Dining on the fly
By Mimi Bigelow Steadman
Imagine a memorable meal at a remote sporting camp paired with a couple of spectacular private flights over the lakes, ponds, and rivers of Maine’s Western Mountains. That’s what’s on the menu when you book the Fly & Dine package in Rangeley with Acadian Seaplanes.
En route to a vintage log lodge, your pilot will point out landmarks and other sights of interest—usually including moose browsing in the shallows below. After the Cessna touches down on the water and taxis to the dock, you’ll enjoy a 3-course dinner featuring such classics as prime rib, a roast, or lobster, topped off with just-baked pie or another old-fashioned dessert. Then it’s up and away for the exhilarating return flight.
Offered May through September, the $298-per-person package includes flights and food. When booking, guests may choose from 3 camps, depending on availability. Flightseeing tours without dining range from $99 to $225 per person. All accommodate up to 4 passengers.
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Connecticut
Total Twain
Channel your inner Mark Twain by booking a slot to write in the home where the author produced several iconic works. Photo by Alana Borges Gordon/The Mark Twain House & Museum
By Larry Bleiberg
What writer wouldn’t be inspired by working in Mark Twain’s library? On selected dates every year, guests can book a 3-hour block to hone their own masterpiece at the Mark Twain House in Hartford. Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, lived in Hartford from 1874 to 1891, and historians say that period was his most creative. The Prince and the Pauper and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are some of the books he wrote in this home.
Library writing spots are limited to 8 people, begin at 6 p.m., cost $50, and must be booked in advance (the next are on July 19 and September 24). Be sure your laptop is fully charged: Homes weren’t electrified when Twain moved in, and outlets are at a premium.
Literary aspirations are not required to tour the 25-room Victorian mansion and the 28,000-square-foot museum that’s a short walk away. Museum admission, $7.25; included with house tours that start at $26.
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The Dish
Haute potatoes
By Mimi Bigelow Steadman
It would be challenging to find a menu that doesn’t include some form of potatoes. Most of the preparations are predictable: baked, mashed, chips … would you like fries with that? But chefs at some Northern New England restaurants go far beyond standard spud fare—and the results are anything but small potatoes.
Owner Jason LaVerdiere puts his own twist on poutine at Flux Restaurant. Photo by Jason LaVerdiere
Flux Restaurant, Maine
“I was just playing around and realized I was making poutine,” recalls Jason LaVerdiere, who owns Flux Restaurant in Lisbon Falls with his brother, Tyson. The appetizer created by the 2023 James Beard Best Chef Northeast Award semifinalist, however, is considerably more complex than the typical French-Canadian comfort food of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy.
Its multiday preparation begins with pommes pavé—thinly sliced Maine potatoes layered with heavy cream and butter, baked, compressed, refrigerated, and cut into 1½-inch cubes. To serve, 8 cubes are deep-fried, dotted with cheddar curds, baked until the cheese melts, and doused with rich, house-made veal demi-glace.
“Guests from Canada have told us, ‘This is not poutine,’ ” LaVerdiere reveals. “And then they say, ‘but it’s wonderful!’ ” Closed Sundays–Tuesdays.
Mile Away Restaurant, New Hampshire
When chef Joshua Murphy purchased the Mile Away in Milford in 2008, he knew he’d continue to offer the Swiss potatoes that the original owners, from Switzerland, began serving in 1967.
One of 3 starch options on the landmark restaurant’s 4-course menu, they’re like classic rösti potatoes, “but we use different seasonings,” Murphy explains. “They’re very popular,” he notes. “New customers always try them.” He begins by boiling and peeling Idaho potatoes, which must then spend 18 hours in the walk-in cooler before being shredded and sautéed in butter with bacon and onions until browned. Murphy uses a big wooden spoon to serve them.
“Customers tell us our Swiss potatoes are one of the reasons they choose Mile Away,” he says. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Derby Line Village Inn, Vermont
If Fritz Halbedl decided to take his potato pancakes off the menu at the Derby Line Village Inn, “people would still ask for them,” he says. The Austrian-born chef has offered the customer favorite since he and his wife, Paula, opened their charming 5-room inn 10 years ago. He forms the cakes from grated potatoes, zucchini, carrots, and onions mixed with gluten-free flour, and pan sautés them until crisp.
Served with applesauce and sour cream as a starter, they also accompany some main courses. “They help sell the other dishes,” Halbedl explains. If he offered the gravlax just with greens, for example, he thinks some diners might not choose this home-cured, raw salmon dish. “But when it comes with potato pancakes, boom! They order it.” Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
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Vermont
Welcome to the machines
Visitors can watch demonstrations of vintage machines at the American Precision Museum. Image by duncan1890/Getty Images
By Craig Idlebrook
Central Vermont was once the 19th-century equivalent of Silicon Valley. Windsor County attracted the top entrepreneurs of the age to “Precision Valley” to pioneer new manufacturing methods. Many worked in the Robbins & Lawrence Armory, now a national historic landmark that houses Windsor’s American Precision Museum. Here, visitors can learn how 3 cutting-edge manufacturers sparked an industrial revolution by using interchangeable parts and mechanization to fulfill an order for 10,000 rifles.
This so-called American System of manufacturing drove down the prices of goods and positioned the United States as a leading economic and world power. Exhibits illustrate nearly a century of fabrication progress that happened here, as well as its 21st-century future. At the museum’s Innovation Station, visitors can watch demonstrations that utilize many of these vintage machines. Adults, $10; family admissions are capped at $20.
For more places to go and things to see in Northern New England, check out our editor-curated list of the best fairs, festivals, events, and more.
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