A place like The Alna Store really does need to be located in rural Maine, a solid hour from…read morePortland. Everything about The Alna Store is so special--it's possibly the best meal you will ever have, while inside the most unpretentious building, an actual store that sells produce and specialty gift items. A place like this should be experienced as a planned outing, not just a restaurant that's happened upon. A James Beard Award winning restaurant inside what could have been my grandparents' barn, along with beautifully mismatched silverware and repurposed green wine bottle water glasses--what could be more Maine?
On both visits we were so excited that we arrived about a half hour early for our reservation, yet were welcomed and promptly seated. The service is excellent, and the food is next level out of this world. I couldn't help but want the person I was with to try what I was eating so we could try to parse out the complex flavors in each dish. Is that a tomato base? Chives? Ginger? Cucumber? We enjoyed every bite of every plate.
Both times we started with the gazpacho, at dinner it was served with a grilled/toaster piece of sourdough focaccia. Fantastic! My dinner entree was the grilled squash with roasted peppers and delicious, flavorful breadcrumbs, and fresh mint leaves--it was our favorite plate of the meal. We both had desserts (pictured), the cake looked impressive as it tasted, yet the berry crisp was our favorite.
Everything at dinner was so fabulous that I had to return, this time for brunch. We started with a couple of cups of our favorite Tandem coffee, again the gazpacho, and this time tried the ratatouille. Again, the flavors! How do they do it? Everything looked and tasted as if it was prepared with care.
One more observation, how mistakes
are handled: the person I had brunch with was vegan and the ratatouille came out with cheese. Our server promptly recognized the error, brought a remade dish, and at the end of the meal brought a complimentary vegan sorbet and said that "mistakes are celebrated", which we appreciated.
Because of all of the much deserved accolades The Alna Store has recently received (James Beard, New York Times), the parking lot was full of out of state plates from Massachusetts, Maryland, Oregon, so be sure to make a reservation, and enjoy the people watching while you eat possibly the best meal of your life.
We are so fortunate to live within an hour of this very special place. A solid five stars, please don't change a thing. I can't wait to try the fall menu!