The Coast of Maine Book: A Complete Guide

                         by Nancy English

The Pentagoet, a lovely three-story Victorian with turrets, balconies, and window boxes surrounding a porch with rockers, sits right down the street from the water.  Its main building and an older Federal structure offer 16 rooms.  Full; breakfast is included.  Afternoon refreshments are available to guests, iced tea with brownies, for instance, as well as three-speed bicycles.  Dinner, which is additional, is very good; reservations recommended in the high season.

The Passports Pub is a small parlor hung from floor to ceiling with the owner’s collection of  photographs of historic figures, dominated by a portrait of Lenin and including the famous and the infamous: Castro, Mobutu, Eva Perone, Ghandi, Hiro Hito, Peter Sellers, and Angus King.  “It fits well in a town…rich with political upheaval and foreign intrigue,” Mr. Burke writes in his website: Castine must adore being understood so imaginatively.  The food is outstanding.  I had incredible mussels marinara, and the meal began with some of the best olives I’ve ever had, as well as good foccacia.  The entrees included lobster pie and Spanish seafood stew, savory and good.  I ended with a chocolate tart “on the house,” but no guarantees that will always happen, and no, they did not know I was writing this.  The service is excellent.