I was very fortunate to be able to spend my actual birthday weekend in Maine. We were there to find a wedding venue (more on that at this blog) but we managed to squeeze in some really great meals. On my actual birthday, we went to Hugo’s, one of the restaurants that put Portland, Maine on the map of foodie towns. Hugo’s is actually owned by the same people as Eventide, where we went the day before, and set the stage quite well for this meal (and happens to be right next door).
This restaurant is decorated very simply but elegantly, without being too fancy.
I especially enjoyed the single stem rose on the table with the pinch bowl for salt.
We started with some signature cocktails, which were insanely good. Mike got the PDT’s, which was a Bacon Bourbon Old Fashioned with bacon infused bourbon, maple, orange, and Fee Bros. old fashioned bitters. I got the Marmalade Sour which was with tequila, burnt orange, and lime. Original and delicious.
They placed these homemade biscuits with garlic and potato flour on the table and they just smelled great. It was served with hand churned butter and everything had perfect texture.
A delish bite.
We went with the tasting menu and sprung for the wine pairings.
Our first course was pickle herring with mustard seed and potato crisp paired with a Spanish sparkling wine. I thought it was very fresh and not the mustard seeds were not overpowering (I’m not a mustard person and find that it distracts me from flavors usually).
And the wine was perfect with it.
Course two was fluke mousse medallions with cauliflower purée and quinoa arugula broth. This tasted very “green” and was served cold. It wasn’t so much mousse as it was pâté. I really loved it, but Mike wasn’t a huge fan.
Course 3 was a lobster beet salad with orange purée, baby kale, and pecorino. The dish was light and flavorful. The acid of the vinaigrette cut the greenness of the beets and the wine went exceptionally well. There was a bit of a lemon candy flavor that complimented everything very well.
Course 4 was grilled yellow fin tuna from Massachusetts. It was delicious tuna tartar with maitkai mushroom purée, hajji, and chili oil… As the server went to put this down in front of me, he immediately noticed the chili oil in mine and took it back to the kitchen. It was very quickly replaced. This dish was pretty damn awesome. The waitress told us that she was actually a bit excited that the kitchen screwed mine up so she could try it. And the wine pairing? Perfection.
Our last savory course was a duo of chicken. The red wine that was paired with this was absolutely awesome. We found that the souvied dark meat was much better than the breast. The sauce reminded us of kasha and was very nice with it.
For dessert, we were served a moscato which was an absolutely great glass of wine.
Out came a lime sorbet with watermelon gele, mint melon balls, and prosciutto. It was a very good palette cleanser and everything went incredibly well together.
By this time, we had been drinking enough that I forgot to take a picture of the corn gelato with tomato sweet jam basil and popcorn. We think… the notes got blurry here as well.
This was served with DuPont cider. The best way I could think to describe it was that it tasted like hay… in a REALLY good way. The sweet corn gelato was absolutely awesome. I also really liked the corn cake and tomato but Mike thought it tasted like home made corn pops (he didn’t mention whether this was a good thing or a bad thing). When I got a little bite of everything together it was absolute bliss. I actually wrote down that it was one of my favorite bites… ever.
We then had some little treats, but we were just too stuffed (okay… and drunk) to write it down or remember what it was. Whoops. Note how blurry the picture is as well. Whoops x2.
I absolutely LOVED our meal at Hugo’s. I was incredibly impressed and felt this could rival many meals we have had in the past in NYC. It also made us realize that we enjoyed this meal (especially some of the innovative touches) even more than Jean George’s. I highly, highly recommend a visit if you’re in Portland, Maine.
Total Nom Points: 8.5 out of 10
