We were taken out to dinner last night at the Edge in Lincolnville, its the restaurant attached to the Inn at Ocean's Edge on Route 1. What a treat to have good, homemade food here on the midcoast. It was my first time there, Greg's second. What struck me first was the attention to detail. Since one has to park in a lot up the hill, a valet was on hand to direct us down a woodland pathway or into a golf cart which would take us down to the restaurant. We preferred to walk, and the path is quite a serene way to start off the evening. We had dinner in the wine room downstairs at a table with a window looking right onto their slate terrace and to the Bay beyond. Drinks arrived in perfect sized glasses, heavy glass..really nice. We were left alone to have cocktails and chat a bit. The wine room is just off a downstairs bar that had a crackling fire going in the stone fireplace.
We all decided that we wanted to try the spagetti and veal meatballs appetizer, so we shared this. It was good, though I'm not sure I'd order it again. The pasta was a bit on the crispy side, like it was quick fried or something. But the meatballs were nice, just a hint of spice and there were fresh cherry tomatos sprinkled overtop that were wonderful. For dinner I had the sirloin steak with potato butter and fresh sauteed carrots, fiddleheads, and green beans. It was a totally upscale version of what I had at Foxy's the other night..the difference?? The meat was a better cut, the potatoes were fresh, the sauce homemade, and the vegetables were also fresh. I've heard that the old chef from the Edge was hired away to work at Foxy's..she obviously doesn't have the budget she did at the Edge! Greg had a fresh cut pasta and goat cheese dish that he didn't like (one "done with that" from Greg) and our hostess had a crabcake and a salad. She was a member of the clean plate club, so I assumed she liked her meal. We ended with their chocolate dessert which was five small slices of chocolate decadence on a plate, each one different. My favorites were the chocolate fudge topped with which chocoate mousse and the brownie topped with a deep fried truffle. Damn that was good. I was really looking forward to the ginger dessert of the same type (three ginger tastes on one plate), but they were not offering that last night!!!! They get an A on napkins and since Greg instructed me to eat their bread and figure out how to make it for him, I guess they get an A for that. (there was a choice of breads, and though they get an A on presentation of their cornbread in tiny little skillets- my recipe which you can find on here complete with photos-is better). Upon walking out of the place, we were greeted with a cloud of cigarette smoke from two smokers standing by the front door to which Greg said "that goes on your blog...move the smokers") to which I replied..."get your own blog".... The bill was about $150 for the three of us

Enjoy,
Seth

Greetings from Maine foodie on the road. Afraid I'm not going to get to New Orleans tomorrow, so we'll just have to do it another time. Wanted to share the following email I had from Erik Desjarlais, the chef / owner at ladle and Bandol. From his description of the fare, I can't wait to check out ladle. He read a post I made on Chowhound about the price of soup and now I don't think its so bad judging from his response. I might try and sample ladle on my way back from points south.

"greetings, seth. I'm Erik, one of the other partners in Ladle...the resident cook, and owner of Bandol....saw your posts. Sorry we were closed when you tried to stop in. It's really tough to judge when people want soup. We've been open Mon thru fri from 11 to 4. After Memorial day we'll be open on saturdays as well. I have a feeling that come autumn, more folks will want soup, so we'll be open during the dinner. When I say soup, I mean anything that can be scooped with a ladle. I'm thinking about Cassoulet, Coq au Vin, braised duck legs...even baked macaroni and cheese....the possibilities are endless, and I'm psyched about it. Hope to see you in soon. Tell Zahra who you are when you visit. She's our other partner. Oh, btw....the 7 bucks is for 12 oz of extremely heavy and delicious beef stew......plus a quarter pound of my sourdough bread....and it includes tax as well. I know the ingredients that go into everything, and really, our mark up is almost nothing. Everything is hand made by me, and it all has character. My sourdough starter was built 22 years ago in Arcata California by my friend's mother..I only use spring water from NH for the bread...soon to be from Maine Maple Trees .the meat products come from happy animals, and the produce is grown in strict accordance with nature. You could pay a dollar less for soup from a bag made by some random guy at the corporate headquarters from food service ingredients.....(pre-chopped mirepoix) who doesn't know how to use salt."

Enjoy,
Seth