On to Belfast Maine – Time for a Light Lunch

After exploring the Penobscot Maritime Museum in Searsport, we took a quick look around town before heading back south along the coast in the direction of our hotel in Rockland…

Another peaceful harbor full of pleasure craft… With an estimated population of a little over 2,600, given all of these boats in the harbor, it’s safe to say that Searsport is a popular tourist destination.  This sheltered harbor provides a safe anchorage that measures about 2 miles by 3 miles with a depth of about 40 feet at low tide.

Historically, the size and safety provided by the harbor was critical to the town’s success.  In the 1800s, this port had 17 shipyards which built 200 plus ships.  The town also supplied fully 10% of all US merchant marine deep water captains!

As this long range photo shows, Searsport is still a significant deep-water port.  Irving Oil has a terminal here that is frequented by 3 identical ships, Nor’ Easter, New England and Great Eastern.  This is Maine’s second largest deep water port.  In addition to Irving Oil, Sprague operates a 614 foot long pier and it also maintains an 850 foot pier plus there is an 800 foot long railway pier.  

I’m not sure where this photo was taken… It could have been at Searsport but it may well have been along Belfast’s harborwalk.  Loved the feeling the photo conveyed.

FYI...Try pronouncing this name!  Belfast Maine is built on the Passagassawakeaq River estuary on Belfast Bay.

As we drove through the town of Belfast, we spotted the Front Street Pub and Harborwalk Restaurant, and it grabbed our attention as well as our appetites.  The building just looks like “New England Coast”… Note the outside deck, a popular spot but I like to stay out of the sun unless I’m wearing a hat and I’ve slathered up with sun tan lotion.

Inside the décor is wood, a scattering of old signs, (I especially like the old Coke/Grocery sign), miscellaneous north woods items and relatively low ceilings. 

The Front Street Pub is open year around.  It looks like the bar may be one of the social centers of Belfast during the winter months.  Note the pool table and various games in the adjoining room.  In the second photo, I’m not sure that the locals liked me taking photos of them… Two of them are giving me ‘the look’!  I also noted a collection of police uniform patches in the center of this photo at the corner of the bar.

Laurie had a ‘Lone Pine’ beer and I had one called ‘Stone Crab’. ($5.50 each) We both enjoyed our selection.  Lone Pine is a Portland Maine based brewery.  You can check out their offerings at http://lonepinebrewery.com/.  Stone Crab is an American IPA beer that is brewed by the Belfast Bay Brewing Company.  For more information about this brewery, go to http://www.belfastbaybrewing.com/.  

For our light lunch, we chose two appetizers.  The first was the Smoked Salmon Platter. ($13.99) It featured “Ducktrap” cold smoked salmon, house made dill cream cheese, capers, red onions, tomatoes and a baguette.  It was a very satisfying platter of goodness! 

To learn about Ducktrap Salmon, go to http://ducktrap.com/.  You can buy this excellent product on-line…but in our case, it can also be purchased at Fresh Market in Farragut.  St. Louis relatives…you can buy it at Dierberg’s.

OK… This was an item that neither Laurie nor yours truly had ever seen on a menu.  I have a vague memory of my mother mentioning it as a food item.  We ordered a basket of Fried Fiddleheads. ($7.99) No, this isn’t some form of seafood…  Fiddleheads or fiddlehead greens are the furled fronds of a young fern that are harvested for use as a vegetable.  They were Yummy!

These fern fronds resemble the scroll on the end of a violin…hence their name “fiddleheads”.  FYI, fiddleheads have an antioxidant action, they are a source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and they are high in iron and fiber.  Beware though… Certain varieties have been shown to be carcinogenic. 

 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave