The setting is only a precursor of what’s to come in this dazzling bit of urban renewal that is the 10-acre 58 Fore Street complex (formerly the Portland Company) overlooking Portland Harbor from Fore Points Marina where on a very clear day you might imagine you see the coastline of Portugal. Years from now 58 Fore Street will offer housing, restaurants, retail, office, and a public park leading to the water. The developers went through incredible hurdles to get where they are currently. The Fore Points Marina is just the beginning, and Ev0-X restaurant and bar is a great first start.
Picnic tables are spaced far apart, and seating along the deck follow social-distancing guidelines–but it’s the patrons who are devil-may-care, huddled close together.
You enter by going down Thames Street in what looks like the end of the road. But you follow that roadway, through to the dirt and gravel driveway that leads you to Fore Points Marina where you can park at whatever space you can find. And the ingenious set up of the food truck restaurant plopped in the middle of the marina grounds is phenomenal . It’s headed by a team that gave us Evo in the Old Port. Matt Ginn and John Glover are the creative chefs at the restaurant, delivering a menu of seafood and other short-order dishes.
Ginn says, “You must have the fried fish.”
The fried fish and tartar sauce
And he’s absolutely spot on. The flakiest haddock (or was it pollock?) ever encased in a crisp, salty, delicious batter is deep fried. You dip it into tartar sauce. Though, the little plastic tub of sauce should have held more.
The gazpacho is a bracing, slightly spicy soup with croutons and skin-on jumbo shrimp hugging the rim of the cup. It’s delicious and I only wish there were a few more shrimp.
A great little cup of gazpacho and grilled skin-on shrimp
On what was one of the most beautiful nights of the summer a few hours before sunset there were about 100 patrons mingling in the open space that is the Marina bar. I was surprised to see that hardly anyone was wearing a mask (the staff was in compliance). It’s still unclear what Maine’s rules are regarding this, whether diners need to wear a mask in outdoor dining areas. Of course you can’t when you’re eating and drinking, which almost everyone there was doing.
The scene, the view, the bar
My friend said to me, “No one else is wearing a mask,” to which I responded, “Well, I am.” I took it off to sip on a great margarita and to dig into a basket of fried fish and gazpacho.
As owner and 58 Fore Street co-developer Casey Prentice said to me earlier when I stopped in to have one of the best hot dogs ever at lunchtime, “We’re still a work in progress and figuring out how this will work best.”
By the way, the hot dog is a classic Maine red snapper topped with a relish of pepper bombs that chef John Glover has been working on for months. He got it right. The topping has a little heat tempered by sweetness from the pickling components.
This is the best version of Maine’s classic Red Snapper dop
The menu is a short one that will change frequently. For now expect mussels, lobster rolls, fried fish, chick pea fries and other items. The shack is parked at the Fore Points Marina beyond the the driveway that hugs the Narrow Gauge Railroad sitting on Portland’s East End. For now you can drive right up to a roughly paved parking area, cross the tracks onto the marina grounds. It might seem a bit makeshift but no matter. It’s exactly as it should be. A great boon to city life on the water in Portland.
Evo X at Fore Points Marina, 58 Fore St., Portland, ME
Ambiance: The best waterfront enclave in the city
Patrons: Trendies (Brooklyn transplants?), millennials en masse mixed with regular folk of all ages
Seating: Picnic tables, stand up counter
Bar: Full bar, margarita is a must have
Parking: On site
Rating: 5 stars
