Winterguide 2019 | view this story as a .pdf

We Found Magic at The Lost Fire

The perfect escape from winter.

By Colin W. Sargent

Welcome to metropolitan Cape Porpoise. We’re among a swarm of diners at The Lost Fire Patagonian Grill and Bar. Located on 62 Mills Road (after you pass frozen Nunan’s Lobster hut on your way to Goose Rocks, you’ll see it on your left), this rockin’ bar and Argentinian-style (with a Mediterranean twist) steakhouse, est. 2018, is open all winter, live, packed, and aflame. The décor is dressy steampunk: distressed and reclaimed wood, copper, tin, cast iron, and crystal. The curved ceilings and curved booths suggest a train station. We feel like this place is going somewhere. The music sounds like Sade is about to walk in. And you can hear the steaks sizzling.

It’s the brainchild of chef/restaurateur Germán Lucarelli, who comes to the Kennebunks by way of his native Argentina, where he started cooking as a boy. He’s dazzled diners everywhere from Buenos Aires to Beirut, Istanbul, London, Paris, and New York. He’s also the guiding light of Ports of Italy on the Kennebunk River. Clearly, he’s a smooth operator.

Since so many hungry customers have found their way here on a Friday night (I recognize Arundel Yacht Club members laughing and digging in, even my dogs’ vet), we ask our server what’s lost about The Lost Fire. “It’s the lost art of Argentinian cooking with local white oak,” he says.

Lucarelli credits instruction from his grandmother Maria Elena for his very first turns at the flame for charcoal and char-grilling artistry.

There are rooms and rooms here: some family-sized, some grand. As the wait staff bustles in and out, the kitchen doors swing open to show delicious flames that are even more dramatic from the bar (replete with three giant sports TVs filled with moving human figures).

We start with glasses of Balbo Orion Rose of Malbec ($8). Perfect. Next, we split (and they’re nice about this) the Shrimp and Avocado Salad ($15): Boston bib lettuce, delicious grilled shrimp, hearts of palm, avocado, and Marie Rose dressing. The Marie Rose is a little like Thousand Island, but completely different, too. “Mayo, ketchup, hot sauce, lemon juice, and a sprinkling of finely diced parsley.”

From the Argentinian Grill, we order the Long Short Rib ($36), long bone center-cut black Angus short rib, with a side of roasted carrots. Wow. From the Charcoal Spit, we dive into the Grilled Ground Lamb Kebab with Garlic ($22) that comes with a Greek salad. From the Charcoal Oven, we order the Roasted Eggplant ($9). And this is before the Andes-sized mountain of bread pudding we split before walking into the large parking lot below a drift of stars.

I like the French proverb: “What you’ll lose in the fire, you’ll find in the ashes,” a more romantic phrasing of the Theory of Conservation of Matter and Energy. Because winter didn’t actually vanish when entered The Lost Fire—it just seemed that way. n

The Lost Fire, Weds.-Fri. 5-9 p.m., Sat. 5-10 p.m., Sun. 5-9 p.m. 62 Mills Rd., Kennebunkport; 204-0123; thelostfire.com.