After a morning and early afternoon of drinking beer and hard cider, yours truly needed some food. We were traveling up Route 1 near Wells when I remembered there was a restaurant on the estuary…. so I hollered “Let’s go!”
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Billy’s Chowder House made a decent margarita and had a wonderful view, so things were looking up.
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And when you’re in a chowder house restaurant? You have to order chowder… which is when it started to go bad.
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We ordered clam chowder. What we got were thin, milky bowls of potatoes. Clams? I think the chef might have grated one over the top. A more tasteless bowl of gruel would be hard to find.
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The husband had mussels, which were tiny, overcooked and swimming in enough garlic to repel a platoon of Vampires.
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I ordered a shrimp roll which, while edible… was nothing to write home about about.
The bill was almost $100 and I made a mental note never to cross that threshold again.
A Maine chowder house with horrible chowder? There’s no excuse for that. This place needs to sink back into the sea and be done with it.
There was an outdoor wedding last weekend. If only I’d known they were taking requests.
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We have once weekly trash pick up at our house, $2.50 a bag…. But everything else has to go to the recycle barn. Decades ago when it was realized people were throwing out perfectly useable items, an idea was born.
While I don’t shop at the “Gift Store”, my husband has been known to come home with more than he went with.
😬
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This is our neighbor across the road. His fields are looking pretty spiffy…. And oh! That fresh ginger.
There’s a small company in Rollinsford New Hampshire that produces some very tasty hard cider. I discovered them at a bar in NH two years ago and have yet been able to find it in Maine.
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Welcome to part two of the liquid Saturday tour. North Country Cider.
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Housed on the bottom floor of an old mill.
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It was actually a tiny place, not much to see… but we were there, so we drank.
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The flight was interesting. I didn’t care for the cranberry…. but the Wulf Kitty, with tart cherry, tangerine zest and ginger? Ooh la la!
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After drinking our fill we walked around the old mill and realized they must have let the flood waters course right under the first floor back in the day.
Then it was back inside the store.
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Where I bought two four packs of Squashed, their seasonal offering that I had discovered and loved two years ago. Wood fire roasted Kabocha squash cider, with ginger and a hint of nutmeg. It’s bizarre, and quite delicious.
I also picked up a four pack of this:
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I have no idea how it tastes, but with a name like that? How could I not.
It started out innocently enough. We needed to replace my husband’s keg in the man cave and the store where we bought the first one was out.
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So we went straight to the source, Allagash brewery in Portland… where we discovered they wouldn’t accept their keg and return our deposit because we hadn’t purchased it there. They also wanted $100 deposit on a new keg and since the brewery is an hour away, we said to hell with it and just settled down to drink.
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At 11:00 in the morning. Don’t judge.
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Since Covid, they’ve built a large outdoor pavilion…. and we happily sampled some drafts.
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A good time was had…
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As were beer cheese dip and pretzels.
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This Belgian dubbel called Foliage Report was especially tasty.
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As we drank, a giant black limo pulled up and discharged a group of similarly dressed young men. I’m guessing it was a brewery hopping bachelor party (Maine has the largest number of craft breweries in the country. Is it any wonder I live here?) and thought that was a great idea.
👍
On our way out we had to hit the brew store…
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And purchased 2 four packs of that fabulous seasonal dubbel. 2 four packs? $24.
There’s nothing I like more than having friends over for dinner and drinks and games.
That hasn’t happened for quite some time, because, ya know…. global plague. But it hasn’t stopped me from finding fun things in anticipation of normalcy’s return.
I’m going to post a collection of photos today. I took them this weekend as we were driving the Kancamagus in New Hampshire.
The Kanc is a 36 mile swath of highway cut right through the White Mountains… and this time of year? It’s beyond stunning.
The pictures speak for themselves, so I’ll be quiet and let you enjoy the splendor that is autumn in New England.
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A side note – We weren’t the only ones enjoying peak foliage season that day. And in all my years of peeping leaves in this area? I’ve never seen so many people line the roads to gawk. At times traffic was at a dead stop.
While I’ve been known to enjoy some oddly flavored beer …
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That’s a hearty no from me. Pretzels belong in a bowl on the bar… to make you thirsty for more beer… not in the bottle you’re drinking. Blech!
For the first time in over a year, I lost a game of Scrabble to my husband. But in my defense?
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Even Noah Webster would have a hard time with those letters.
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We had a nice rain storm pass through recently so the husband and I took to the barn porch with adult beverages. He was interested to see if his leaky gutter repair worked ( it did ) and if his strategically placed rock ( which I told him was too small ) would protect the lawn from a rain induced pothole. ( it partially did )
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And in case you’re wanting a piece of jewelry to commemorate the shit show of the last year?
I have just the thing.
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You’re welcome.
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.