I found a new place to add to your list! Portland, Maine! Being from Massachusetts, I honestly cant believe I haven't been here until now! I was in love! Portland is the perfect destination for craft beer loving foodies, so obvi it worked well for my friends. Portland was like a cool mix btw San Fran, Brooklyn and Newport and I was here for it. Lemme take ya around and show you where we ate and drank, seeing as that's essentially all we did in this lovely New England port city.
First up, whenever I do a travel review, I always like to share where we stayed. For this trip, since it was a group trip with friends, I went back to my trusted Airbnb. We got a great apartment centrally located that fit our group of 5 perfectly. If you're travelling with a few couples, it would definitely work too, we only had one bathroom though, so keep that in mind. If you're looking for accessible travel, I'd probably look into a hotel downtown instead. It was tough to find a first floor apartment that worked for our size group. We ended up finding one but it did have some tricky stairs to enter. Luckily we have great friends who helped with those! The apartment was a good price and Mona, the host, was excellent! Click on the pic below for the link to our airbnb
Now onto the good stuff, where we ate and drank!
First up Breweries and Bars:
There are literally SO MANY breweries in Portland. It's like the craft beer capital of New England. I made that up, but that's what it felt like. Being not so much of a beer girl, I was a bit skeptical of this, but the Breweries all had such cool and unique vibes and always offered other drinks beside beer, that I had no problem at all! Also, the breweries all offered amazing food, so I was happy as a clam. Here are some of my faves:
Shipyard: On our first day there, we started our vaca at Shipyard Brewery. I'm a BIG fan of their Pumpkin beer so I was excited to experience the Brewery in real life. They had some fun fruity beers and a pumpkin spice seltzer that was delish. They also had a very legit charcuterie with all local cheeses and meats. I was super impressed for a brewery to have that delicious of food! This is a theme that continued throughout the trip!
Maine Beer Company: Maine Beer Company was such a pleasant surprise! This place was sooo cool! It was more like a cool, modern hotel than a Brewery! I loved it. Obvi cant speak for there beer, because, lezzzbee honest, I had rose, but my friends loved it and I thoroughly enjoyed the vibes and popcorn!
Allagash Brewery: Allagash had a great outdoor setup and a Lobster food truck, 2 must haves for a Brewery in Maine. It was perfect weather and the beer was good! Its also located on a street with 3 or 4 other breweries so a great place to hop around.
Oxbow Blending and Bottling Brewery: This brewery had a great selection of not only beers, but ciders and mixed drinks as well. It also had a snack shack with food from Duck Fat, a well known amazing restaurant in Portland. The fried chicken sandwich was awesome! Oxbow was also located next to a cool Distillery called Hardshore, so we hopped around a bit.
The Thirsty Pig: This was a bar located right in downtown. I loved the vibes of this place. The outdoor area was so cute and they had little covered huts with tables in it. I feel like this place would be lit at night
Blyth and Burrows: We loveddd this place! We hit it up for more elevated pre dinner cocktails and we were obsessed! The drinks were works of art and the outdoor setup was perfect. Just look at these amazing Espresso Martinis! Almost too pretty to drink
Hunt and Alpine: Another creative cocktail bar and another perfect spot for pre or post dinner drinks! Also the popcorn was delish and the patio was very cute!
OK Enough about the drinks, lets get to my favorite part of any trip: The FOOD! Portland's food scene was top notch and sooo much better than I was even ready for!
DeMillo's on the Water: This restaurant is located on a boat! Which was so cool! The boat is docked with the most beautiful port views. And the food was delicious! Obvi ate my weight in seafood. The raw bar shrimp was top notch and the scallops were divine! The deck was covered and heated, so even though it was a somewhat chilly night, we still got to enjoy the ocean views.
Fore Street: Guys, I am not even joking when I say this is one of the best restaurant's I've ever been too! First off, Fore Street is vibesss with a capital V. I loved the decor with the brick and industrial design style. Also the kitchen is located directly in the middle of the restaurant, for everyone to see which was so cool and shows just how the fresh the food was! The wait staff was perfect and the food was unbelievable! I don't even have any pictures of the actual food because I was so obsessed and scarfing it down! Get the steak!
Saltwater Grille: Another great option for water front dining in Portland. All I want when I'm in a nautical location is steamers and this place had amazing ones. The food and the sunset was the perfect way the end our trip!
I hope this inspired you to book a trip to Portland! What are you waiting for, get packing!
Thanks for reading,
xoxo
Elisa
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