Dining out in Maine last weekend

[Racer Chris]

My dad made reservations at Slate's in Hallowell for the 20th. It's located more-or less halfway between my two brothers homes in Poland and Waldoboro.
He inquired about corkage and the person on the phone made a big deal about them having a liquor license and not allowing BYO.
This is a birthday celebration and I would have liked to bring my own wine. They don't list a wine menu online so I have no idea if they have anything even worth drinking let alone paying triple/quadruple the bottle value.

Questions for Jim:
Is BYO allowed in Maine - only in restaurants without their own liquor license or any restaurant?
Have you eaten at Slate's?
Can you suggest another place in that vicinity that has a corkage policy?

Thanks in advance.

[AKR]

Try looking for a place that doesn't have a liquor license, and calling ahead.

In general most of the Northeast is shitty about shipping and BYO.

[JimHow]

I'm not aware of any restaurants that allow corkage in Maine Chris. It's against the law as far as I know.
Ah, Slate, I went on my first date there an eon ago with my ex-wife (back in '92).
You might want to give Fuel a call in Lewiston, a lot of people from around the state go there, tell the owner Eric Agren I recommended the place, he might be able to do something for you.

https://www.fuelmaine.com

[Racer Chris]

It looks like establishments without a liquor license may allow BYO, but not those where liquor is being served by the restaurant.
I should contact Slate's and ask for their wine list. I'm guessing it's not worth it though.

Fuel has a halfway decent wine list art least, and some of the prices aren't outrageous, although $55 for a bottle of 2010 Larose Trintaudon is a bit much imo.
If not for my dad's big idea of dining midway between my brothers' homes, I'd suggest a change of venue.

[Carlos Delpin]

Had a great late lunch this week at David’s in Portland, Maine. Only good food I had in two weeks traipsing through New England.

[JCNorthway]

Carlos, I noticed he has three restaurants in Portland. Were you at the one that is just called "David's?" I'm curious because I will be in the area in early June for a few days, and will be interested in finding a good meal or two.

[Carlos Delpin]

https://www.davidsrestaurant.com/davids-lunch

This one.

[Racer Chris]

I rode/drove to Maine with my dad in his Prius last weekend, as Mary chose not to go. She attended the Women's March in Hartford instead.
We stopped at the NH Hampton Liquor store on the way up. I didn't know the 15% sale was still on so I hadn't planned to buy a full case, and I wasn't prepared with a list of the best choices available in that store.
So I bought:
2x NV Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve
2x 2014 Chateau de Chantegrive Cuvee Caroline
5x 2014 Lilian Ladouys
1x 2014 Haut Marbuzet
1x 2014 Labegorce
1x 2014 Les Pagodes de Cos

We arrived at my Brother Neal's farm in Waldoboro around 5pm where we had a cheese course along with a bottle of 2009 Larose-Trintaudon which I had brought along.
Neal's wife owns Lakin's Gorges Cheeses. They just completed the creamery on their property so she no longer has to commute to Portland to work.
At 6:30 we left for Hallowell to meet up with my brother Charley and his wife.

Slate's screwed up our reservation and wanted to seat us next to the live music instead of upstairs where my dad had specifically requested in advance.
So we left after making our displeasure painfully obvious to the management, and walked down the street to a pub and ate there.
The wine list wasn't worth a damn so I had a beer with dinner. The Alewife ale was good, however I didn't think the salmon focaccia entrée was all that good.

Sunday morning we had a tour of the new creamery. Last summer at their wedding there were posts holding up a roof structure but no concrete floor poured yet.
Today it's fully functional with only the outer areas and exterior needing to be completed. There was over 200 small/medium sized wheels of cheese aging in the two "caves'.
After breakfast we drove to Charley and Sheila's farm in Poland where we had a tour of their construction projects - a historic post and beam house torn down a couple years ago in New Hampshire, slowly going up behind the current house, and a horse barn, recently completed.
Then we were treated to a nice hot lunch and I opened the other '09 L-T that I had brought along.
The 2009 Larose-Trintaudon is drinking very well now. I find the character reminiscent of some St Juliens I've had.

It was nice getting together with my father and brothers/wives.
The dinner, which was supposed to be the reason for going and the highlight of the weekend, was actually the low point.
I enjoy my father's company enough that riding with him for 10 hours in a car is not painful at all.

[AKR]

I remember a trip to the wilds of Northern Maine, to ski Sugarloaf in the Carabasset Valley.

We stopped at some local brew house, the lot of us.

Each table had a nice placard with the beers of the day.

It was like $5 for the porter, $5 for the IPA, $4.50 for the lager etc.

So we each studied the list and chose something.

The waitress looked at us a little archly -- we were young at the time -- but being a taciturn Mainer just grunted and went back to the bar.

She returned with a platter of pitchers !

We had not realized it was $5 for pitchers, and had assumed those were pints.

It took us a while to get out of there!

[Racer Chris]

She returned with a platter of pitchers !

Sounds like a good time.
I don't think I've seen $5 pitchers of beer since the '80s.