Drink & Food Recs: Portsmouth, NH & Portland, ME

In Portland, the Allagash brewery is worth a look. A bit of a drive out of downtown though. You can pay for a curated tasting and tour.

As far as dining, I like Fore Street, Scales (seafood), Street and Co. and Becky’s Diner for breakfast. There are a ton of very good places though.

Man there are so many great breweries and restaurants in Portland that it’s overwhelming. You’ll never hit them all.

Restaurants:

Fore Street
Honey Paw
Scales (clover rolls FTW)
Central Provisions
Duckfat
Eventide
Holy Donut

Breweries:

Bissell Bros.
Allagash
Lone Pine
Rising Tide
Austin Street
Maine Beer Co.
Battery Steele
Foundation

Blythe & Burrows is a great cocktail bar

I lived in Portsmouth NH a long time ago. Looking at Google now these are the places that have a 20+ year history and were good at the time and within walking distance downtown.

The Friendly Toast (breakfast type place but open late, good after bar stop)
Gilly's Diner
Portsmouth Gas Light Company
Portsmouth Brewery and it's downstairs little bar (but getting conflicting info on if it's still open).

None of the restaurants I remember are there, but the area by the Harbor had some decent views and food and there is still a strip of restaurants there (e.g. River House).

If you go to Prescott Park you'll be able to look out at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (where I was stationed).

I had a great time in my years in Portsmouth and it actually looks like more has opened up in recent years.

I've wanted to take a trip back that way but I just haven't found the time.  

Agree with all the brewery suggestions. Would also add that Belleflower is fantastic. It’s fairly new but went by there last spring and was really impressed.

Old Trillium brewer, back when they still made good beer on the regular. A lot of their stuff tastes like Trillium circa-2017, which is a good thing.

Central Provisions is a must do. A lot of good recs here already, so I’ll just throw out that you should definitely get the breakfast sandwich and coffee from Tandem. You’ll almost certainly need to order online the morning of because it routinely sells out. It ain’t fancy, but it’s damn good.

Looks like you already got some good recommendations. The one place that sticks out in my mind from Portsmouth was Jumping Jay's Fish Cafe. I was there in 2018 and it's the one place I remember going. A little more upscale but was absolutely worth it

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Central Provisions, Eventide

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added to the list. Thanks

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the wife is not sold on it. Especially considering the summer lodging prices

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Smh. Put your foot down bunchie

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Smh. Put your foot down bunchie

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Not how it works on trips.

It’s on the radar now so we will get there eventually. If I want to do go a place we get there eventually. Just might take a few years.

She’s all about “the deal” with travel.

She’s not going in the cold either so