City: Portland, ME

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (207) 772-1110

Address: 58 Pine St.

Description: Besides simply providing the city with great food, Portland’s two culinary institutions, Street and Company and Fore Street, have done the city—the state even—a great service by spinning off so many other great restaurants. Alums of the two titans have been opening up new restaurants all over the place. This comfy West End eatery is a case in point. Chef Abby Harmon worked for years as the top chef at Street and Company before opening her own place, and she continues the high standards set there. Here she’s set up a European-style bistro featuring simple peasant foods done exactingly well. The menu changes daily and might include anything from a Caesar salad with fried oysters to a bacon-cheeseburger to paella to bouillabaisse, all served on handcrafted wood tables in warm little spaces divided by walls with rustic murals.