Raising the bar In some towns, the local watering hole is the center of the universe for drink, food and conversation

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In England, it’s called a pub. In this country, we have a less glamorous word for it: the bar. The bar has been a place where people go to unwind with a cocktail or free therapy. In Hollywood, the saloon is the backdrop for shootouts. In New Orleans, music is central to the bar experience. But in Maine’s outlying, gateway and destination communities, the bar also serves as an eating spot for locals and a pit stop for travelers. In many hamlets, the bar is the center of the universe, and if you want to know the latest gossip or about the new building being erected on the edge of town, the bar is the place to go.

As reporters, we like bars. It’s not because we like to drink. (Though some of us do.) It’s because we thrive on information and conversation. Add gravy drenched poutine, harissa rubbed baby back ribs, risotto crab cakes or raw oysters, and you’ve got a roving journalist’s dream place.

Nearly every community in Maine has a stopping spot where community members gather and passersby stop for sustenance, directions, a taste of what counts for a good time in an unfamiliar place. The idea is older than Chaucer, whose pilgrims meet at an inn before a long journey. Summer is the time of journeys in Maine, and we take them nearly every day in our profession. Below you’ll find our reports on a few favorite bars. The range is as broad as our individual palates: gourmets, vegetarians, greasy-spoon devotees. If you’ll excuse the expression, it’s our way of raising the bar.

In Good Company

415 Main St., Rockland

593-9110

4:30 p.m. to close,

Tuesday-Sunday

At first glance, In Good Company seems like any other wine bar – tastefully restored building, comfy yet elegant furniture, paper-thin stemware and the requisite cheese plate. But once you take a seat at the bar, order a glass of red – try the Archetype Shiraz, if it’s still on the frequently updated wine list – and slather tapenade onto house-made crostini, you quickly realize this isn’t the case. The food here is as important as the wine, whether you want a little or a lot of either. Since the chef-proprietor, Melody Wolfertz, is a Culinary Institute of America grad who clearly knows her way around the kitchen, we recommend a lot. Of both. Choose from a selection of nibbles such as spiced nuts ($3) or the mouth-watering hot cherry peppers stuffed with prosciutto and provolone ($4). Or dig into one of the larger “plates” – during our visit, the selection, which changes weekly, included cold sliced beef tenderloin with potato salad, sliced tomatoes and pesto (at $16, the most expensive offering on the menu). Potato salad? At a wine bar? Yup. And by the conversations buzzing around us, we gathered that most of the patrons were locals. Always a good sign.

– Kristen Andresen

The Pub at the Castine Inn

Main Street, Castine

326-4365, www.castineinn.com

6-9 p.m. Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday

Maybe you’ve heard of the Castine Inn, with its multicourse tasting menu of tiny, artful plates adorned with foams and celery-root purees and things that are poached or braised or tossed in a lavender mayonnaise. A foodie’s paradise, to be sure, but nobody can eat like that every day. That’s why we love the pub. It’s a small, cozy room of the inn’s main foyer, with soft green walls, dark wainscoting and a rustic fireplace. A fitting place for chef-owner Tom Gutow’s interpretation of comfort food, for instance, a burger. Of course, it’s not your average burger – a homemade English muffin and hand-cut fries set it apart. And you can get it with American cheese. On a recent visit, our group ordered 10 of the 14 choices on the menu and sampled each of the six wines available by the glass. There’s not a dish on the menu over $10, nor a wine over $7. At the bar, conversation bounced from politics to yachting to what the young bartender plans to do after she graduates from Colby. At the tables – covered with white paper instead of a white tablecloth – diners noshed on a crudite plate of local vegetables, a crock of three-onion soup and a native shrimp cocktail tossed in a salsa-cocktail sauce hybrid and served in a martini glass. Elegant. So, too, is the avocado martini. Think: upscale guacamole. Except lighter. Fluffier. Almost foamy. But not quite.

– Kristen Andresen

three tides

2 Pinchy Lane, Belfast

338-1707, www.3tides.com

4 p.m. to close, Tuesday-Saturday; 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday

It’s hot. Steamy. Not even a hint of a breeze. Sure, you could head to the conventional air-conditioned dining room. But why not belly up to the bar at three tides, order a schooner of Dogfish Head India Pale Ale and split a pound and a half of steamers ($12) with a friend? Tucked away on Belfast’s waterfront, beside a lobster pound also owned by proprietors David and Sarah Carlson, three tides is the perfect destination for a summer night. The cool, curvy, poured concrete bar is designed for conversation, and the food lends itself to sharing. A crabmeat, avocado, Cheddar and Jack quesadilla ($9.95) made its way around our group, as did the house-made salsa. On a cooler night – three tides is open year-round – we may have chosen the Swedish meatballs with lingonberries and hot mustard, a family specialty. But given the bar’s location, and its proximity to the lobster pound – called Lb, get it? – the real focus here is seafood, including Pemaquid oysters ($12 for six) and rope-grown mussels. The pound has a special filtering system, so there’s nary a grain of sand in sight. Or mouth, as the case may be. The kitchen is tiny, the staff is friendly, and the food, as David says, is “bar-driven.” And that’s just the way we like it.

– Kristen Andresen

Cleonice Mediterranean Restaurant

112 Main St., Ellsworth

664-7554, www.cleonice.com

11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday-Sunday

The bar, with its lighted wall mirrors and ornate woodwork, is the heart of this year-round restaurant serving up tapas and Mediterranean fare. Tall glass dishes on pedestals, holding fresh lemons and limes, grace the cherry counter that stretches 38 feet – nearly the length of the bistro – and is lined with old brass-tacked leather seats. The clink of glasses, whir of ceiling fans, buzz of diners and bustle of wait staff about the black-and-white checkerboard floor give the place a synergy and old-world air. At Cleonice, it’s not only OK – but a lot of fun – to skip the formality of a white-clothed table and get a quick bite as modest as a cold Pilsner Urquell and one tapa such as the Harissa Rubbed Baby Back Ribs ($6.50) or Grilled Octopus with Piri Piri Sauce ($7.50). Or, for an hour or so, you can linger over a multicourse meal consisting of Smoked Shad Roe Spread ($7), Baked Haddock with Sweet Pepper Compote ($19.50) and a chilled bottle of 2003 Albarino ($29). Cap the meal with an espresso and white raspberry ricotta tart. It’s quite all right, too, to eat alone with a book or magazine as company and not engage in chitchat. If you’re in the mood, though, comments over the fine food can spark lively conversations and even some tapas-trading with barmates.

-Letitia Baldwin

Dos Amigos Mexican Restaurant and Cantina

Route 1, Northport

338-5775

noon-9 p.m. daily, closed January and February

The fake flying fish and iguana are strange enough to lure the party crowd to this shimmering roadside spot that rises like the Emerald City in the darkness of Route 1. The rest of us know that icy margaritas ($6.95) and the illusion of being South of the Border are the true draws of this lime-and-pink Mexican watering hole. The Red Sox game on the TV at the bar doesn’t hurt either. After one tropical drink and a spinach enchilada dinner ($15.99), the Sox may be on top, but you won’t be under the table. Don and Tara Warner run the place with their four daughters. When they aren’t in the restaurant, their travels have taken them to tropical spots. They brought home the quirky d?cor, as well as Chipotle Raspberry Pork Loin ($17.99) and other treats from Jamaica, Haiti and the Southwest. Check out the daily fish specials. Looking for a refreshing place to stop between busy tourist spots along the coast and Bangor? If you’ve driven by it for years, now’s the time to stop. Sit outside at the patio. It’s no myth that spicy nachos, fajitas, quesadillas and burritos will cool you off. If that doesn’t work, there’s always fried ice cream. Mariachi anyone?

-Alicia Anstead

Dean’s Motor Lodge

Route 11 Portage

435-3701

Lounge is open 4:30 a.m.-closing

Sure, this is the snowmobile capital of the northern world. But why wait for snow? Portage’s population is 350, soaking wet – as they say there. Fittingly, Dean’s motto is: rural town with a big-city hotel. But you haven’t seen big until you’ve had double-decker burgers ($4.25), deep-fried scallops ($14.95) and chicken wings ($3.95 for six, $6.95 for 12). A bottle of Bud Lite ($2.50) is the elixir of choice. Prime Rib ($18.95) is the most popular dish Thursday through Sunday, the only days it’s served. Other days, try the poutine ($2.75), french fries slathered with cheese and gravy. It goes down well with the Bud. The bar is small, but service by Linda Gagnon, a transplant from across the border in Edmundston, is large hearted. She’s been behind the bar for 15 years and puts in 65 to 85 hours a week. “It’s not a job,” she says. “It’s home.” That goes for everyone who sits on the vinyl bar couches. If you’re lucky, the conversation will be friendly enough for Gagnon to see you off with: “Come back and visit.”

– Alicia Anstead

Swamp Buck Restaurant and Lounge

250 West Main St., Fort Kent

834-6472

Lounge is open 11 a.m. to close

Menu selections marked by a neon yellow highlighter will lead you directly to the specialties on this family-friendly menu: a combo plate of buffalo wings, nachos and zucchini sticks ($8.95), deep fried ice cream ($3.95), big buck prime rib ($23.95). Five TV sets, three of them tuned to NASCAR, can make any “Buck and Wings” – that’s a bucket of beer and chicken wings to the rest of you – go down easy. Ask the locals behind the bar where they’re going to school in the fall, and they may tell you, “Down south.” Don’t be fooled. They mean Augusta. Is everywhere south of here? No, but you can’t get poutine in those places. And who knew that a Fort Kent restaurant could boast fresh seafood? Sometimes you just gotta pass on the Philly Cheese Steak for the Fried Fisherman’s Feast. Kids can sit at this bar, too, for those ever popular chicken nuggets or a traditional pb&j.

– Alicia Anstead

Irish Setter Pub

710 Main St., Presque Isle

764-5400

11 a.m.-11 p.m., closed Sunday

Van Morrison on the stereo. Corned beef and cabbage ($10.95), shepherd’s pie ($8.95), bangers and mash ($9.95). Green walls, plaid curtains. A bartender named Brian. Excuse me. Anyone for a Guinness ($4.25)? Some locals prefer pints of Black & Tan (same price). You may think “Salut!” is the right toast for this French-named town, but it’s “Slainte!” all the way for this Irish spot. Try the triple-decker Irish Reuben ($8.95). It’s popular and filling. Families like to sit at the tables. For others, the U-shaped bar makes it easy to meet and greet. Three TVs are tuned to sports and news, but the remote is available on request for customer’s choice. Just for fun, see what happens if you switch it to public television. A little Irish humor? Watch out when you use the restrooms. “Mna” is not an anagram. It’s Gaelic for “women.” Could lead to a meet and greet of another sort.

-Alicia Anstead