{"id":16451,"date":"2019-07-24T13:01:40","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T17:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=16451"},"modified":"2019-08-05T10:48:01","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T14:48:01","slug":"home-port-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/home-port-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Port"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Kennebunkport legend charts a delicious course<\/b>.<\/span><\/h2>\n

By Colin W. Sargent<\/p>\n

July\/August 2019 | view story as .pfd<\/p>\n

\"JA19Y<\/span>ou haven\u2019t tied up in the Kennebunks until you dine at Arundel Wharf Restaurant,<\/b> front and center on the sparkling Kennebunk River.<\/span><\/p>\n

We slip in during a breezy summer evening and are glad to be welcomed by the signature fireplace. The hand-adzed beams here are showstoppers. So are the panoramic views of the river, its yachts, and its legends\u2013including the ancient Ropewalk next door (now home to Arundel Yacht Club), where nautical lines were faked (instead of coiled) and measured to outfit our yare 18th- and 19th-century ocean vessels. <\/span><\/p>\n

Looking for a party? There\u2019s a covered deck here with a bar where everyone\u2019s having a blast. Suddenly you\u2019re on the S.S. America<\/em>, and Anything Goes<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m here for the swordfish. I dreamed of their signature version when I was stationed in the Indian Ocean as a Navy pilot. Thank God, you can come home again.<\/span><\/p>\n

We start with a Kennebunkport Martini ($10.50). It\u2019s a neat twist to use champagne instead of vermouth\u2013not too sweet. Another lucky choice is a bottle of Steele \u201cRat\u2019s Reserve\u201d pinot noir from Santa Barbara, California ($42). Locals prize this special blend because it\u2019s designed every year by Kennebunkport wine executive Paul Carr, who returned to Goose Rocks Beach after blending wines with the big guys out west.<\/span><\/p>\n

We devour today\u2019s salad of roasted pistachios, onions, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, tomatoes, feta cheese, and baby greens\u2013delicious with a lemon vinaigrette ($13). The fried calamari ($14) is a home run (perfect with the Rat\u2019s Reserve)\u2013the batter light, the banana peppers spot-on. I make the pretense of sharing them, but they\u2019re all mine!<\/span><\/p>\n

For entrees, we\u2019re hooked by tonight\u2019s Pan Roasted Halibut special ($28)\u2013a lovely creation by chef Heidi Busset\u2013with heirloom tomatoes and intriguing with a vinegar-based tomato sauce. The green beans and mashed potatoes with skins are deeply satisfying. This restaurant isn\u2019t just an old friend\u2013it\u2019s an old friend with something interesting to say! The halibut is exquisite, mouthwatering, falls off the fork. As for the Sword ($26), it\u2019s the perfect cut you dream about, memorably grilled, so tasty it makes you sentimental. Is it possible to be nostalgic for the future? We ponder our next visit as we share black coffee and Maine Blueberry Pie \u00e0 la Mode ($8.25).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Arundel Wharf Restaurant, 43 Ocean Ave, Kennebunkport. Open daily, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. 967-3444.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The flavors at Arundel Wharf Restaurant are a tribute to Maine. By Colin W. Sargent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16481,"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":[8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451","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=16451"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16548,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451\/revisions\/16548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}