The piece was contributed by Briana Volk, who owns Portland’s Hunt + Alpine Club craft cocktail bar with her husband. You can see that she knows her stuff.
Me? I’ll be using this list to dream and scheme a return visit to Portland when pandemic conditions allow.
I found the article to be quite incomplete. Why only 9 places? So much more is going on in the area for both indoor and outdoor dining. The attached link has a better list of who is doing what.
I’d imagine that the author was not aiming for completeness, but rather offering up a curated list. Personally, I find both types of treatments to be handy. Thanks again for adding more intel.
Took advantage of last Saturday’s gorgeous weather for a Portland-area scouting daycation. First stop was Bite Into Maine’s Scarborough commissary, where they have several well-spaced outdoor tables. The scenery may not come close to Fort Williams Park (stop #2, where we walked off lunch), but the lobster rolls were as tasty as ever and the truck will be back in the park starting May 1.
Our pandemic buddy had errands downtown (stops 3 - 5, including Micucci’s), after which we got second coffee at the Diamond Street Coffee By Design (outdoor tables, plus all windows open). Driving by we could see that the restaurants on Middle Street (Duckfat, Eventide, et al.) had lots of customers in their outdoor seating areas. Probably not so many this weekend, given the weather, but summer is coming.
After another errand we hit Blue Rooster Food Co. for takeout and shared our favorites on a park bench up on the Eastern Promenade (Old Port was too busy for us). Both the food and the Casco Bay views were great. Blue Rooster may be “drunk food” for some but it tastes good to this non-drinker and low-frills food fan.
It was a nice summer preview. There’s definitely a fair amount of outdoor dining up and running in Portland already and I’m looking forward to more visits in the next few months.
Happy to help! Lately I’ve been checking Yelp to see whether a place has outdoor seating and such.
At the commissary they can bring the food out to your table. You can also order ahead (we went inside briefly for that and the washroom) to minimize indoor time.
