Heading south across the border into New Hampshire, we discovered a fabulous brewpub.
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Housed in an industrial complex, it had a funky urban vibe.
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The mural was awesome and took time to appreciate…
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So we grabbed a seat at the bar and checked the nicely varied tap list.
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Stone face doesn’t do flights per se, but you can order small pours to sample.
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Thoroughly enjoying their brews we chose a few full glasses and an order of their amazing garlic Parmesan wings.
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Tasty beer aside, I’d drive down just for these.
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There’s a large glass wall behind the bar that allows you to watch the brewery operation, but I was more taken with the fancy glass cleaner on the shelf.
To be honest I think it was misnamed. Not only was it small, but the barkeeper was more interested in talking with his friends than introducing new customers to his beer. We muddled along on our own, ordered and picked up our own flight…
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And were quite underwhelmed. The only brew that any flavor? Burned your throat too much to drink.
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With this many breweries in our state… we won’t be returning to the ambitionless Ambition.
Tasting complete, we headed across the street to a favorite restaurant.
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Housed in an old shoe factory with an original boiler door that fascinates my husband..
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Calzolaio Pasta Co. never disappoints.
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An apple cider mule with a garlic, chicken, broccoli Alfredo pizza on fresh basil dough for me.
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And a fabulous ravioli special for the husband.
Sautéed shallots & local Macintosh apples finished with baby spinach in a sherry & sage cream sauce over butternut squash & pumpkin filled ravioli.
You may have to think for a moment but it (probably) won’t hurt.
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Here’s what makes me see red –
I’m cooking, carefully following a recipe and laying out all my ingredients… only to discover that the 12 ounce can/bag/box of whatever I need is now 10 ounces due to shrinkflation and I need to make another run to the grocery store to pick up another full can/bag/box of whatever it is I need to get that missing 2 ounces.
Grrr.
Pay more/get less drives me insane. Add the damn .40 cents to the price and give me a full portion of the product so I don’t have to buy 2 and end up wasting most of the second.
My husband usually cringes when I announce “New recipe for dinner tonight!” as many of them don’t live up to the hype. But I found a nice one the other day and thought I’d share.
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Creamy, cheesy goodness for the win.
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I always try to follow the ingredient list to the letter the first time out, but my spouse isn’t crazy about ricotta cheese so I blended half cottage/half ricotta and it was fabulous.
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Though when it came time to filling and rolling the noodles, I realized I had a problem.
I didn’t skimp… and would run out of filling long before the desired 8.
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So I had to make another half a bowl. This was the perfect amount … I recommend starting off that way if you want to give this one a whirl.
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Here are my tweaks –
I used a cooked rotisserie chicken, rosemary and garlic seasoned. I chopped, didn’t shred.
Recipe calls for 2 cups Alfredo sauce but to be honest I think it could use more. We like things saucy.
I’ll be making this one again and think I might add some fresh spinach next time I roll.
Another beautiful fall day, another scenic drive in the never ending search for good beer.
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North to Bangor.
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To the Bangor Beer Company.
Hidden behind the mall, in the back of a Chinese restaurant… it was an odd little place.
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With a line of old pinball machines and some quirky art.
The beer? Maybe we’re too picky… we try a lot of craft breweries and may set our standards too high… but we found this selection dishwater flat and not at all interesting.
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Elderflower grapefruit martini for me.
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We expected the sesame chicken appetizer to be better seeing that it came from the large Asian restaurant in front, but it was so tough and stringy we didn’t bother ordering a full meal.
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The men’s room floor made my husband smile and snap a picture, but that’s not reason enough to ever visit this brewery again.
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Passing through downtown Bangor…
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We grabbed a quick sandwich and took the back roads home.
Leaving Sugarloaf without having secured a late lunch, we changed direction and headed for Rangeley.
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The town is named after the lake, one of Maine’s largest, and I felt sure we could find a decent restaurant there.
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Blog title aside, we parked next to some very green grass and entered a likely looking spot.
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With a welcoming front porch and some stellar trees..
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It was a bit brisk to sit outside so we ventured in.
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There were tables with nice views…
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So my husband headed straight for the bar.
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Where the view wasn’t as nice but the autumn sangria made up for it.
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The staff wore these shirts…
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But I didn’t, so we moved on to tater kegs with chipotle aioli.
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These were great but my husband wasn’t pleased with the pub food only menu, he wanted more of a meal.
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Next stop.
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The cranberry mule was lovely.
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And though I passed on the banana bread old fashioned? I thought of you Mark.
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Sadly, even though the loon/bear totem pole was interesting … the food was not.
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My fish sandwich was so thin it was flipping itself off.
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And not finding much more in the way of full meals here than he did at the first place, my husband’s chicken tenders were flat, over breaded and clearly frozen. He sent them back and we moved on.
Giving up on a good meal, we headed for home.
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Where it started to rain and pretty much put an end to our leaf peeping.
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🥴
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
