New food and dining developments are taking place all across Maine. Here are some recent updates to keep you in the know:
Marsh Island Kitchen (website, facebook, instagram) has launched in Hampden. The menu includes soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches, wings, poutine and entrees like fish and chips and ribeye steaks. Joe Robbins joined the team earlier this year as the executive chef for Marsh Island Kitchen. Robbins was a 2024 Beard Awards semifinalist in the Emerging Chef category, and has cooked at the White House Tribal Nations Summit in 2023 and 2024. This is the second Marsh Island Brewing location, they were founded in 2016 in Orono.
A breakfast food truck called Actual Foods (instagram) launch yesterday in Bass Harbor on Mount Desert Island. Owner Steffy Amondi is serving a build-your-own menu from which customers choose the bread, protein, vegetables and sauce for a breakfast scramble. The menu also includes the egg dish shakshuka. Actual Foods is located next to the ferry terminal in Bass Harbor at 53 Granville Road, and is open Thursday through Sunday, 7 am – 1 pm. Amondi had operated a earlier iteration Actual Foods truck in in Portland in 2020.- A wine and cocktail bar called Lemon Bar (instagram) is under construction in Rockland. As reported by the Midcoast Villager, “[Co-owner] Carly Summers said Lemon Bar will be an intimate bar/lounge with an extensive focus on wines and cocktails. ‘The real focus will be a multi-faceted space where you can come for a date night, or a book club can meet,’ she said.” Lemon Bar will be located in the former Brass Compass Cafe at 305 Main Street. The space is under renovation and owners Carly and Wesley Summers hope to open for business this fall.
- The Lincoln County News reports that a bakery called Savory Moose has (re)opened in Nobleboro. “Close to a year after they shuttered Ginger Mousse Bakery, Karen and John Kelly have reopened the business with a new name and some familiar favorites.”
- Down East magazine has published an article about Watershed in Bethel. “Up the front steps and inside, the atmosphere is relaxed, the layout is snug, the pastas are house-made, and the chocolate pot de crème is served in vintage Italian espresso cups, quite a few of which have been in chef-owner Victoria Fimiani’s family for generations. What the place is, in essence, is a proper trattoria.”
- The New York Times has included Sammy’s Deluxe in Rockland and Pilgrim’s Inn on Deer Isle in their 2025 Restaurant List of the “50 best places in America right now.”
- The Bangor Daily News has word on Yahweh Cafe and Bakery which is set to open this Saturday in Old Town, and a report on the closure of Safe Harbor Cafe in Castine.
- The Maine Sunday Telegram has published a 3½ star review of the Ram & Bull in Brunswick. “The menu includes classic pub fare like fish and chips, mussels, a variety of sandwiches and burgers — including a cheese-stuffed Juicy Lucy, in a nod to Khristine [Leeman]’s native Minnesota.”
- New England Fishmongers has announced plans to close their shop in Kittery which opened in 2021. “We’ve made the tough choice to not renew our lease so that we can return to our roots, commercial fishing. This shift will give us more time on the water and allow us to bring you even more seafood directly from our vessel.”
- Eating Through the Seacoast has provided a look at Color Field Coffee Company (instagram), a honor system self serve coffee shop in East Boothbay. Colorfield is a micro-roastery run by a “family of artists”.
For a statewide guide to eating and drinking see the Maine Food Map—a growing list of coffee shops, bars, restaurants, bakeries, cafes, plus other food and dining businesses in all of Maine’s 16 counties.