Dear Constant Reader,
This past weekend we took A (Re)Movable Feast to Portland, Maine (my apologies to any West Coasters who thought we were coming their way).
The is our second time at Lucid Stage, so we had a good idea what to expect and load-in and set-up was relatively painless. There was still some scrambling, like when we discovered the theatre had no backdrop, but that sort of thing is to be expected and was handled.
Saturday, after a trip to the Goodwill to replace a missing costume item (and a few other things got bought too), we went to Duckfat for lunch. Their specialty is french fries cooked in duck fat and there’s a lot of other ducky goodness on the menu. We ended up ordering a bunch of stuff and sharing it amongst the 5 of us. Everything was fantastic. We had green garlic soup with fava beans, a roasted beet salad with duck confit, toast with duck liver and barely cooked egg (even I had this and I hate both liver and eggs), a charcuterie platter, and poutine. Scratch tried the sour cherry, marscapone, and vanilla gelatto milkshake, of which he generously allowed us all to have a sip. For dessert there were beignets and churros. I would go here again, no question.
Since it was right around the corner, we all met up at the Shipyard Brewery for a tour and tasting. This was basically wasted on me although everyone else had a great time. They were bottling Pumpkinhead Ale, which just taunted everyone since it won’t be available for months.
Then off to the International Cryptozoological Museum. It was exactly as expected — quirky, fun, educational, and occasionally stretching the point. We were amused to see this banner that Dr. Wilson had painted.
Around the corner was The Green Hand and I can never resist a bookstore. I got out lightly with just a 1956 Chinese cookbook by “The Benedictine Sisters of Peking”. Scratch picked up a number of midcentury cooking pamphlets (my favorite: “The Exciting World of Rice Dishes”) and the Trader Vic’s bartender’s guide.
The Saturday show had a fantastic audience, cheering, clapping along with the music. In fact, while we were setting up for the curtain call, they were yelling “Encore!” We’ve never had *that* happen before.
Scratch really wanted to go to J’s Oysters, having fond memories of our meal here with Angie Pontani and Kitten de Ville, but alas, it was not to be. Post-show they had stopped serving and Sunday morning, they didn’t open until noon. Instead, we had breakfast at Bintliff’s American Cafe. Everything was so good. No wonder they have been the Phoenix winner for best brunch 8 years in a row. My corned beef hash was a giant pile of shredded corned beef and chunks of potato. I took half of it home. Scratch’s bagel did not come with thin slices of lox, but a slab of house-smoked salmon.
Another good time on the summer tour.
Oh, The Glamourous Life! 
