Flatbread

If you’re ever in Portland, Maine give Flatbread Company a whirl for lunch or dinner. They’re on Commercial Street, right on the water and convenient to a parking garage and the ferry terminal. When we went on our rocking chair adventure to Freeport last month, we stopped there for dinner on our way home. Yum! They have a simple menu: salads, flatbread pizzas and a couple of desserts. Oh but they do it all quite well. Their philosophy is focused on “local organic produce, free range and clean meats. All of our major ingredients are made in house and cooked in a wood fired cauldron or in a hand built wood burning earthen oven.” We were seated near that oven and enjoyed a fascinating, well choreographed floor show as the food traveled from the open kitchen, into the huge oven and off to the diners.

We started with their mesclun salad - mine with goat cheese, Chuck’s with blue. The house vinaigrette was surprisingly mild, but the cheese added some zip, making it all work and play well together. Our flatbread included the homemade pepperoni which was meaty, classically flavored and had a nice spicy kick to it. The crust was thin, well cooked, but with just the right amount of chewiness and yeasty goodness about. We both agreed the pizza had “good bones”.

Our waiter wrapped up our leftover pizza in foil in the shape of a swan, but also told us about the desserts. We had already seen a few of the brownies being warmed in the pizza oven prior to service, so sharing the brownie sundae was an easy sell. It was scrumptious - warm, fudgey on the inside and a teensy bit crunchy on the edges. Topped with vanilla ice cream and resting on a puddle of chocolate sauce - yeah - you wouldn’t have liked it! Nope, not one bit.

For folks here in Massachusetts they have restaurants in Amesbury, Bedford and a new one to open soon in Somerville. Plus there are two locations in New Hampshire, one in Connecticut and one in Hawaii. That last one is a bit of a schlep, but I hear Maui is awfully pretty!