A Maine kitchen, run by Maine people.
The salt of the working waterfront and the pine of the woods just inland — that's the line the whole menu walks.
Home, by way of a few good kitchens.
Nora grew up summering on the midcoast — clam flats at low tide, blueberry barrens in August, her grandmother's kitchen going all day. She cooked her way through restaurants in Boston and Copenhagen, learning to let great ingredients do the talking, before the pull of home won out.
She opened Salt & Pine to cook the Maine she missed: honest, seasonal, and unfussy, in a room small enough to actually look after every table. She sets the card each week by hand, around whatever the boats and the farms send in.
Her husband Eli runs the floor and the cellar — a tight, mostly old-world wine list with a soft spot for Loire whites and dusty Italian reds. Between the two of them, they still greet most tables themselves.
— Nora & Eli
The shortest distance from coast to plate.
Farm-to-table is an easy thing to put on a sign and a hard thing to actually do. We buy small and we buy close. The fish comes off day boats out of Portland and Casco Bay, the oysters from the Damariscotta River, and the vegetables from a handful of farms we drive to ourselves. When the harvest is short, the menu gets shorter — and when something is at its peak, we build the whole plate around it.
Off the day boats
Halibut, scallops, monkfish, and whatever lands that morning — bought whole, broken down in our kitchen, never frozen.
From the river
Oysters and mussels from Maine's cold tidal rivers, delivered the day we shuck them. We name the farm on the menu.
Up Route 1
Vegetables, eggs, and herbs from a tight circle of Midcoast farms we've worked with for years. We pay what good growing is worth.
Whole-animal & low-waste
We use the whole fish and the whole bird, render our own stocks and butters, and let almost nothing go to the bin.
Small room, low light, long evenings.
Eighty-four seats, on purpose
We kept the room small so the kitchen can cook to order and the floor can actually look after you. It feels like dinner at a friend's.
A list that loves the food
A tight, mostly old-world wine list plus Maine beer and a short bar of seasonal cocktails, chosen to sit beside the kitchen.
Hospitality first
No rushing the table, no script. Tell us it's an anniversary and we'll remember. Tell us about an allergy and we'll take it seriously.
In the heart of it
Right on Wharf Street in the Old Port — easy to fold into a night out, a harbor walk, or a weekend up the coast.
We'd love to cook for you.
Tell us when and how many, and we'll have the table ready. Dinner Tuesday through Sunday in the Old Port.