Tomfoolery: Day in Portland

We made it to Gilbert's Chowder House, which came highly recommended by a couple of my cousins. We had at least a thirty minute wait. While in line we chit-chatted with the people near us. One lady from Massachusetts - now a resident of Maine - said her mother-in-law lives in a town near Charlotte, NC. We talked with two ladies from New Jersey, and a couple from Michigan. The Michiganders really like Asheville, and the Jersey gals said they desire to visit. Oh, and the man from Michigan, when I assumed he pulled for the Wolverines, said, "Oh, no. We're Spartans."

We loved the double seafood chowder in a bread bowl. My beer was Finder Session IPA by Shipyard Brewing Company. The man who sat next to us at the bar was a fisherman, originally from Louisiana. He said he'd been living in Maine for many years, and worked on a boat docked in the nearby harbor. He was a regular at Gilbert's, you could tell. The waitresses knew him well! I enjoyed chatting with him. He told us the Portland neighborhood to avoid, what beers and chowders were the best, where else locals find oysters and he showed us his lobster catch (a photo) from the night before.

Eventide Oyster Co.

Kade and I looked over the labels. She had my list of "oysters already eaten." Lo and behold, Eventide had eight I hadn't tried!!

We put in our name and phone # in order to get a table at Eventide. It was going to be a two hour wait. You can walk around the city until they text you, which is what we did. The catch is: You have ten minutes to arrive once you receive the text.

I'm a sucker for bears!

These gulls were so big and beautiful. They stayed near the fish market waiting for scraps.

It looks like 15 oyster varieties. At various oyster bars and restaurants, I ended up eating almost all of these. I will have to check my records. Kade kept them!

A cousin shared almost this exact photo when he was here a few weeks before. We just happened to stumble upon the market.

Maine Crab Bun

That's Kimchi Ice and Horseradish Ice.

Months ago when I started researching a trip to Maine, my focus first was on raw oysters. Simply that! I wanted to eat them during peak season! And a place that got my attention quickly was Eventide in Portland. It got great reviews. The only negative was going to be the wait - well, that, and any kind of Covid restrictions. I had given up hope of even going to Eventide once we opted not to stay several nights in Portland. I didn't know for sure we'd even go into city. At some point, though, we decided to at least spend the better part of a day in Portland. So happy we did! We were going to get come chowder at Gilbert's and attempt to get a table at Eventide. And in-between, we'd just walk around. Long story short: Eventide surpassed expectations. And this is after having already eaten eight dozen oysters up to that point, along the south-coast. Eventide had a wide variety of oysters. I got six to eight more I had not tried! Our table outdoors was wonderful, the weather was just right and our server, MJ, was super nice and helpful. I appreciated the fact that after all the oysters I ate there, when I asked her if there was another oyster bar in Portland that offered lots of varieties, she didn't hesitate to share the name of a place. We ended up going there our last day in Maine. I really appreciated that.

In all, I had twenty-one oysters at Eventide. Kade even tried her first of the trip! I put some of the Kimchi Ice on one for her - gave it some Asian flavor.

Before leaving Portland, we bought some beer and spirits - ones here are all from Maine - from a shop on Commercial Street. Click here to see a listing of great craft beer cities in the USA.