In big, bold letters put Fore Street back on your list (if it ever left) of must-go-to restaurants. In fact, after a recent visit, I’m proclaiming that it’s still one of the best restaurants in the city. It has managed to maintain its supreme status since opening nearly 30 years ago as a citadel of farm-to-table cookery with its focus on food from local farmers (meat, poultry and fowl), foragers and fishermen and women.
When friends came to Portland from New York earlier this month and asked me to choose a restaurant, it was easy to pick Fore Street because of its iconic status and stature as a local standout.
We met for drinks at the Press Hotel lounge, itself a thoroughly urbane oasis. I described the restaurant looking like a 1970s loft in SoHo in the days when that erstwhile neighborhood was on the rise with its huge brick-walled interiors being transformed in old cast-iron buildings to iconic loft apartments.
The brick-walled dining room in 2015, and little changed today
The space still astounds today, not looking the least time worn or passé. The vitality of the open kitchen, the clamor of cooks at their stations and the stunning dance of the wait staff keep it pumping; for waiters landing a place amongst the staff is like acquiring a berth on Madison Avenue or a seat on the stock exchange. All attributable to being one of the finest run dining rooms in Portland.
And overseeing all of it is Portland chef Fred Eliot who owner Dana Street has made his executive chef of all three of his renowned restaurants: Fore Street, Scales and Street & Co. His touch is everywhere to the perfection of pan-seared fish, to grilled chops and steaks cooked over the wood grill, to every starter course of seafood platter, the famous mussels, soups, pâtés, including his marvelous foie gras that are part of the first-course menu
Left, clockwise: Chilled seafood platter with cured Arctic char, yellow fin tuna, scallops; foie gras; and grilled local lamb
The chilled seafood platter held cured Arctic char, Casco Bay scallops and yellow fin tuna. The beet salad was a vision of varied colored beets looking as fresh and vibrant as just dug orbs. The lamb was from a Maine Island farm (probably Straw Farm) and a special that night was cassoulet with three different sausages: smoked andouille, talouse and saucisson de Lyon with duck confit and lamb bacon—a brilliant dish swathed by the beans from France, creamy and flavorful.
Chilled local beets salad
With a fine Pinot Noir from Oregon from their well-curated list, the dinner was so likeable. Concluding our meal was a multi-layered dacquoise.
Dacquoise
Portland dining without Fore Street would be unthinkable as it’s so intricately woven into the culinary fabric of the city. While so many old-timers are closing shop, one can’t help but wonder who’s next. Maybe the slide has stopped for now. Other than The Garrison, new restaurants are not making meaningful waves. Chefs still want to be here, but many are going to the Midcoast towns, Camden, Rockport and Rockland. Others like Back Bay Grill, Central Provisions, Chaval, Union, Eventide, et al, and a few others keep the pace going and our reputation intact.
We need more Asian restaurants. Mission Chinese, anyone? Or more classic Italian, cooking from Tuscany? Thankfully we have fabulous Genovese cooking at Solo Italiano. But what about a real French bistro in our mix?
But for now Fore Street keeps the excitement going and new restaurants can only aspire to be nearly as good.
Fore Street: 288 Fore St., Portland, ME 207-775-2717
Rating: 5 stars all the way
Service: Wonderful
Seating: booths, tables for two and four and the wonderful concrete-topped bar still in high demand for dining
Ambiance: Classic cool
Noise: Moderate to somewhat noisy
Price: Very $$$
Parking: On the street
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