With food being a focus for us when selecting our wedding venue, one of the first venues I wanted to see was The Whitehall Inn. It’s a historic inn in Camden, Maine and a place I have driven by many times but had never visited.
We toured the facility and, sadly, decided it wasn’t quite right for our wedding (it wasn’t quite big enough and didn’t have a view of the water). But we sat down at Vincent’s for dinner, the restaurant inside the inn.
The restaurant itself was quaint and well appointed. If we were local to the area and weren’t looking for that “Maine view” and/or had about 30-50 less guests, this place would have been magical. (Here is a slideshow if you want to see more pictures of the inn itself, which is just beautiful).
There is a very nice courtyard outside where they do wedding ceremonies. Again, really quaint and pretty, but just a bit too small.
But we were there for the food. I had spoken to them earlier and the only special request I had was that if we were going to have the wedding there, I wanted to have pavlova. The chef was very excited to make it, but the rest was up to us to order.
We started with these little chive biscuits. They were perfect. Warm with a crisp outside and soft inside.
We then tried the crab dip with melted cheddar. This was very good with the cheddar just sharp enough to be flavorful without taking away from the great taste of the crab.
Our waiter offered to take a picture of us, so here is a rare appearance by Mike and I on the blog:
Mike got the Vincent’s Ribeye which was served with garlic butter, Holland peperonata & fingerling potatoes. It was cooked perfectly and had a nice char on it.
I went with the Maryland Crab Cakes which is an authentic Baltimore recipe using backfin and jumbo lump crab meat, served with fingerling potatoes and green beans. It is rare that I get to eat crab cakes, because they are almost always made with peppers (which I am allergic to). These, however, were scrumptious.
A great crisp on the outside and just barely held together with the right amount of binding. Big, delicious pieces of crab. One of my favorite crab cakes of all time.
And then… it was time for the pavlova. This was perfect. A hard shell and barely soft inside. Great flavor and perfect with the fruit and the fruit spreads that were around it.
So good, in fact, that for a moment I considered cutting our guest list to be able to get married here. But only for a moment.
If I were staying in the Camden area, I would stay at the Whitehall Inn in a heartbeat. The inn is so charming and beautiful, in a great town, and the food was really great. I’m pretty sure most stays there come with breakfast, and if our dinner was any indication, that would be a real treat!
Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10
