Fore Street

The flagship of Portland's modern food scene, still booked weeks ahead and still excellent. Open-kitchen cooking over wood, the daily-changing menu, and a long bar where walk-ins can usually find a seat make this the single restaurant most worth planning around.

Try the wood-roasted mussels and the daily turnspit-roasted pork loin. 288 Fore Street, in the Old Port. Dinner only; reservations strongly advised.

eating out restaurant
A story
Sam Hayward opened Fore Street in 1996 in a converted brick warehouse and almost single-handedly put Portland on the American food map. Almost every dish is cooked over wood — the open kitchen runs a brick oven, a turnspit, and an applewood grill — and the menu changes daily with what the local farmers and fishermen have brought in that morning.