GETAWAYS • Maine
There’s no shortage of great options for restaurants in Portland, Maine, a city that continues to punch significantly above its weight when it comes to dining. But this summer, my best advice for friends coming into the state for vacation or camp pickup is to get on a boat. Why? Two of the best restaurants in the Portland area operate only in the summer on islands in the city’s harbor.
The first, Il Leone, is the atmospheric outdoor pizzeria of midwinter fever dreams. During the pandemic, owner and chef Ben Wexler-Waite convinced the local Lions Club to lease him a chunk of parkland overlooking the Peaks Island harbor. (Peaks has a year-round population of about a thousand people, which swells with summer people this time of year.) He set up a trailer, a serious pizza oven, a bunch of picnic tables, and opened for business.
When I revisited toward the end of last summer, I knew exactly what I’d come back for: the L’Estate pizza, named after the Italian word for summer. Made with Maine-grown heirloom cherry tomatoes and basil set atop gobs of mozzarella, shaved pecorino, and copious amounts of olive oil and cracked black pepper, the pizza’s crust comes perfectly blistered, the final result an absolute apotheosis of summer.
It’s one of about a dozen pizzas on offer at Il Leone, several of which (like L’Estate) rotate micro-seasonally on and off the menu (yesterday’s debut: this zucchini and squash blossom pie). There are also salads and gelato to be had. As of this send, it’s not quite heirloom tomato season in Maine, but I will assuredly be back on Peaks when it is.
Just around the corner (in a matter of speaking) is Great Diamond Island, with its year-round population of 106. There, in a renovated blacksmith shop that dates from when the U.S. Army operated a coastal defense fort on Great Diamond from 1873 to 1947, is Casco Bay’s other great island restaurant, Crown Jewel (above).
One might think that a flamingo-themed pink tropical oasis serving tiki drinks wouldn’t click in coastal Maine, and they’d be absolutely wrong. To oversee the menu this summer, owner Alex Wight brought in Nashville chef Joshua Kagenski (who’s worked under Charleston and Nashville chef Sean Brock, among others). Here, Kagenski is mostly offering playful takes on Maine seafood. When I returned for brunch last weekend, the food was sharper than it’s ever been, especially in dishes like mussel escabeche on toast with leeks and Meyer lemon, and a killer corn angelotti served with crab and tarragon. (The burger hits, too.)
As for the matter of getting to these spots, you’ve got three options. The simplest: Casco Bay Lines, the local ferry outfit that services both islands. The ride to Peaks takes about 15 minutes, and the one to Great Diamond 30 minutes, both from downtown Portland. There are also private water taxis from Portland (Fogg’s Water Taxi and SeaTow are tipped by those who know) as well as slips available for booking at on-island marinas close to each restaurant (tie-up fees $15-$75), should you happen to be bringing your own boat to the party. –Lockhart Steele
→ Il Leone (Peaks Island, ME) • 2 Garden Pl • Daily 1130a-8p • Walk-ins only.
→ Crown Jewel (Great Diamond Island, ME) • 255 Diamond Ave • Wed-Thu 3-10p, Fri 12-10p, Sat-Sun 11a-10p • Reserve.