One of my absolute favoritist parts of my favoritist place is Acadia National Park. It’s on Mount Desert Island and it contains some of the most beautiful, serene vistas you can imagine. On the island is a little town called Bar Harbor. It is as quaint as New England towns come and is right on the beautiful harbor. At low tide, there is a sand bar that connects it to an island, and at high tide that sand bar completely disappears.
(The picture below is a view from Cadillac Mountain of the town of Bar Harbor)
When we first arrived in town, we strolled the streets of Bar Harbor (prounounced BAH HAH-BAH btw) and set up our tickets for a sunset cruise on the Margaret Todd for the following evening. We asked a local where she usually eats personally, and she told us most locals go to Geddy’s, which was down the street. And away we went…
It has a rustic pub feel with license plates used as their main decoration. The bar seemed to have mostly local regulars while the diners appeared to be mostly tourists.
It started off well enough when we found Thunder Hole ale made by the Bar Harbor Brewing Company (which actually merged with The Atlantic Brewing Company). (Thunder Hole is an awesome spot in Acadia where the water has dug such a deep hole in the rock that it sounds like thunder as the waves rise into it)
And I found some of my FAVORITE Blueberry Beer (also made by Bar Harbor Brewing Company). This place even floated wild Maine blueberries in it! (Notice the half colored in table matt below it… yes… we’re big kids at heart… always)
Mike started off with the lobster chowder. It was good and creamy.
He then graduated to a lobster roll. It had good chunks of meat in it but I think we both agreed that we prefer the unadulterated plain ol’ steamed lobster. (I think this place may use frozen lobster though… it just didn’t have as much flavor and I thought it should have).
I chose the scallops. Now I was VERY, VERY careful to inform the waitress that I was VERY allergic to peppers. She verified with the chef that this was one meal I could eat. The sweet potato mash was delicious, but the scallops, again, were just a bit bland. (Frozen perhaps?)
Best of all… see that little biscuit next to the mash? I took one bite and my mouth went on fire. I then asked the waitress for milk (which she took her sweet ass time getting) and asked her if there were in fact peppers in the biscuit. To which she answered “Are jalapeno peppers a pepper?”
Yes… dip shit. Now please get me my milk.
Grrrrrrr.
Total Nom Points: FAIL
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After enjoying our beer tour so much in Portland and enjoying our Bar Harbor Brewing Co. beers so much the night before (best part of the meal!), we decided to visit the downtown “brewery” on the following (rainy) day. Turns out the main brewery is actually on the northern part of the island and this was a store front with a tasting room. But hey… who doesn’t like a tasting room?
We got to try a few of their beers and some sodas, however, the stand-outs we enjoyed were the Manly Men Beer Club set. We were especially fond of the Barleywine variety. We actually did wind up doing the full brewery tour later that same day (after a stop at a winery! We’re such lushes). We sampled about a dozen beers and fell in absolute love with the special Honey Bragget beer.
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Asking locals about their favorite places to eat is always a favorite past time of mine when traveling. We were at a Bed and Breakfast (full details on that to come) and a couple who were also staying there told me about this lobster house on the other side of the island that was sensational. Beal’s Lobster Pier is in Southwest Harbor.
They have the quintessential lobster tank where you point to (or if you’re daring… grab) your dinner.
The man behind the tank was nice enough to show off a three pounder. Sorry big guy… I know the real good lobster is never the big ones. 1-1.5 pounds is perfect for me.
It was EXTREMELY cold in their little outdoor tented area, but luckily they had a heater that I stood directly under until our food came out.
Finally, I got the steamers I was so missing at J’s in Portland. And they were good!
The lobster couldn’t have been simpler. Just a big red delicious bastard in all his glory.
Overall, Beal’s is worth the drive (probably no more than an hour from even the most tucked away parts of Acadia, and only about 30 minutes from our B&B). It’s so Maine. It’s so quaint. It’s so beautiful. And it’s SO delicious!
Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10
