Homage to Maine Drive In Restaurants

It's hard to imagine, but life used to exist before McDonald's. The precursor to the golden arches were the drive-in hamburger and hot dog stands. In Presque Isle, where I grew up, Keegan's was THE place to be. Never mind that it was essentially the ONLY place to be for young people. If you had a few dollars, you could go there and get something yummy (i. e. full of sugar, salt, and fat) for a reasonable price. Maybe you would see your friends. "Lights on for service" meant you didn't even need to get out of your car.

If you didn't have any money, or even a car to drive around in, you were in rough shape. The other activity was "tooling Main Street," which meant driving from one end to the other, turning around, and then doing it again. Yeesh. No wonder I was desperate to get out.

Keegan's closed years ago, but the other favorite was Winnie's which I loved because of their great onion rings:

Sadly, according to the web, Winnie's has closed in the past year, but not before the owner made a bundle with her lobster stew recipe. (How hard is lobster stew, anyway? Maybe I can make a bundle too...)

Back in 1967 when I was dating my first husband, he took me to the Mcdonalds on Broadway in Bangor, one of the first in Maine and certainly the first I had ever been to. I could not believe how fast he was in and out with a bag of fifteen cent hamburgers, and the fries and milkshakes that set the standard from then on, probably for not much more than a dollar or two for us both.

Thank goodness that the drive in restaurant is alive and well here in Hancock County. Maybe because we haven't got the population to support a Mcdonalds or Burger King, though the appearance of a Dunkin' Donut in Blue Hill this summer is sobering.

So here are the three drive-in treasures on the Blue Hill Peninsula: The Bagaduce Lunch, the Fish Net, and Madeline's. Both the Bagaduce and the Fish Net have been around for years.

Bagaduce Lunch gets the "Stunning Location" award hands down. Located right beside the reversing falls of the Bagaduce, in good weather, chomping down on a fish sandwich at the Bagduce Lunch's picnic tables cannot be beat. And how many times will you dine at a place that won an American Classic James Beard Award (2008)? Click here to see a video about the Bagaduce and their award.

The Bagaduce is pure business, closing ASAP right after Labor Day. Whew.

The Fish Net in Blue Hill is lowest on the totem pole location-wise (on the inside corner of where the very busy Maine Street heads up a steep steep hill), but it fits perfectly with menu and style. Here's the Fish Net's menu, posted outside, which could be for each of these three fine establishments:

The Fish Net closes around October 1.

Madeline's on Deer Isle popped up a few years ago. Madeline's is not on the water, but has a woodsy location on the main road north of the village and the High School that the owners have spruced up with picnic tables and a play area. Old timers on Deer Isle remember another Madeline's across the road, the remains of which are still visible. The new Madeline's is really Madeline's 2.

For us, Madeline's wins out, unless we are in Blue Hill and hungry, or want to make a special trip to the Bagaduce. Even though the Bagaduce has the reputation (I mean, James Beard must know what he is talking about, right? -- Yeah, I know, he is dead...), the food at the three places is pretty much the same. Hamburgers, crab and lobster rolls, fried clams or scallops, french fries and onion rings. And ice cream.  Who could ask for more?

Madline's closed for the season the last week of September. Now there is no place to go on a sunny day for a greasy hamburger, until next spring. Sigh.

Great scene, greater pizza!

First, you need to plan ahead.

Tinderhearth in Brooksville only makes their delish wood fired pizzas on Tuesday and Friday nights. You have to order early in the day, after they post the varieties they are making that night on their Facebook page. When you call to order, don't bother leaving a message, because they won't call back. Keep calling until you get a live person.

Then, ask what time slots are available for your pizza: they will tell you, to the minute, when yours should be done. Ours was 6:38pm.

Next, pack picnicking gear (silverware, paper plates, napkins/paper towels) and drinks and maybe a salad. We saw folks with beer and/or wine. And head on over. Depending where you live on the peninsula, it can be a bit of a drive. From our house in Sunset, it was a little over a half hour.

The cars parked along the road were the first sign (beyond the GPS lady's instructions) that we had arrived, in front of a rambling, unassuming farmhouse. We ventured in through an open door to a maelstrom of activity -- these photos actually seem much more serene than the actual event:

The sort of host guy in the gold sequined sun visor gave us the ETA of our pizza, told us to look for a place at a table out back, and let him know if we could not find a place to sit: "We'll make it work, bring out more tables," he said.

Just outside the back door were picnic tables, with more hidden further out in the orchard. Folks were already there (pizza making starts at 5pm, so many probably had come and gone), and the scene was down home, old hippies and the newer generations, and so pleasant.

Then the wait as fabulous looking pizzas came out one and two at a time from the same back door that we came through. It wasn't too long before ours arrived:
 

That's my hand reaching for one. It was HUGE, and I thought for sure we would have left-overs. But it was so good, and the crust so thin and crispy, that we ate all but one slice.

Rumor has it that sometimes there is entertainment on Fridays (a ukelele band?). On Tuesdays, there are movies in the barn just down the road at David's Folly. Talk about home-grown entertainment!

Lunch from Brooksville Farmers' Market

Farmers' Markets have been popping up like mushrooms in the cold and damp. I've been compiling a list of those in our area. I am going to try to visit them all and give you my completely subjective opinion. Everyone seems to think that THEIRS is the best. Likely, each market has its own distinct "personality."

This last Tuesday Drew and I checked out the Brooksville Farmers' Market (9:30am to noon, in the Community Center parking lot, located up the hill from the Bucks Harbor Market). The market had about 22 stands, two with plunking guitarists. There was even a potters' wheel set up and running. The atmosphere was nice, low keyed, laid back. Not the stampeding  hoards that I am used to in the Stonington Farmers' Market.

While it wasn't in the plan, turns out that we bought lunch, and I decided that was a good way to test out the wares and prices of each market we sample. Here's what we got:

Clockwise from top left:

From Mia's, sesame soba (buckwheat) noodles with peanut sauce, $5. Delicious. (Wish the portion was a little bigger, but we could have bought 2.)  Mia's spring rolls move fast, were gone by the time we were ready to buy.

 Unfortunately, we missed getting a photo of Mia and the young girl helping her. Next time...

Radishes from the adorable young couple from Living Roots Farms. She does the art work on the signs, and the radishes were a very reasonable $2 a bunch. I've paid three times that much at the Stonington Farmers' Market, which has a reputation for high prices.

Carrots from Elliott Coleman's Four Seasons Farm. Like candy, for the taste buds and the eyes. At $4 a pound, an affordable treat.

The chive and garlic goat cheese, from Sunset Acres Farm, $6, really good, and a lot left over for later.

Now, the crackers, right in the middle, were absolutely fantastic and really made the meal, but they were SO expensive that I am not going to even identify the source. I've communicated to the owner that I thought his prices were way too high, and that if he got them down to what I considered high but reasonable, I'd be glad to write about him and them.

So what we paid, for everything except the crackers, was $18. We ate all the noodles, have had radishes and carrots several more times, and are not halfway through the cheese. Add the price of the crackers, and double the price of lunch. All delicious, disgustingly healthy, and except for the crackers, reasonably priced.

Yum.