Wharf Street: A Cornucopia of Delights
It is summer and happy hour on Wharf Street in Portland Maine presents the itinerant ambler with a cornucopia of delights. There’s lots to eat and drink, and see.
Maine – maybe because of the sometimes harsh weather and rocky coast – has always taken its fun seriously. In the 1840s about a half million people lived here. At that time there were approximately 2000 establishments across the state making beer and rum for them. That’s a brewery/distillery for every 250 people. Today, by comparison, the population of Maine is 1.3 million and we boast that we have the most breweries per capita, about 150 of them statewide. A half million verses 1.3 million. 150 verses 2000. Do the math. We’ve been taking our “fun” very seriously for a long time.
I guess it’s not surprising that the Temperance Movement in America started here in 1851 when Portland Mayor Neal Dow convinced the state to pass “the Maine Law” making us the first dry state in America. I guess it’s also not surprising that the famous Portland Rum Riot took place 5 years later putting an ignominious end to “the Maine Law.” If you’re used to 2000 breweries/distilleries, accepting zero overnight, embracing abstinence, is a pretty hard swallow.
But is the Maine Law really and truly gone? Does the spirit of that law haunt us? Is Maine taking its “fun” seriously again? Do we still wholly embrace moderation and abstinence? Well, let’s just walk down Wharf Street at 4 PM.
The Bar of Chocolate just opened, an venerable institution in Portland that specializes in just chocolate desserts and drinks.
Independent ice company has flung open their doors. They have 500 bourbons behind the bar. Does bourbon go with chocolate? .
Next door at Rigby Yard, maybe some craft cocktails?
And, of course there’s tacos, and lobster rolls, and craft beers, and calamari, and 2 dollar oysters, and even a hot liquor tank! I don’t even know what a hot liquor tank is but I’ll try anything once.
But, really, Bonfire Bar and Grill, you had me at “free bacon.”
Written by Ross – Portland Tour Guide
Referred to by his family as a “fuzzy foreigner”, Ross grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada, fell in love with a woman from Boston, and has been in Maine raising his family for over 20 years now. He loves Maine and loves his job as a tour guide, both for the interaction with new people it affords him (don’t be surprised to get as many questions as you ask) and the constant exploration he is always making of the many intricate and fascinating links between his adopted state and his homeland.