Dining at Primo in Rockland, Maine - October '02
 2 South Maine Street
Rockland, ME 04841
207.596.0770
Crossing the street on the way to breakfast at the Whitehall Inn I saw the slightest mention of red in the oak across the street. This was a rare get-away in late September to mid-coast Maine to visit my newly engaged nephew David and Andrea, his bride-to-be along with his mother, my cousin Robin. Robin was the closest I came growing up to having a sister. September is one of four months of the year in which we are the same age until I forge ahead with my late October birthday.
While I waited to be picked up I enjoyed a wonderful, "fresh from the oven" blueberry muffin. Some blueberry muffins parcel out the blueberries as if they were diamonds. For this blueberry muffin the batter was there just to bind a mass of blueberries. During the weekend as we toured this corner of Maine we stopped at a roadside stand to purchase wild Maine blueberries and feasted on them as we drove. Small and sweet as candy.
A by-product of this two night, three-day trip was the opportunity to have a Friday night dinner at Primo. Primo, located in Rockland, is the result of the vision and daily efforts of chef-owner Melissa Kelly. Primo was the name of her grandfather – I assume on her mother’s side. Rockland is sort of a “suburb” of Camden. The restaurant is housed in what looked to be a large old Victorian home. We arrived after dark so our walk to the back to see Primo’s garden revealed just darkness. (We returned to the garden on Sunday. See below.) The path up to the front porch, the porch and entry vestibule were all lined with just picked and hardening pumpkins, winter squash and gourds. Garlic and herbs hung from the beams. The floral arrangements were made up of the season’s last contributions from Primo’s cutting garden. Frost was just around the corner.
As befits and old house, diners are spread into a series of fairly small rooms on the first and second floor. There is a small bar on the second floor where a few lucky folks without reservations are able to enjoy dinner each night. David and Andrea were well known to the staff. Andrea’s former roommate waited on us. There is a large community of young people in the area trying to figure out how to earn enough money to continue to live in this gorgeous part of the world. Working in restaurants is a prime means.
As we checked out the menu and waited to hear the nightly specials we enjoyed a nice Proseco. Prosecos are a class of Italy’s dry sparkling wines and provide a cost-effective way of starting a celebratory dinner. The extensively interesting wine list was worthy of any fine dining restaurant no less one tucked away in a corner of Maine. The wines seemed to be lovingly selected - long on value and interest with nary a cliché among them. The menu is divided into a few pizzas from the wood burning oven, appetizers, entrees and desserts.
As is nearly always the case, the appetizers were the most fun and we all shared a batch. These included a light and crispy frito misto or mixed fry of bits of local fish with wisps of deep-fried baby artichokes; house-pickled mackerel on shredded sweet and sour watermelon radish and kohlrabi; house-cured duck with shaved fennel, shaved pears and micro greens; and, a barely seared tuna on a salad of arugula with a sweet aged balsamic vinegar. Our final appetizer was a plate of local oysters gently warmed from the wood burning in the brick oven with small strips of fried onion, cracked black and pink peppercorns and lemon – the oysters briny and the fired onions providing crunch and earthiness. Accompanying our appetizers was a California white from the viognier grape.
There is something about entrees that makes sharing less the thing. My singular entrée was a roasted local cod in a broth of end of the season tomatoes flavored with a hint of saffron and populated with Israeli couscous and local mussels only slightly larger than the kernels of couscous. Our entrée wine was the legendary Ridge Lynton Spring Zinfandel ’00 – a variety of wine that I remember from the early years of Frog when the California’s wine industry was still in its youth. (I remember visiting the very modest Ridge winery in the late 70’s.)
With desserts we rediscovered the art of sharing. Dessert was no afterthought, but every bit as intentional as the rest of our dinner - an assemblage of tastes as beautiful to look at as they were delicious to devour.
The sampler of freshly made sorbets and ice creams offered little balls nestled on a plate that more commonly holds snail shells. Most memorable of the assortment were a maple walnut ice cream and a blackberry sorbet. Each end of the tiny cigars of cannoli were dipped in chocolate and nuts and filled with a custard cream then accompanied by sweet Italian cherries that I later learned came from a can. I remembered driving through an area of Emilia – Romano that was known for its cherries. Usually a fruit from a can is a pale imitation of fresh, but these were delicious. I made a mental note to hunt down a source.
Our final dessert was a bundini, a lush, flourless chocolate cake topped with a crisp wafer and banana slices shaved and bruleed.
After dinner we got a quick tour of a small and efficient kitchen. We could have fit about a dozen of these kitchens in our Frog Commissary prep facility back home. Primo is as good a restaurant as I have visited. The service was warm, informed, enthusiastic and professional. The menu expresses a sense of place without being prisoner to that place. The preparation was absolutely first class.
On the way to the airport Sunday morning we stopped to visit Primo’s organic garden. As luck would have it, we arrive just as Dan pulls up. Dan planted Primo’s garden more than three years ago – just before Primo’s opening. (David estimates that about fifty people listen to Dan and David’s community radio show.) He arrived in Maine from New Jersey via California. Dan's Sunday task was to take a garden inventory to pass along to Melissa so she could plan next week’s menu. Dan referred to next week as “Last Chance Week” – a time to enjoy the season’s end to tomatoes and summer squashes.
The garden, occupying just over an acre, provides nearly all of the produce used at Primo. A veritable vegetable library - asparagus, celery root, peppers, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, chards, spinaches and lettuces of every imaginable kind including “freckles” a broad, light green leaf lightly dappled with irregular red spots. Last week Primo also “harvested” the pig that they had been raising. Most parts of the pig will show up in fresh and cured form over the next several weeks and months.
Ironically, this was Dan’s last day of work in Primo’s garden. Dan says that he “wants a life.” The garden has just become too physically and emotionally draining. He will be doing construction work for the foreseeable future where his days will have a clear beginning and end. This is not the case in the world of organic gardens for one of Maine and the country’s best restaurants.
Additional notes from Southeastern Maine:
A good and moderately priced bed and breakfast in Camden with spectacular blueberry muffins is The Whitehall Inn, Camden, ME 04843 207.236.3391
Want a lobster roll? Red Eats is a roadside stand in Wiscasset, ME is generally considered home of Maine’s best lobster roll. For $12.95 you get an entire lobster removed from the shell and served on a soft roll with a few packets of mayonnaise. It’s on the left side of US 1 – just before the bridge that crosses the river as you drive toward Camden from Portland. Up the block on the opposite side of the street is a charming store named Rock Paper Scissor.
We only had time for a quick brunch in Portland, near the waterfront. I had never been to Portland and I was struck by its charm – a mix of quaint old and young hip. Definitely on the list of future places to visit
USAirways flies direct from Philadelphia to Portland. If you book enough in advance flights are as little as about $200 round trip.
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