious.

Summer flounder

Or local wild-caught belons baked under a sheath of aioli cream is elemental and divine.

Belons topped with smoked mackerel aioli

Lately the menu has a focus on the new cuts of meat that are emblematic of nose-to-tail butchery that restaurants like Fore Street favor.  Consider such recent items on the starter list as corned heritage pork heart and tongue or wood-oven roasted pork belly with pomegranate seeds, sage and honey.

My starter at dinner earlier this week was one of my favorites.  The chilled and smoked seafood tasting platter was gilded with Gulf of Maine sea-scallop ceviche; dollops moistened with aged sherry vinegar and sugar kelp rusk crumbs; Rhode Island smoked bluefish under a lush dome of mayonnaise infused with Brussels sprouts was a wonderful invention; classic Casco Bay smoked mussels with olive tapenade had just the right cure and New Jersey summer flounder with radish, spicy pepper vinegar and kelp salt was delicately perfumed.  OMG what a revelation of such sweet tastes of the sea.  Perhaps at $24 it’s a pricey first course, but one doesn’t go to Fore Street to count shekels.

Seafood platter with lobster, local scallops smoked bluefish and smoked mussels

The menu, printed on both sides of a long sheet of buff-colored paper, has many surprises on it, making it difficult to choose because it all reads so well.

There’s plenty of seafood on the main-course selections.  Whether pan seared or wood roasted, most of it is fish from local waters.  But there’s just as much wood grilled or turnspit roasted meats, too.  That’s where I set my sights after the divine seafood platter.  The classics that are always on the menu include grilled hanger steak, or chicken roasted on a spit and the massive double pork chop.  New on the menu (at least to me), however, was the heritage pork leg steak locally sourced from a breeder in South Berwick.  It was served with brilliantly feathery light orbs of herb and potato gnocchi; a sprinkle of seared king oyster mushrooms and set on a puree of red kuri squash, laced with a rich brandy sauce completed the plate.

The pork was cut in neat slices with its crusty skin burnished and glistening.  However, I found the meat a bit bland if not slightly chewy. I wondered, should this have been brined first?  Or was its lack of softness due to coming from a less tender part of the leg? Still, it was a fine effort even if a bit flawed.  I ordered a side of roasted bolero carrots tossed in rich olive oil and seasoned with sage salt.  These were absolutely marvelous.  The carrots were cut into spears, beautifully charred in the heat of the wood oven and gleaming from its glaze of olive oil and sage making the sweetness of these local carrots taste like they were coated in honey. I enjoyed two glasses of wine: one a California sauvignon blanc went beautifully with the first course and a rich Argentine Malbec that stood up to the pork.

Leg of pork with potato gnocchi, roast carrots and pistachio parfait

A final dip led me to a lovely dessert of pistachio pudding parfait tall in a glass with layers of poached cranberry and pear compote, gingerbread cake, candied kumquat and pomegranate sorbet to top it off.  I asked Adam, the very affable and able server/bartender (I dined at the bar) where the pistachio component was?

“On the bottom, of course,” he said.  And there it was holding it all together, a fitting finale to another fine dinner at one of the best restaurants in Portland.

Note: The Fore Street team will be opening the highly anticipated Scales on Portland Harbor  in early 2016

Fore Street, 288 Fore St., Portland, ME 207-775-2717 www.forestreet.biz

Rating: 5 stars year after year

Ambiance: classic cool

Tables: very comfortable at booths, tables for two and four and at the very popular dining bar

Bar: full bar, excellent wine list

Service: long-time servers who are some of the best in the city

Parking: dedicated parking lot behind the restaurant

$$$: expensive, figure on $75 to $125 per person