Sudden Spring

Spring is here, and unlike last year when spring kept retreating back into winter, I am hoping it's here to stay. I had almost started to believe our lives would go on in a state of perpetual winter, so the warmer weather and extra daylight still feels like a pleasant surprise each day.



I enjoyed last weekend's sunny climes to the fullest with lots of biking and walking.


I took the Ocean Parkway bike path all the way to Brighton Beach, but it's not as nice riding as I thought it would be. After Ditmas Park, smooth paving gives way to bumpy and cracked sidewalks. Still, in less than an hour I was at the beach, something New Yorkers often forget exists as part of this city. Specifically I was sitting outside at Tatiana, one of the Russian cafes on the boardwalk. My salad and cured fish were good enough, but I'll have to go back for the delicious looking pierogies, which I regretted not ordering as soon as I saw them at a neighboring table.


Saturday evening I biked to Williamsburg for bar hopping involving multiple charcuterie plates, in a sea of hip strangers all out and about in the balmy darkness. I played the "remember when" game, reflecting on all the years I lived in Williamsburg's lively social scene, along with most of my friends. Now it seems we've all packed up and scattered to other neighborhoods, and I can't help but miss it a little.


Sunday afternoon I walked to Carroll Gardens for some more bar hopping. The second stop was inadvertent - on my way home I passed this faux-farmhouse, which turned out to be Black Mountain Wine House, and it was too adorable not to stop in for a pre-dinner apertif involving oysters. Would you say no to adirondack chairs nestled into an unassuming Brooklyn street corner?





How have you been enjoying the newfound freedom of springtime?

Sixpoint Oktoberfest

One of my favorite local breweries, Sixpoint, recently came out with their first Oktoberfest beer, which I tried at the release party last month in the sweet little backyard of Sycamore in Ditmas Park. Beers were served in massive three-pint steins the size of my face, along with plates of bratwurst and potato salad. Oktoberfest indeed!


This is my favorite Sixpoint beer yet. I love complex fruity and spicy beers, such as cloudy Belgian wheat beers typically flavored with coriander and orange peel, as well as Harpoon's Winter Warmer spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. If I remember correctly, Sixpoint Oktoberfest had a hint of fall spices and was a touch sweet and round around the edges, softening Sixpoint's distinctive bite. I know it is currently being served it at The Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights, Flatbush Farm, and possibly Bar Great Harry. Give it a try if you see it on tap. What's your favorite beer for the fall?


It was a wonderfully warm October afternoon, so I biked to Ditmas Park. I never realized how easy it is to bike southward from Prospect Park, thanks to a dedicated bike lane on Ocean Parkway. Five miles of pure unadulterated biking on a quiet tree-lined path that takes you straight to Brighton Beach. I plan to hit that up next summer for some exercise-beach action.

photo 1 via Sixpoint's twitpics, 2 via personal collection, 3 via NYC Bike Maps Photo Gallery

Reddish Velvet Beet Cupcakes with Bourbon Cream Cheese Icing

My friend Jamie had a big birthday last week, so we celebrated in style. She loves red velvet cupcakes (she is from the South after all), but I don't really like the idea of adding red food dye, and the natural food coloring available at Whole Foods was prohibitively expensive. I love using beets in baked goods, so I went ahead and made this version of red velvet cupcakes, minus the food coloring, and with the addition of 1/3 cup cooked and pureed beets to add natural coloring. I also added extra bourbon to the icing because it's another one of Jamie's faves (recipe below).


Well, as I've heard happens but hoped it wouldn't, the cupcakes came out a light reddish brown. The beets I used were pale pink because that's all I could find on short notice, so I'd like to experiment again using normal deep dark red beets.


So even though my creation turned out more as "Reddish" Velvet Beet Cupcakes, they were still tasty, especially because of the Bourbon Cream Cheese Icing, which was a big hit with my coworkers and Jamie. Luckily I ended up with leftover icing, a perfect excuse to make another batch of cupcakes - cinnamon-spiced flecked with diced apples and pears - this week to use up that sugary creamy goodness.

Later on for the birthday girl's big night out, we went to Mason Dixon in the LES for bourbon and bull-riding! I don't normally like going out in Manhattan, but the bartenders there were supernice. I wonder why? Maybe it's their way of bringing Southern hospitality to New York? Oh yeah and after much insisting from Jamie, I rode a mechanical bull ;-)

Bourbon Cream Cheese Icing

5 tbsp butter
1 package cream cheese (8 oz)
roughly 3/4 of a box of Dominos Confectioners Sugar
1 tsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla bean-infused bourbon (or 1 tsp vanilla and 2 tsp bourbon)

Let butter and cream cheese soften after taking out of the fridge. Cream together with a fork, then combine with remaining ingredients until smooth. Adjust ingredients to taste (ie, add more vanilla bourbon if too dry, add more sugar if too wet). Makes enough icing for approximately 24 cupcakes, depending on how much icing you use to top off each cupcake.

The Lazy Minty Arnold Palmer

All the way back in May, (see I'm really behind!), I hosted a Memorial Weekend BBQ. A couple days beforehand, I spent an afternoon in the backyard of Nita Nita enjoying a few drinks. My drink partner ordered an Arnold Palmer - a mix of bourbon, lemonade, and iced tea on the rocks - that was perfectly refreshing for the hot summer afternoon. Then we saw the bartender come out and snip off some sprigs of mint from one of the many herb planters in Nita Nita's backyard for someone else's drink. Guerilla-style, we went and picked off some mint of his own to add to the Arnold Palmer, which transformed it from just good into total perfection.

So inspired, I cooked up a similar cocktail for our party, except instead of making lemonade, which would have been too much work, I just used iced tea as the mixer and added a squeeze of a wedge of lemon to each drink. I made cold brewed mint-infused iced tea for the occasion by steeping black tea in growlers of water in the fridge overnight, straining out the tea leaves in the morning and adding chopped fresh mint leaves.

I - and my guests - enjoyed the drink so much that we made it again for our Fourth of July BBQ. Do you have a favorite summer cocktail?

The Lazy Minty Arnold Palmer
1 part bourbon
1.5 parts mint-infused iced tea
ice cubes
1 wedge of lemon
1 sprig of mint

Pour ingredients into a cocktail glass and stir. Squeeze in the wedge of lemon and add to the glass with mint.

Cupcake Contest Take 2

Last Monday was the third annual cupcake contest hosted by Brooklyn Kitchen. This year's event featured almost 60 cupcakes, bakers, and testers, packed into Union Pool's backyard.


sister's "Fire Antz" aka spicy chocolate cupcakes
It was impossible to try them all - I think I probably tasted about 20. And I successfully paced myself, limiting my sampling to half or quarter sized bites of the cupcakes, so that I didn't end up with a tummyache at the end of the night like last year.


I didn't win anything again (the competition at this event is always so steep), but I was happy because I got a lot of compliments and my cupcakes were popular enough to have all disappeared by the end of the night. I called them honey babies just because I wanted to come up with some kind of catchy name, but really they have been likened to a great muffin or coffee cake with a light honey spice flavor, topped with amazing frosting. The maple, chopped almonds, and sparkles of sugar are what makes this cupcake sing.


I'm already planning my recipe for next year's contest...I'll definitely be incorporating chocolate.


Honey Babies with Maple Almond Frosting
Recipe:
9 tbsp butter
3/4 cup raw turbinado sugar
heaping 1/4 cup honey
3 eggs
2 tsp bourbon vanilla (bourbon steeped with vanilla beans)
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup ground almonds (1 cup of almonds ground in the food processor until it resembles coarse flour)
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Frosting:
6 tbsp butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp bourbon vanilla
6 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp milk
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
raw turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Butter two 12-muffin tins. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in honey, eggs, vanilla and milk.
In a separate bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients. Beat dry ingredients into wet mixture until smooth. Scoop batter into muffin tins and bake for approximately 15 minutes until knife inserted comes out clean.

For frosting, cream butter and powdered sugar. Mix in vanilla, maple syrup, milk, and half the chopped almonds. Adjust sugar and butter to desired consistency (my measurements above are approximate). Frost cupcakes, and then sprinkle remaining almonds and a little sugar over top of each. Makes 24 cupcakes. This recipe can easily be cut by a third to make a batch of 12 large cupcakes.

A New Red Hook Ritual

Once or twice a month I delight in taking a shopping trip to Fairway in Red Hook, where I can stock up on bulk goods for cheap, like organic coffee, beans, rice, and so on.


Now I may have found a new ritual to tack onto my Red Hook trips: A stop at Rocky Sullivan's for beer and a snack outside. I'd been to this bar on an assuming corner before and hadn't thought much of it, just a normal working class neighborhood bar. Then I found out about its roof deck, but I wasn't able to take advantage of it until the first nice weather hit this weekend. Now I have truly seen the light.


The bar neighbors Sixpoint Brewery, so I was able to get two of my favorite Sixpoint beers, Bengali IPA and Righteous Rye. And ogle all the Sixpoint kegs lying around. Rocky Sullivan's has a bar menu, but I'm guessing their best food is their brick oven pizza, made fresh to order. I had the margarita pizza, complete with homemade pesto sauce, and it was delish. The crust had a slight buttery flakiness to it, a little like pastry crust, but not too much.


I enjoyed my afternoon snack on their roof deck. We were the only ones up there, and I can't imagine it ever gets too full, so it certainly lives up to its reputation as "serene" I highly recommend checking it out if you're in the hood, although don't tell all your friends because hidden gems are always better when they remain that way!

An Indulgent Weekend

I wanted to have a nice dinner on Saturday, so I went to the Union Square Greenmarket to get the goods, and here's what I cooked up with help. A flat-iron grass-fed bison steak from Elk Trails, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cooked in butter in a cast iron pan on medium heat for about 8 minutes on each side. At least I think that's how long it was - it seemed to take a long time. The bison farmer recommended cooking it slowly over relatively low heat, as searing it too hot can overcook the bison quickly. It turned out well, but slightly tough. I usually marinate these cheaper cuts like flat-iron and flank steak, but wanted to see if it could stand on its own. Next time I'll go back to marinating.


On the side we enjoyed brussel sprouts steamed with garlic (nice, but I think roasting would give it more oomph) and our usual fries: potatoes sliced, tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roasted in the oven until crispy and tender, dipped into green garlic and vinegar spiked mayonnaise. As well as a bottle of nonlocal Malbec from Argentina via Trader Joe's because I was feeling cheap. And the cocoa applesauce muffins before and after dinner.

On Sunday I planned to make chili in the crockpot and let it cook all day. Boyfriend implored "I want to go out for dinner." I responded, "That would put me over my food budget for this month, but we can go get drinks before dinner instead." Which made a nice compromise for both of us, or so we thought.


So we hopped on the G and went to Cherry Tree, which has an excellent draft beer selection, which turned into more beers across the street at Fourth Avenue Pub in Park Slope. By late afternoon, we started to get hungry but knew the chili wouldn't be done yet. So instead of heading straight home, we extended our outing even further with a stop at Flatbush Farm for appetizers.


Their oysters are amazing every time; never bland/hit or miss like at other restaurants. We also shared the Ploughman's Plate of cheddar cheese, salami, and bresaola (I think that's what it all was), but at $12 I felt it was a bit lacking in the meat for the price. Then finally went on home and ate chili and cornbread (baked in the cast iron skillet, again lacking in other baking apparatus). Total money spent in eating and drinking that day: more than if we had just gone out to dinner. Whoops!

The Richardson

via yelp

Now that I'm feeling well enough to do more than just plop into bed after work, I went to check out a new bar in the hood, The Richardson. It's known for being a classy speakeasy joint with excellent specialty cocktails, but I didn't know if they had much of a beer selection. Well, I was pleasantly surprised that they have several great beers on tap, all from Northeast microwbreweries (except for Guinness and Old Speckled Hen from across the pond). I enjoyed Southern Tier's excellent IPA, which I'd never seen on draft before, and Sixpoint's Righteous Rye for a hearty winter beer. Beer prices aren't bad either, mostly $5 a beer, with a few $6 glasses.

The Richardson's cocktails looked good, especially the Old Fashioned, which intrigued me with its mix of bitters, sugar cube, and bourbon, but at $9 a pop and a month of spending that's left me feeling poor, I decided to try it another time. Oh and they also serve small plates - olives, nuts, toasts, and sandwiches - but sadly, nothing looked particularly appealing to me.

Since The Richardson is only three blocks from my apartment, this might be another new standby for a nice romantic drink. I think I might even have my birthday there, since the interior is spacious, with a few nooks. They did a great job with the simple and sophisticated decor, which features beautiful wallpaper, a long bar, and smooth dark wood tables, chairs, and stools.

The Richardson
451 Graham Ave at Richardson Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn - Graham Ave stop

Heart Attack Day

I hadn't had red meat in a while, and I'd been craving it for weeks. Finally, last Friday I picked up a package of bacon from Flying Pigs and a cut of Grazin' Angus Acres steak, and then unintentially cooked both meats last Sunday, on what you might call "Heart Attack Day." Except since I eat pork and steak so infrequently, I think it's okay to treat myself once in a while.

Brunch was a spiffed up breakfast sandwich featuring sunnyside eggs, bacon, and sliced tomato on toasted rye bread.



I wanted to experiment by cooking one batch in the oven and one batch on the stovetop. Google led me to many rave reviews about how awesome oven-baked bacon is - crisp meat and simple cleanup. But I cannot agree. As directed, I preheated my oven to 400 degrees, lined a baking pan with aluminum foil, laid my bacon down, and put it in the oven. And kept checking. And checking. Recipes indicated that it would only need about 15 minutes in the oven, but after more than 30 minutes it still wasn't crispy, even after turning the heat up to 400. So I took it out and ate it as it was - which was fine, it just wasn't that awesome crunch I was craving.

My stovetop bacon was undoubtedly superior - crispy to the point of crunchy - which was the way I like it. It was done in under ten minutes, and I didn't think cleaning out my pan was all that hard. So I definitely fall in the stovetop bacon camp.

Once brunch was devoured, I set to work at marinating my steak. I bought a flat iron steak, because it was the only cheap cut he had left. I read that this is a relatively new cut in the world of meat, taken from the shoulder, and it tastes best after marinating, much like flank steak. After trimming off a ton of fat from the steak, I laid it in my usual marinade mixture of balsamic vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, water, diced garlic, salt, and pepper - and this time I added some chopped fresh sage from my deck.

I let the steak marinate for about eight hours while I enjoyed a very relaxing Sunday....dreamily reading through pretty magazines on my sundappled bed, and then a scrabble game and pumpkin ale in Black Rabbit's pretty green backyard.



In the evening, the resident griller achieved a beautiful charred crust on the steak, though I have no idea how, because he wouldn't tell me - he's keeping it a "chef's secret"!



For a side, I whipped up colorful smashed potatoes and rainbow swiss chard (the purple tint comes from a mixture of Adriondack blue potato and yukon gold potato). I was going for a cross between potato salad, with its crunch and mayo-mustardy flavor, and colcannon mashed potatoes, dotted with creamy greens. I ingeniously chopped the swiss chard stems into little pieces to stand in for the traditional celery of potato salad, while swiss chard stood in for the cabbage that's traditionally mashed into colcannon. It turned out as deliciously as I had dreamed. I meant to save some for lunch the next day, but it was so good I ate it all at dinner - oops! Together with the hearty iron-rich steak, this dinner was exactly what my body needed!

Smashed Potatoes and Swiss Chard
2 medium-large sized potatoes
1 bunch swiss chard
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 1/2 tsp mustard
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt
pepper

Rinse and chop potatoes into 2 inch pieces. Add potatoes to a pot of salted boiling water and simmer for about 20 minutes, until tender. Drain in colander, reserving a tablespoon of cooking water.

Rinse swiss chard. Chop stems into small pieces and set aside. Chop swiss chard leaves into chiffonade. Sautee swiss chard leaves in olive oil over medium low heat until wilted.

Combine potatoes, wilted swiss chard, and swiss chard stems in a bowl. Add reserved cooking water, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine and then mash with a fork or wooden spoon to desired smashed consistency. Serves 2 as a side dish.

Maine Part V: Drinking in Bar Harbor

Here are some places in Bar Harbor (the main town on Mount Desert Island) that we enjoyed for outdoor drinks in the afternoon during our vacation:

[And by the way - how awesome was it that we only had two (!) meals inside the whole week - thanks to the beautiful weather and our choice of restaurants, we were mostly able to feast and drink en plein air with our doggy by our side.]

Bar Harbor Blueberry beer with lunch at Rupununi, a sustainably-minded restaurant along Main Street in Bar Harbor.

Amazing crab roll and fries at Rupununi - all crab meat, and local too! Jesse's burger at Rupununi, all-natural ground beef from from Northeast family farms An afternoon drink at Lompoc Cafe & BrewPub, which serves several locally brewed ales from Atlantic Brewing Company on tap.

Lompoc has a bocce court and hosts concerts on weekend nights that seem to run in indie rein, so I'm guessing this is where the young indie crowd hangs out at night. We didn't get a chance to experience Bar Harbor's nightlife while camping, but we were just lucky enough to enjoy a relaxing afternoon drink in Lompoc's quiet garden.

Another day, another afternoon drink, this time at Jack Russell's Steakhouse & Brewery just north of Bar Harbor on Route 3. We tried a sampler of their house-brewed beers, and liked their "Gold" beer best for its mild flavor. Jesse was hungry, so he ordered the salad, composed entirely of the lettuces and herbs growing around us.

And so, after all that relaxing in the beauty of nature and savoring the bounty of Maine seas and breweries, the return to reality - sticky sweaty New York City with its workweeks - was harsh but now complete. What I've been eating since I returned is forthcoming.

Other posts in the Maine vacation saga:

IV. Lobster Pounds on Mount Desert Island

III. Cooking Locally at the Campsite

II. Camping in Acadia National Park

I. A Night on the Town in Portland

Maine Part IV: Lobster Pounds on Mount Desert Island

As much as we enjoyed cooking fresh fish and vegetables at our campsite, we also enjoyed more than a few meals and drinks out and about. In addition to our lobster dinner at Gilbert's in Portland, we had lobster three more times while on Mount Desert Island (Jesse was a bit obsessed). Maine abounds with lobster pounds, which are casual affairs that have limited menus along the lines of: lobster of varying sizes, lobster rolls served with chips, crab rolls, steamed clams, mussels, chowder or soup, corn on the cob, blueberry pies and cakes for dessert, and depending on the place, a few other options.

Generally, you put in your order, they pull your live lobster out of the water, and then you head to picnic style tables to wait while your lobster is cooked to order. Food is served unpretentiously on trays with paper plates and beer is poured into plastic cups (I felt guilty, but tried to overlook these environmentally un-friendly ways, because when in Maine...) Decor often unintentionally includes lobster traps, which I took as a sign that they are always bringing in fresh-caught lobster.


Our first night, we headed to Thurston's Lobster Pound in Bernard, on an out-of-the-way southwestern tip of the island. It boasts a screened-in porch right on the water with postcard-perfect views.

Jesse ordered a lobster and corn on the cob, while I had a hankering for a lobster roll. I thought the roll, which was served on a plain hotdog bun with a little lettuce, was decent, but nothing special. It also took me about five seconds to eat, compared to Jesse's efforts to dig into his lobster. So it felt like a lesser lobster experience in comparison. I tried a bit of Jesse's lobster, and that too was good, though not as sweet as Gilbert's lobster, probably because hard shell tends to be less sweet than soft shell. And because nothing can top your first experience!
A couple nights later we had a lobster craving again, and this time headed to Captain Beal's Lobster Pier in Southwest Harbor, also on the western side of Mount Desert Island. This place similarly features picnic tables right on the water, which was beautiful at sunset. Their menu has a wider selection than other lobster pounds, as it also includes fried foods and more seafood options. Here we both feasted on lobster, along with delicious steamed clams and corn on the cob. Steamers, or steamed clams, are not to be missed in Maine, where they are incredibly fresh and tasty.Our final lobster (*tear*) of the trip was lunch at Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound on our drive home. It's technically not on Mount Desert Island, since it's just past the bridge once you reach the mainland, in the town of Trenton, but close enough. This place had been recommended to us, and it was indeed packed at lunchtime, but I was still a bit wary that it was nothing more than a tourist trap, after reading Blake's review, in which his lobster was overcooked into rubbery oblivion.They have big wood-fired lobster bake ovens right out in front, and you can watch them haul lobsters in and out of the ovens in mesh bags. Luckily, Jesse's lobster turned out fine - it was just as good as all of the other lobster we'd eaten in Maine. So hopefully Blake's experience was just a fluke. I wasn't as satisfied, however. I wanted to try one more lobster roll, but this one was disappointing, mostly because it was served on plain disgusting slices of white bread that weren't buttered or toasted or anything, and I have never been a fan of white bread. I asked if they could toast it, but they said they didn't have the capability for that (this is a very no-frills place that doesn't even serve beer). And by this point, I was sick of eating unhealthy Lay's potato chips alongside my food. Blegh.

Interestingly, I have yet to experience the perfect lobster meat to bread ratio in a lobster roll. I've had the lobster roll at Mary's Fish Camp in New York City, which was similar to Thurston's in that the meat falls out of the hot dog bun because it doesn't all fit. In comparison, the Trenton lobster sandwich didn't have enough meat to fill out all the bread. I would rather be able to get a bit of bun and meat in each bite. I'm still in search of the perfect lobster roll, which I think I will only be able to find by preparing it for myself sometime this summer. I think this is my dream lobster roll: a buttered toasted brioche hamburger-size bun, plenty of just-cooked still-warm lobster meat, and the slightest touch of mayonnaise, lemon juice, celery, and herbs.

To be continued...

Other posts in the Maine vacation saga:
V. Drinking in Bar Harbor
III. Cooking Locally at the Campsite
II. Camping in Acadia National Park
I. A Night on the Town in Portland

Maine Part I: A Night on the Town in Portland

Our weeklong camping vacation in Maine began with a stopover in Portland on the way to Acadia National Park, not wanting to drive the full nine hours from New York City in one day. So we shelled out for a hotel in Portland - amazingly just one night in a "cheap" hotel like Days Inn costs more than the fee for six nights of camping! What a rip off. Just so you can have hotel amenities we never even use, like a pool and a disgusting complimentary breakfast and dressers and an ironing board, etc. I don't get hotels. Anyway...back to Portland...


After reading Blake's gushing accounts of meals at Fore Street in Portland, I had my heart set on dinner there - not only are they committed to cooking up the freshest food produced locally in Maine but they have a reputation as one of the finest restaurants in the country. But when I called to make a reservation more than two weeks before the trip, the earliest they had left for the night was 9:30! I couldn't believe it. I decided instead to aim to get there early and wait a bit, since they hold several tables for walk-ins.

However, life had other plans. Because of Jesse's exhausting workweek that didn't really end until 1am the night before we were due to leave, we ended up jetting out of Brooklyn later than expected. And by the time we got to Portland, I didn't feel in the mood to wait around for a multicourse fancy dinner. We just wanted to relax. So instead we decided to casually explore Portland.

We started off with a relaxing drink in the backyard of The Great Lost Bear, one of the top beer bars of the country. They have sixty beers on tap, featuring beer from fifteen Maine microbreweries along with other Northeast craft beers. The great thing about Maine is that it is a haven for local beer enthusiasts. Every restaurant and bar we went on our trip served Maine-brewed beers on tap, making it easy (and delicious) to drink locally in Maine. During our trip, we sampled beers such as Geary's Special Hampshire Ale (Jesse's favorite), Allagash White, Atlantic Bar Harbor Real Ale, Bar Harbor Thunder Hole Ale, and so on. Great Lost Bear was a great place to kick off our trip. They also serve food, but their focus is on burgers and burritos and bar food, so we headed elsewhere for dinner because we wanted LOBSTER!

On the recommendation of our nice server at Great Lost Bear, we headed to downtown Portland along the water to Gilbert's Chowder House. Chowder may be in the name, but I had the best lobster of my life there. We were able to get two lobsters and corn for just $30, something unheard of in New York City. This Maine-caught lobster was new shell, also known as soft-shell - apparently at this time in the season, you can either get hard-shell lobsters, which are meatier, or soft-shell creatures, which are sweeter and more succulent, and easier to eat because you can break the shells with your hands, but they contain less meat. The lobster meat was so fresh, moist and rich that I hardly touched the accompanying melted butter. Sweet corn was the perfect side dish. Coincidentally, we got to sit on Gilbert's deck and watch the sun go down over the water while overhearing a Moe concert at a nearby venue.

Afterward, we wanted to keep exploring, so we headed to a joint also on the water that we'd passed earlier, J's Oyster Bar. It's a dark old-fashioned looking place with small tables arranged around a large central bar, with oysters on ice waiting in the middle for lucky patrons. They also have outdoor seating, but that was full, so we were inside. We simply ordered beers and a dozen oysters. Jesse and I both agreed that while the oysters were good, they weren't as good as oysters we've had in the past. I assume because these oysters were caught somewhere nearby in Maine. Whereas restaurants like Marlow & Sons in Brooklyn choose their oysters more selectively for the best taste they can find. That's my guess.

We also went to Gritty McDuff's , another brewpub that was hopping on this Saturday night. Hanging over the bar are numbered mugs for regulars to drink out of, which I think is a fun idea (and a green one if those regulars use that mug all night) that I would definitely steal if I ever own a bar. We each tried their house cask beers. But at that point in the night, I don't remember much, except how confusing it was to find our way back to the hotel.

Other posts in the Maine vacation saga:

V. Drinking in Bar Harbor
IV. Lobster Pounds on Mount Desert Island

III. Cooking Locally at the Campsite

II. Camping in Acadia National Park