Restaurant updates: York, Portland, Brunswick

Just a few updates worth noting (and for most, the websites have yet to catch up):

In York, the Chapman Cottage has, for the most part, closed its dining room to the public. It will remain open to guests on weekends in the off season, when it will be open to the public one night each month as well. That’s a loss, it was a lovely place to dine. Owners Donna and Paul Archibald are looking forward to working just 60 hours per week, rather than 120. Can’t blame ’em.

In Portland, Walter’s is back! Yay! The perennial favorite reopens tonight at its new location, 2 Portland Square. Katahdin, another long-timer on the Portland restaurant stage, has closed and is expected to reopen in January on Forest Ave., in the former location of the closed Geo’s.

And in Brunswick, local fave Scarlett Begonia’s has moved off Maine Street into the new Maine Street Station. No more ordering at the counter, and no more BYOB: The space is far larger and there’s even a bar.

Shadowing Thoreau

If you have any plans to visit Baxter State Park or Greenville, to climb Katahdin or to paddle the myriad lakes, rivers and streams lacing Maine’s northern woods wilderness together, do yourself a favor and read The Wildest Country: Exploring Thoreau’s Maine, by J. Parker Huber. The second edition, published by the Appalachian Mountain Club is now available.

Huber first published the book in 1981, and although he acknowledges in the introduction that he hasn’t returned to the region since July 1995, he says: “I still dwell there spiritually: paddling Moosehead Lake, climbing Kineo and Katahdin, watching moose, listening to loons.”

Huber shares that magic, integrating Thoreau’s journeys with his own, recommending itineraries and sharing insights about the area’s flora and fauna, history and heritage. It’s all beautifully illustrated with maps and photos by Bridget Besaw.

I’ve only skimmed the book but already I’m hungry to return to the woods and follow these footsteps and canoe routes (okay, after the black flies calm down). I’m eager to read in detail and expand my knowledge of, as the sign welcoming folks to Kokadjo so aptly puts it: “God’s Country.”