Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [19]
Now that the management has put an awning up over the picnic tables, you can dine outdoors even when it rains. They tell us that it does rain in Freeport, but every visit we have made to town in search of our favorite clam baskets and o-rings, the sun was shining brightly and gulls were swooping overhead through the blue, blue sky. It is almost painfully picturesque, this eat-in-the-rough jewel of a clam shack overlooking the South Freeport Harbor. But even if it were not so attractive, we would recommend it for the seafood baskets and the lobsters.
Helen’s
28 East Main St.
207–255–8423
Machias, ME
BLD | $
Helen’s is deservedly famous for blueberry pie. And oh, what a great pie it is. A dense slurry of cooked and fresh tiny wild Maine blueberries—one-fifth the size of the big ones you buy by the pint at the supermarket—is piled onto a nice flaky crust and heaped with whipped cream. If all you know are the store-bought ones, the flavor of these berries is astonishing: intensely fruity, sweet but not sugary, bright as the sun. You can get Helen’s blueberry pie year-round, but the best time to have it is late summer, when fresh-picked lowbush blues are abundant.
The same fine blueberries find their way into morning muffins, and pies made from raspberries, strawberries, and boysenberries should not be ignored, nor should brownies, cakes, and turnovers. But Helen’s is not merely a pastry shop. It is a dandy small-town restaurant that serves a lunch of elegant fried clams or fried haddock, broiled halibut, hot turkey and mashed potatoes, a whole boiled lobster dinner, or a simple and unimprovable bowl of fresh-picked lobster meat sopped with butter.
Hodgman’s Frozen Custard
1108 Lewiston Rd.
207–926–3553
New Gloucester, ME
Mother’s Day to Labor Day (closed Mon & Tues) | $
A fair-weather destination north of Portland, Hodgman’s is the sort of place that calls out to anyone with a sweet tooth and a love for old-fashioned Americana. It is a roadside custard shop where they make their own in only the basic flavors—vanilla and chocolate—plus one special each day. There are no mix-ins, swirls, chunks, chips, cookie dough, or candies polluting this dairy-pure manna. It’s just custard. But oh, what good custard it is: thick and creamy, totally unlike bland brands pumped full of air.
We like vanilla best, just plain. Nothing is more perfectly satisfying on a warm summer day, whether perched on a cone or served in a cup. Of course, you can doll it up if you wish. Hodgman’s menu lists sundaes, frappes and floats, banana boats and thunderstorms, hot fudge royals, tin roofs, and tin lizzies. Whole custard pies are also available.
There is no indoor dining area, but facilities include a large covered picnic area to the side of the stand, where you can sit and lick in the shade.
Lobster Shack
225 Two Lights Rd.
207–799–1677
Cape Elizabeth, ME
LD (closed in winter) | $$
Here is the most dramatic possible setting for lobster-eating—the water’s edge, framed by a pair of lighthouses at the entrance to Casco Bay. A restaurant has perched here since the 1920s, and while you might find better fried clams and lobster rolls along the coast, you will find no more inspired place to eat them than at one of the picnic tables marshaled on a flat patch of sandy land between the takeout counter and huge rocks where the ocean splashes in. When the sea is rough and wind is gusting, a foghorn sounds nearby and a fine mist of salty air blows across your meal, causing hot lobster meat to exude puffs of aromatic steam as you crack claws, vent the tail, and unhinge the back.
Beyond whole lobsters, the menu includes some pretty fair fried clams and onion rings, a lovely lobster roll dolloped with a dab of mayonnaise, lobster stew, and clam cakes. For dessert there are Yankee puddings and pies and the unique Downeast chocolate-crème sandwich known as a whoopie pie (but here spelled “whoopy” pie).
There is indoor seating, too, but as far as we’re concerned there is no point in coming to the Lobster Shack unless you plan to