{"id":15955,"date":"2019-03-28T10:55:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T14:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=15955"},"modified":"2020-07-02T10:04:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T14:04:25","slug":"sky-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/sky-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky High"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"issuuembed\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px;\" data-configid=\"37604829\/68737485\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.js\" async=\"true\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">April 2019 | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-restaurant-top-of-the-east.pdf\">view full story as .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p1\">at Top of the East<\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\">By Colin W. Sargent<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-15981\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-restaurant-top-of-the-east-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"apr19-restaurant-top-of-the-east\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-restaurant-top-of-the-east-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-restaurant-top-of-the-east-200x134.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-restaurant-top-of-the-east.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>A<\/span><span class=\"s1\">fter a recent film premiere at Portland Museum of Art\u2019s pillared indoor theater (a hidden gem), the question pops up: <i>Where can we go after the show?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">There are a million possibilities in the \u201cRestaurant City of the Year.\u201d But to a barnacly Maine native, there\u2019s only one to fit the exacting requirements. The<b> Top of the East<\/b> is right across the street from Portland Museum of Art. You can park at the Westin Harborview Hotel ($24\/day) and attend your film premiere. Then float over to the Westin\u2019s legendary Top of the East without re-parking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Sometimes kismet is foresight in disguise. It\u2019s only icing on the cake when you learn the executive producer, co-screenwriter, and star of the film <em>Jacqueline and Jilly<\/em> (Maine native Victoria Rowell) is already staying at the Westin!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Great drinks aren\u2019t the only offer at the Top. It serves up romantic city views of our illustrious skyline and Portland Harbor. Your prospects are up in lights from this Olympian perspective. If you haven\u2019t been up here for a while, it\u2019s twice as good as you remember it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The small plates are delicious. You\u2019ve got to start with the exciting Flight of Shrimp ($15)\u2013Gulf shrimp jumping with a house-made vodka-infused cocktail sauce. Why start with a flight? There\u2019s a sweet story here. This bar, with its head in the stars, is located in the very hotel that world-famous aviator Charles Lindbergh dedicated in 1927 after he flew solo across the Atlantic in the<em> Spirit of St. Louis<\/em>. As part of the hotel\u2019s grand opening, its front-door keys were flown over Portland Harbor by Lindbergh\u2019s PR guy and dropped into the drink\u2014to signify the hotel\u2019s doors will always be open. Tonight, we\u2019re so glad they are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Everybody loves a backstory, but food is the news tonight. The Cuban Sliders ($12), made from \u201clocal ham and pork, mustards, pickles, swiss,\u201d are too satisfying to share. Everybody\u2019s sneaking the homemade Maine Potato Chips with Caramelized Onion Dip ($9). Vegetable Samosas with Cucumber Raita ($9); Lobster Sliders ($21); Warm Pretzels with Dark Beer Dip ($12); a Charcuterie Board ($18); the Top of the East Caesar ($10); and Pineland Farm Cheddar are being gobbled up around us, with drinks ($15 each) served promptly in between, among them the \u201cBubbly Pear\u201d (elderflower liqueur, pear puree, and L\u2019Onesta Lambrusco sparkling red); a \u201cMaple Old Fashioned\u201d (Bulleit rye, Maine maple syrup, and molasses bitters); and the \u201cTop of the East 75\u201d (Beefeaters gin, Christian Brothers brandy, and fresh lemon).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Still hungry? Finish with the New England Farms 3 Cheese Board with honeycomb, fig jam, crackers, and Marconi almonds ($18). Another guilty pleasure is Chocolate Fondue, with marshmallows, Ladyfingers, strawberries, whipped cream ($10).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">From first-time visitors to the most hard-boiled natives among us, we\u2019re swept away. What a place to come in for a landing. They\u2019ve handled a big party very well, and they didn\u2019t carp about separate checks. It\u2019s not for nothing they\u2019re the Top. Tonight, the Top of the East is having a great night. <\/span><span class=\"s2\">n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Top of the East, 157 High Street, Portland. Mon.-Thurs., 4-11 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2-11 p.m., Sun. 4-11 p.m. 517-8818<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s no coming down from Top of the East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[127,157,160,190,154],"class_list":["post-15955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-maine","tag-maine-restaurants","tag-portland-maine","tag-portland-restaurants","tag-restaurant-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15955"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18931,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15955\/revisions\/18931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}