{"id":191,"date":"2005-07-01T13:12:19","date_gmt":"2005-07-01T20:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=191"},"modified":"2010-02-19T12:05:24","modified_gmt":"2010-02-19T19:05:24","slug":"chebeague-island-inn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/chebeague-island-inn\/","title":{"rendered":"Chebeague Island Inn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>reviewed by Diane Hudson July 2005<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-150\" style=\"margin: 6px;\" title=\"diningguide\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/diningguide.jpg\" alt=\"diningguide\" width=\"200\" height=\"124\" \/>I thought I died and went to heaven,\u201d says chef Allan Fisher of leaving Manhattan to work at Chebeague Island Inn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI get the best arugula I\u2019ve ever tasted from Ted Sparrow\u2019s farm in Gardiner\u201d and \u201cthe freshest eggs ever from Ted\u2019s daughter\u2019s egg farm. And,\u201d he adds, jubilantly, \u201cLisa Turner of Laughing Stock Farm in Freeport tells me to make a list of whatever I need, and she just grows it for me!\u201d<br \/>\nMiraculously, it all makes its way out to this lovely island surveyed by guests enjoying cocktails under the shade of the wraparound porches of this great golden \u2018summer flammable\u2019 from Maine\u2019s bustling 1920s.<\/p>\n<p>Tastefully restored, the dining room is lovely inside or out, with a screened-in porch overlooking sunset on the bay.<\/p>\n<p>The grilled quail with green papaya salad ($12) and the warm asparagus salad with fresh oregano, garlic, bacon, hard-cooked eggs, radicchio, toasted panko, and extra virgin olive oil ($7) were divine. Fisher\u2019s exper-tise\u2013honed by studies at the CIA as well as years of absorbing ideas in Japan\u2013has resulted in surprises and delights like the Bangs Island Spicy Mussels ($11). Masterfully prepared, the tender mussels were steamed with ginger, lem-on-grass, jalapeno, and finished with brown sugar, Asian fish sauce, cilantro, and butter. The sourdough bread makes for great dipping.<\/p>\n<p>Ordered medium rare, the roasted soy-Dijon lamb chops ($29) were just perfect\u2013tender, and tasty, accompanied by very good blue-cheese-spinach smashed potatoes.<\/p>\n<p>Im-mensely satisfying, with a tantalizing hoisin lime sauce and accompanying braised triple-cabbage lasagna, the baby whole chicken ($23), from a local farm, was prepared \u201cPeking Duck style.\u201d Our guide for this adventure was a good bottle of South African KWV shiraz ($28).<br \/>\nOne cannot skip dessert at a summertime inn, especially when brilliantly prepared pies and crisps are offered at only $4 per generous serving. Our strawberry-blueberry pie was heavenly, amplified nicely by a three-scoop homemade ice cream dessert including cappucino gelato, mango sorbet, and rich, creamy vanilla.<\/p>\n<p>As the sunset died behind Portland\u2019s city skyline, we were convinced we\u2019d gone to diners\u2019 heaven.<\/p>\n<p>Chebeague Island Inn, Chebeague Island. Open daily for lunch and dinner, brunch on Sunday. www.chebeagueislandinn.com or 846-5155. Boat schedules avail-able through the website.<\/p>\n<p><a onclick=\"return addthis_sendto()\" onmouseover=\"return addthis_open(this, '', '[URL]', '[TITLE]')\" onmouseout=\"addthis_close()\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;pub=portmag\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:0\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js?pub=portmag\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/about\/contact-us\">send us your comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>reviewed by Diane Hudson July 2005 I thought I died and went to heaven,\u201d says chef Allan Fisher of leaving Manhattan to work at Chebeague Island Inn. \u201cI get the best arugula I\u2019ve ever tasted from Ted Sparrow\u2019s farm in Gardiner\u201d and \u201cthe freshest eggs ever from Ted\u2019s daughter\u2019s egg farm. And,\u201d he adds, jubilantly, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","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=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1913,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}