North Beacon Oyster Co
Midcoast Maine Shores Up Its Raw Bar Game: Welcome to North Beacon Oyster Company
When the temperature drops into the sixties, I immediately throw on my fleece-lined coat, jump in my jeep, and drive up the coast in search of beautiful fall foliage, a bowl of warm cioppino, and – of course – a platter of oysters. On my most recent midcoast excursion, I stopped into the lovely North Beacon Oyster Company to escape the autumn rain, and try out some bivalve delights.
Rockland, Maine is known throughout the country as a picturesque harbor town on the Penobscot Bay. The town has a reputation for its lobstering industry, as well as having perhaps the world’s best recreational sailing waters. With the explosion of boutique oyster farms dotting their way up the coastline, it was only a matter of time before restauranteurs began expanding their oyster bars further north.
North Beacon, which opened in Rockland in 2018, is the food child of Michael Mastronardi, formerly of Portland’s 555 and Hugo’s, and Drift Inn Canteen in Tenants Harbor. Mastronardi stated he wanted the North Beacon menu to be comprised of “good food, without being pretentious” – that’s a mantra I can definitely get on board with. North Beacon boasts an intimate, thirty-two seat dining room with exposed brick, artwork by local artisans, and gorgeous storefront windows that let in the perfect amount of light at sunset.
The Oysters
The oyster menu, scripted out on the shop’s back chalkboard wall, features a rotating selection of local Maine bivalves. North Beacon features some well-known regional favorites, including Pemaquids and Glidden Points from Damariscotta, ME. The shop also features some Midcoast beauties, including the following:
Snow Island: These are beautiful boutique oysters grown by the Quahog Bay Conservancy in Harpswell, ME. They are lovely white and brown bivalves that are full-bodied with a forthcoming sweetness, and then a second wave of brine.
Otter Cove: Raised in the Damariscotta River by Otter Cove Farms, these are deliciously sweet and meaty oysters.
North Havens: Mid-sized emerald beauties grown (without cages!) at the bottom of the Salt Pond in North Haven, about twelve miles off the coast of Rockland. These bivalves have an initial brine balanced by a sweet-cream richness, and Atlantic ocean umami.
I am a huge fan of restaurants that feature oysters from more than one or two farms in Maine – the variety suggests an appreciation of not only the bivalve, but also the growers, as well as a commitment to the Maine aquaculture industry. Plus, if you’re an oyster nerd like me, the selection allows you to compare and contrast the different oysters against each other.
The Food
North Beacon’s dinner menu is a lovely showcase of local sustainable seafood and produce. And yes, it has a North East Ciopinno, with an array of fresh shellfish, and one of the most flavorful tomato fennel broths I have ever had.
So the next time you are escaping Portland for a trip up the coast, do yourself a favor and duck into North Beacon Oyster, and order a prosecco or two, and a dozen oysters from some of Maine’s best oyster farms.
