The plates that define Portland: what they are, and where to eat the canonical version.
The plates that define Portland. what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
Cold Maine lobster meat (claws, knuckles and tails picked the morning of) tossed with mayo, salt and lemon, piled onto a buttered and griddled top-split New England roll. Soft-shell season runs late May to September.
Where: Eventide Oyster Co, Scales, Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room, Bite Into Maine at Allagash
Price: $24 to $42
Whole-belly soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria), dredged in evaporated milk and corn flour, then deep-fried until crisp. Maine clam shacks favour whole-belly over strip; the milk-and-corn-flour dredge produces a lacy crust.
Where: Becky's Diner, Scales, Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room, Harbor Fish Market
Price: $22 to $32
Soft white roll filled with ham, salami, American cheese, sliced onions, tomato, green olives, sour pickles, sweet peppers, oil, salt and pepper.
Where: Amato's Original Italian Sandwich, Rosemont Market Munjoy Hill
Price: $7 to $11
Double-crust American pie of wild Maine lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium), sugar, lemon and starch. The lowbush berry is smaller and more intense than the highbush; peak is late July through August.
Where: Two Fat Cats Bakery, Becky's Diner, Standard Baking Co
Price: $6 to $9 per slice, $28 to $42 whole
Two soft round chocolate cakes sandwiched around fluffy white marshmallow-cream filling, traditionally palm-sized. Designated Maine's official state treat in 2011 (the blueberry pie remains the state dessert).
Where: Two Fat Cats Bakery, Rosemont Market Munjoy Hill, Public Market House
Price: $3 to $6
Cold-water Maine oysters (Glidden Point, Pemaquid, Bagaduce, Nonesuch) shucked to order and served on crushed ice with mignonette, lemon and cocktail sauce.
Where: Eventide Oyster Co, Scales, Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room, Harbor Fish Market
Price: $3 to $4.50 per oyster
Milk-and-cream chowder with white fish (cod, haddock or pollock), potato, onion and rendered salt pork, finished with butter. Distinct from clam chowder; salt pork carries the fat, milk (never boiled) carries the body.
Where: Becky's Diner, Scales, Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room, Fore Street
Price: $8 to $14 cup, $14 to $22 bowl
Yeast-raised donut with mashed Maine potato in the dough, producing a moist, dense, chewy bite distinct from American cake donuts. Leigh Kellis built The Holy Donut in 2012 around Maine Russet, Yukon and sweet potatoes.
Where: The Holy Donut, The Holy Donut Commercial Street
Price: $3 to $5 per donut
Cold Maine lobster meat (claws, knuckles and tails picked the morning of) tossed with mayo, salt and lemon, piled onto a buttered and griddled top-split New England roll. Soft-shell season runs late May to September.
History: The lobster roll is widely credited to Perry's Restaurant in Milford, Connecticut, in the 1920s, when chef Harry Perry put hot buttered lobster meat onto a long bun for a travelling salesman. The Maine-style cold-mayo version evolved separately along the Maine coast through the 1930s and 1940s at shore-side lobster shacks. The top-split bun, baked by J J Nissen Baking Company starting in the 1940s, became the structural canon: flat sides griddle in butter like a panini. Eventide Oyster Co's brown-butter lobster roll on a steamed Bao bun (2012, from Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor) reset the modern interpretation. Today both styles run at Portland lobster pounds and tasting menus alike.
Where to try it: Eventide Oyster Co, Scales, Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room, Bite Into Maine at Allagash
Watch out for: Shellfish, Gluten, Egg
Whole-belly soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria), dredged in evaporated milk and corn flour, then deep-fried until crisp. Maine clam shacks favour whole-belly over strip; the milk-and-corn-flour dredge produces a lacy crust.
History: Fried clams trace to Woodman's of Essex, Massachusetts, where Chubby Woodman is credited with the first fried clam in 1916. The Maine variant, almost exclusively whole-belly (not strip clams), spread along the working waterfronts through the 1930s and 1940s. The dredging in evaporated milk and corn flour, rather than batter, gives the canonical lacy crust. Portland's Becky's Diner, Bite Into Maine and the Old Port seafood rooms all run them seasonally; the Mid-Coast clam shacks from Wiscasset to Camden are the day-trip destinations.
Where to try it: Becky's Diner, Scales, Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room, Harbor Fish Market
Watch out for: Shellfish, Gluten, Dairy
Soft white roll filled with ham, salami, American cheese, sliced onions, tomato, green olives, sour pickles, sweet peppers, oil, salt and pepper.
History: Giovanni Amato, a Sicilian immigrant baker, sold the first Italian sandwich at his Italian Sandwich Shop on India Street in 1902 to Portland dock workers who needed lunch they could carry. Amato sold them for a nickel. The soft white roll was based on Sicilian-style rolls; the seven fillings stayed standard. The Maine Italian became the regional sandwich of Portland and southern Maine, distinct from any other US Italian-American sandwich. Amato's still operates the original 1902 storefront on India Street; the Maine Italian routinely appears as Maine's signature lunch on national lists.
Where to try it: Amato's Original Italian Sandwich, Rosemont Market Munjoy Hill
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
Double-crust American pie of wild Maine lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium), sugar, lemon and starch. The lowbush berry is smaller and more intense than the highbush; peak is late July through August.
History: Wild lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium) are native to the Maine barrens; the Wabanaki peoples cultivated them for thousands of years before European settlement. Commercial wild blueberry production began in the 1840s in Washington County, Maine; today Maine produces nearly all US wild blueberries. The pie has been a Maine summer staple since the late 1800s, with cookbooks from the Maine Cooperative Extension formalising the canonical sugar-and-cornstarch ratio in the 1920s. Two Fat Cats Bakery on Lancaster Street and Becky's Diner both run a canonical July to August blueberry pie window.
Where to try it: Two Fat Cats Bakery, Becky's Diner, Standard Baking Co
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
Two soft round chocolate cakes sandwiched around fluffy white marshmallow-cream filling, traditionally palm-sized. Designated Maine's official state treat in 2011 (the blueberry pie remains the state dessert).
History: The whoopie pie's origin is contested among Maine, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Maine's claim rests on the Labadie's Bakery (Lewiston, 1925) and on Amish recipes adapted by Maine bakers in the early 1900s. The Maine state legislature designated the whoopie pie as the state's official treat in 2011 (with the blueberry pie remaining the state dessert). Two Fat Cats Bakery and Wicked Whoopies (Gardiner, Maine, also sold in Portland) are the canonical commercial sources; family bakeries across Maine each have a personal recipe.
Where to try it: Two Fat Cats Bakery, Rosemont Market Munjoy Hill, Public Market House
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
Cold-water Maine oysters (Glidden Point, Pemaquid, Bagaduce, Nonesuch) shucked to order and served on crushed ice with mignonette, lemon and cocktail sauce.
History: Maine's modern oyster industry started in the 1980s with the Damariscotta River farms (Glidden Point Oyster Sea Farm, founded 1987 by Barbara Scully). The cold, plankton-rich Damariscotta brine produces the canonical Maine oyster: small, cold, briny, with a sweet finish. Portland's Eventide Oyster Co opened 2012 with a granite oyster bar built to serve them; Scales and Boone's Fish House quickly followed. Today Maine farms produce more than 4 million oysters annually; the Maine OysterFest at Harvest on the Harbor in October showcases every farm.
Where to try it: Eventide Oyster Co, Scales, Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room, Harbor Fish Market
Watch out for: Shellfish
Milk-and-cream chowder with white fish (cod, haddock or pollock), potato, onion and rendered salt pork, finished with butter. Distinct from clam chowder; salt pork carries the fat, milk (never boiled) carries the body.
History: Fish chowder predates Maine by centuries; French and English fishermen on the Grand Banks made shipboard chowders from the 1500s. The Maine version, refined through the 1700s and 1800s, leans on cod and haddock rather than clams and uses salt pork for fat and milk for body. The 1896 Boston Cooking School Cook Book codified the canonical Maine fish chowder ratio: salt pork, onion, potato, fish and milk in that order. Becky's Diner on Commercial Street and Scales on Maine Wharf both run a year-round chowder; in winter, the Old Port seafood rooms switch to chowder-first menus.
Where to try it: Becky's Diner, Scales, Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room, Fore Street
Watch out for: Fish, Dairy
Yeast-raised donut with mashed Maine potato in the dough, producing a moist, dense, chewy bite distinct from American cake donuts. Leigh Kellis built The Holy Donut in 2012 around Maine Russet, Yukon and sweet potatoes.
History: The Holy Donut on Park Avenue opened in 2012 from Leigh Kellis, who reworked her grandmother's potato-dough recipe into a commercial bakery program built entirely on Maine potatoes (Russet, Yukon Gold, sweet). Potato in donut dough is not new (American potato donuts date to the 1800s), but Kellis built a single-product Portland business around it. Three Portland locations plus Scarborough now run the same daily-changing flavour board.
Where to try it: The Holy Donut, The Holy Donut Commercial Street
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
Portland's signature dishes include Maine lobster roll, Fried Maine clams, Maine Italian sandwich, Wild Maine blueberry pie, Whoopie pie. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.