MaineLife Season 6, Episode 2 - East Boothbay

[Applause] [Music] an echo of an echo is a semblance of a sound and i pressed and i've waited with my ear upon [Music] i'll see you then after many [Applause] hi i'm andrew sillsby president and ceo of kennebec savings bank and proud presenting sponsor of mainelife a show that's dedicated to telling positive stories about life right here in maine like many of you i was excited to turn the calendar to 2021 and all the optimism it brings if this is your year to change your banking relationship don't hesitate to reach out to kenobic savings bank our staff stand ready to assist you with all your financial needs click or call us today we hope you enjoy this episode of mainelife thanks for watching [Music] this is as gourmet as it gets more eating less talking oh wow oh my god that sauce oh my word wow surf turf turf amazing hi everybody and thanks so much for watching this episode of maine life uh well brooks and i stay back here and take lots of naps go for some great walks and work on tummy time your main concierge vanessa santorelli is on the road with our guest co-host and this week she brings us to the east boothbay region in her tailored travel itinerary she writes hi erin and brooks you have spent lots of time in the booth bay region in the warmer months but the late fall and winter has a certain glow all its own on this trip we see how the coastal maine botanical gardens and other area businesses have pivoted to make locals and visitors alike feel just as welcome as before the pandemic despite social distancing if you think we've eaten a lot of food in the past just wait until you see what's in store for us today miss you guys have fun we'll see you soon miss you guys too hope to see you soon our guest co-host this week is our dear friend dana have fun [Music] hey dana hi good to see you too hey everyone welcome to this episode of maine life here in boothbay harbour maine we are very excited to announce that erin had her beautiful baby boy brooks and we miss her very much but mommy and baby are spending some quality time together so i'm here today with my good friend dana who is with swan agency real estate you excited to be here today i am so excited i watch you do this all the time it looks like so much fun so thank you for having me we're excited too and we hope you brought your appetite i did and what do we have here so just a little gift to say thank you for having me as a co-host my award-winning lobster wontons i thought i'd share them with the crew also okay we're gonna get started with some lobster wontons and check into the harbor gin and meet the new owners alex and maria let's go okay welcome to the harvard gym on the oceanfront in boothbay harbour maine when the guest books stay with us they can expect beautiful spaceships rooms a lot of deck space where they can enjoy watch the tide roll in and out and also we now cook to order and deliver to the room gourmet organic breakfast so we're located in downtown area of boothbay harbor everything is walking distance so when guests stay with us they can walk to all the restaurants and shops we're just across the street from the opera house but also just tucked away a little bit so away from the noise we are both born and raised in serbia in europe we came six years ago in a student exchange program to united states we never heard of maine before that and we had the most incredible summer ever we've been working in hospitality industry ever since that first year we were cleaning rooms as housekeepers then moved to portland maine to run a small bed and breakfast and then when the opportunity came up to buy our own property when we saw this one we fell in love with it i've got to say i feel very supported even though this year was different than what we anticipated we really felt welcome from day one in united states wherever we went especially here in maine we have a big plans for the harbor engine uh it's gonna be all new furniture all new paint everything is gonna be brand new in the rooms so we're taking a break right now to do all the renovations to get the rooms ready for this upcoming season and starting april we're going to be open for all the guests and you can make a reservation today so i know it's a little chilly today but we're rugged mainers so we're going to enjoy our breakfast out here on this gorgeous morning because why not we didn't want to wait so dana do you want to tell us a little bit about these gorgeous waterfalls i don't usually enter cooking competitions and somebody told me about this boothbay harbor clawdown and so in 2018 i came up with this lobster bite and it's a lobster wonton and i won judge's choice in people's choice it was crazy so i thought this would be perfect to bring to you well that's where i'm getting my heart over your instagram all the time she makes the most gorgeous food and oh by the way she is an award-winning cookbook author um and i don't get the benefits of them so now i finally get to take a bite of this this is our breakfast appetizer cheers erin's really missing some great food erin um i'll make it up to you yeah champagne and lobster wontons she'll like that i know and here we have our cinnamon raisin french toast oh wow enjoy look at all of that look at the purpose beautiful presentation i love it and here we have our own european style omelette oh wow that looks incredible whose idea was it to have breakfast out in the middle of the winter this looks so good this is as gourmet as it gets here we are at the east booth bay general store one of the must-stop places when you come down to this region and we're here to have some delicious lunch it's such a great store and locals just love this place and i understand why absolutely hub of the community and now we're going to go find out why welcome to the east boothbay general store this store has been in operation since 1883 and i am just the most recent custodian of a building that really belongs to this community it's a place where local people can meet it's a place where local people meet summer people it's that sort of energy and that kind of communal atmosphere that i think we foster here when people come to the east boothbay general store i want them to think of it as a really accessible sort of menu that's kind of what they're used to like as a sandwich shop but it's a sandwich shop that's a little bit different maybe there are ingredients on a sandwich that you wouldn't necessarily put together or there's a special that you've never heard of and you could try the pottery that's behind me is by my sister allison evans but this was the first place that ever carried her work and it was long before i ever owned the store probably eight years before i owned the store it's it's nice the way we have the same people come almost every day and we look forward to that that's what makes a general store special so when the pandemic started we shut down completely for two weeks and during those two weeks i sort of was able to regroup and reimagine what the store could be if we only did curbside and now we're doing dinners to go for two include a bottle of wine and some bread and we also have an online grocery operation i think that's important and i think that's a great role that we can play in our community i first started working here in the summer of 2002 so it's been 18 years well every day we have our muffins and our croissants and our cinnamon buns you name it and i love to bake it the community um the feeling of closeness the feeling of making friends with people you get to know their tastes their likes and their dislikes and you know i'll see a car come in i know who's in it and by the time they come in their latte is ready for them you know and it's just it's just a lot of fun and it makes you feel really a part of the community and it's it's a friendly warm place well today we have two of our favorite pizzas one of them is called the bee sting and it's pepperoni salami hot banana peppers and wildflower hot honey and it's got cayenne in it another one is called the green goddess that is spinach and artichoke hearts broccoli with pesto sauce so i think you'll like that we also have a few sandwiches just for you to sample okay so we're finally here with all this delicious food that we've been hearing about at the east boothbay general store and uh dana do you want to introduce your friend my friend kelly i've known for years uh ended up meeting her because i sold her some real estate we started looking some real estate she landed in east boothbay and she's actually the one that introduced me to this store years ago this whole area is surrounded with the you know the bay on one side the river on the other it's just fantastic and then the general store is a place that everybody stops either on their way down to the point or from the point so um we don't want to do the honors and uh decide sort of what you'd like to try first i'm going to make a long one i'm just eyeing it right now more eating less talking oh wow we still have how many sandwiches to eat after we finish these two pizzas give it a squeeze oh all right oh my that was kind of impressive actually you are experienced i know what i'm doing we hope that 2021 is a much better year because we miss everybody so much and it's nice to see you but i want to see you all without plexiglass i want to be able to hug my customers like i'm used to we all miss that so i hope we see an improvement very soon awesome all right great life and before we come back a message from some of our sponsors who help make maine life happen and help us tell hundreds of local stories each year [Music] keystone [Music] for a corporation like hannaford to take a chance on a girl who had no experience and made salsa in her home it says a lot about the company to be honest i think they believed in me before i did hannaford is really supportive of local small farms and really pushed to try to get that stuff directly delivered to their stores hannaford does so much for the whole culture of greater portland and maine and to be part of that is just a thrill at kennebec savings bank we're not just a bank or a community bank in the truest sense of the word we dedicate 10 of our income to go back to the communities that we serve last year that amount totaled over 1.1 million dollars to 350 different organizations in 35 communities right here in maine all while our employees volunteered over 8 000 hours of community service we are proud of our role in the community and hope you'll give us a try call or click kennebec savings bank today i'm steve levesque i'm the president of the moosehead lake region economic development corporation we're here to kind of serve as a catalyst to help support economic revitalization and vitality of the region cmp investment it's significant because obviously it's going to provide much needed element for lighting of the public space here we're committed to helping revitalize the communities in in our region and we are delighted to have great partners like central maine power so this is called maine general ecare it is a great option for non-emergent care when you can't get into your primary care provider when you log on to maine general ecare you know you're getting a trusted maine general medical staff member and it's a very affordable visit as well for more information you can go to ecare.mainegeneral.org or search for us in your app store and download the app for main general ecare [Music] welcome to coastal maine botanical gardens and our sixth annual gardens glow event so coastal maine botanical gardens is an over 300 acre botanical garden here in booth bay in the state of maine we are the largest botanical garden in new england and we started doing gardens at glow in 2016 as a way to think about expanding our season and what we discovered with gardens aglow after the first season was that it was a huge had a huge positive economic impact on the greater boothbay peninsula and this whole area because it allowed what normally are very seasonal businesses to stay open through through january or through december at least we have been a longtime supporter of the gardens and more recently the garden's aglow which has been a lot of fun it's a great opportunity to come down and and see what they've been able to do and every year it's a little bit different let's take a ride and experience the gardens of glow all right let's do it so we know it wouldn't be a maine life segment without some food in it so i went to farm 23 bakery first thing this morning and got us some goodies for our ride awesome those are so beautiful and not to be outdone we are filming in december so we have some famous grinch oh my gosh so please [Music] did you eat your cookie already i did there's six more cupcakes there if you want another one oh my god there's something is it a frog jumping in or something cool this is our sixth year of doing gardens of glow and we are excited that this year it's actually a driving experience with the changes in our environment right now and having to uh to deal with with the pandemic we had to make a decision how we were going to proceed and we decided that the best way the safest way was to re-envision gardens of glow as a driving experience we've gotten really great feedback from families who are now able to bring their grandparents or or bring their tiny children not having to worry about walking or slipping on the ice this has really been a great experience for multi-generational families every season here at the gardens is absolutely beautiful whether you're looking at 650 000 led bulbs now or 50 000 flower bulbs in in may it's there's always something great to see at the gardens straight on through through the fall so we hope that people will come back and enjoy what we have here in buffet we have a very exciting experiential art exhibit coming in the summer of 2021 that we think is going to be an amazing way to get even more people to the gardens and more people outside it's an exhibit from an artist that hails from denmark and we have giant trolls coming to maine and they are fantastic and they are all built out of reclaimed materials and it is going to be magical for people of all ages and we can't wait to share this with the people of maine and the united states [Music] so a big part of my main life now is being a mom so i've introduced a new segment called mom life in maine where we feature parents from all over the state sharing their favorite family-friendly places to bring their kiddos here's this week's feature my name is crystal sweeney i am a maine mom of three children business entrepreneur and owner of crystal clean my oldest emerson is six liam is almost five and my youngest elliot is almost 10 months i grew up in falmouth maine and although i left to attend college at gordon in massachusetts i always knew i wanted to return here to raise my family in such a great place some of our favorite places to adventure in frolic are riding the waves at higgins beach and scarborough beach island living at shabig island we taught our children how to ski a trigger loaf we love lounging at the lake i grew up on highland lake we also have a camp at rangeley and little madagascar pond in burlington we love to hike so mackworth island the audubon and hurricane road in west falmouth are some great places for young families that's a little bit about my life in maine and if you have a tip or a place you'd like to share send us a message on our instagram page mom life in maine here at the kittery trading post we've had a proud partnership with caja for over 20 years our two brands have a great heritage like us carhart is family owned and continue to innovate to stay relevant for our customers needs here at the kittery trading post we carry one of the largest selections of carhartt in the area from men's women's children's and footwear we've been serving the great outdoors for 83 years and especially this year hope to see you soon [Music] so hey everyone we're here at the carrick house restaurant in east boothbay and uh dana i know that you were saying that we haven't eaten enough food today so no i'm starving spanish okay perfect well i think we've got a lot of food in store for us this evening to sort of round out the whole day so that's perfect we're ready to go in and have a cocktail and some great yeah okay let's do it hey everyone welcome to carrie charles restaurant here in east boothbay maine yes this this was a restaurant um that was established in the late 80s it ran for about 15 years and then was dormant for about 15 years uh this is something that you know being a local here in east bay i drove by kind of with dreams and hopes that you know maybe someday this could be my own so in 2016 we made the purchase and it's uh been thriving and supporting the community ever since a lot of the interior decorations is from the past from what i believe it was always kind of a barter system if you brought something to put on the wall you got a free drink we try not to cut any corners do everything homemade and i think the people kind of notice that um in the quality of the food and drink as a whole the boothberry region has been very supportive of us supporting those locals during this pandemic is one of the key things to uh kind of remember there's a lot of local lobster men that we support i also have relationships with a bunch of local tuna fishermen i think just having local relationships for you know the stuff that's on your menu is a key thing you know maine and the seafood that is here um is plentiful and it's just you gotta find it that's the biggest thing they don't call it fishing for nothing we here at the carriage house are open wednesday through saturday evenings doing dinners four to eight and we also do sunday brunch from 10 a.m to 2 p.m we'd love to have you come check us out life is good restaurant you know business is a little bit up and down but you go with the flow and overall it supports everybody here and but i couldn't be happier life's pretty good here in eastbourne today some of our favorite dishes the appetizer calamari it's one of the best i've ever had as well as a hanger steak everything is delicious here the shrimp scampi with homemade pasta just divine we're spoiled for choice here is the oyster rockefeller oh wow look at that presentation what are you eating i love that this is probably the best rockefeller i've had oh my god that sauce oh my word wow all righty this is the spicy chicken sandwich oh wow she put on something i've been topping in front of me though baby back ribs and then we got the shrimp stuffed soul here wow and we've been waiting for this moment all day haven't we not oh my god here we go [Music] there's no dialogue i'm happy i'm kind of in a food coma but it's just it's i'm not i'm not mad about it all right here is our famous creme brulee creme brulee well i have to say i think this was another successful day for maine life the best life and so just want to cheers thank you so much for joining us on this journey today and uh i hope it takes you less than a week to digest all the food we ate and let's dig in cheers oh now that's what we wanted yeah oh wow i can eat this all day [Music] so if you're a fellow mainer or visiting our beautiful state for the very first time and want your own personalized itinerary visit my website or give me a call thank you for watching this episode of mainelife to follow our adventures you can check out our website info mainelifemedia.com or you can follow me on instagram erinovalley facebook is mainelifemedia thank you so much to our sponsors new center maine and for all of you for watching happy adventuring and we'll see you next week say bye but the shovel it digs deep and the calluses grow over like a mirror [Music] so let's uh let's talk about my makeup situation earlier today and the fact that i had mascara all over my face and neither you nor our crew members mention that do you feel bad about that [Laughter] come to see us here at the carriage house restaurant in eastwood [Laughter] [Applause] that was amazing

Channel: Maine Life Media

Views: 5,667

Rating: 4.9402986 out of 5

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Id: uGa8QI4HL_A

Length: 24min 56sec (1496 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 08 2021